Olympic memorabilia such as medals, torches, badges, pins, official reports and posters can be worth from three to five-figure sums.
People who attended any Olympic Games are likely to have souvenir pins, programmes, brochures, tickets, official guides or souvenirs, and the older the items, the more valuable they could be. Winners' medals and Olympic torches are the most sought after by collectors and even some relatively recent torches can be worth up to $50,000 (€53,250).
Ms Ingrid O'Neil of Ingrid O'Neil Olympic and Sports Memorabilia, a leading US-based Olympic memorabilia auction house based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, holds about four auctions a year with up to 800 lots in each auction.
"About two years ago I had in one of my auctions the first Irish-won winner's medal from 1896 in tennis - Joe Boland. It was a silver medal but it was the first-place medal. At that time they had no gold medals, so the silver medal was the first place winner's medal and he just happened to participate in the tennis event in Athens. He won two medals actually. He was an Irishman. He was competing under the British at that time, but he still came from Ireland . . . It was sold for $13,500 plus 15 per cent buyer's fee."
Generally, winners' medals that are identified - it isn't always clear to whom they were awarded - tend to fetch between $6,000 and $8,000, she says. "Most people are astonished even to hear that you can buy winners' medals, that you can buy torches."
At a recent auction, Ms O'Neil had more than 20 different Olympic torches. "Torches go from maybe $2,000 to $50,000."
But age alone is not the single determinant of value. "In 1952, Oslo and Helsinki had very few torches and they are not in private hands. One sold last year from Oslo for more than $50,000 and one from Helsinki for $46,000. But that's absolutely tops."
Usually, torches go for from $2,000 to $4,000, she says. However, the Atlanta Olympics gave rise to a multiplicity of torches, so collectors should check how rare torches are for any given Olympics before estimating their value.
Other collectibles like brochures, programmes and pins tend to be less valuable because they were often produced in vast quantities. For instance, a typical official magazine might be worth $80 to $100, she says.
Ms Nicolette White, poster specialist at Christie's in London, says the value of Olympic winners' medals depends on when, and to whom, it was awarded.
An auction of some 100 lots of Olympic memorabilia on July 6th, which is expected to total £120,000 sterling (€193,000), includes a collection of memorabilia relating to Harold M. Abrahams, subsequently immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire. The Abrahams collection is estimated at £8,000 to £12,000 sterling, which includes his silver medal from the 1924 Paris Olympics.
One of two 1948 torches in the forthcoming auction is estimated at £2,000 to £2,500 sterling. A book published in 1889 documenting the history of the Olympics is expected to fetch up to £2,200, while a copy of Scribner's magazine from April 1896 depicting an image of the 1896 games is estimated at £800 to £1,200.
The Olympics in St Louis, Missouri, in 1904 was staged as part of a larger trade exhibition and an Alphonse Mucha poster advertising the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition is estimated at £6,000 to £8,000. Meanwhile, a poster designed for the 1920 games held in Anvers, Belgium, depicting an athlete holding a discus is estimated at £1,200 to £1,400.
Ingrid O'Neil: www.ioneil.com Christie's: www.christies.com Joe Armstrong can be contacted at jmarms@irish-times.ie
