|
 |
Pin collecting and the Games
Pins have been a part of the Olympic Games since the turn of the 20th century, although the first "pins" were made of cardboard and the early pin-bearers were athletes, officials and judges.
Nowadays, seems as though everybody has a pin — the athlete, the official, the sponsor, the media representative, the law-enforcement officer — and the list goes on and on.
Here's a brief primer on Olympic pin collecting for the novice trader — and descriptions of some of the key pin types and illustrations of some samples.
Rings, logos and mascots
For some hard-core collectors and novices, a pin just isn't Olympic if it doesn't include the interlocking rings or the specific Games' own logo or mascot.
The use of the Olympic-rings symbol is determined by licensing and marketing agreements with either the International Olympic Committee, a national Olympic committee or a specific Games organizing committee (such as the Salt Lake Organizing Committee).
While the rings immediately convey an Olympic appeal, the use of a specific Games logo or mascots brands the pin to a certain time period. For example, the use of SLOC's logo or three mascots signifies the pin as representing the Salt Lake Games — as much as having the year 2002 as part of the pin design.
Sponsors and suppliers
Sponsors and suppliers pay millions of dollars — or provide millions of dollars in in-kind value of services or products — in order to align themselves with the Olympics. One visible advantage of being an official sponsor or supplier is the ability to use the Olympic rings or specific
Games logo or mascots.
And there are different levels of sponsorship and suppliership — TOP sponsors and worldwide sponsors are the major corporations affiliated with the International Olympic Committee. Other sponsors and suppliers are aligned only with national Olympic committees and may be able to use Olympic rings on a limited basis in conjunction with their NOC affiliation. Other sponsors and suppliers may be contracted with specific Games — such as Delta Air Lines for the 1996 Atlanta Games and the 2002 Salt Lake Games — and can use logos and mascots for only specific time periods and specific designs.
A number of major sponsors of past Olympics that have produced a wide range of popular pins have not renewed their sponsorships and won't be distributing their pins. These former sponsors include IBM, United Parcel Service and Swatch.
Media
Thousands of Olympic media types represent scores of publications and TV and radio stations from across the globe — and most will have at least one pin representative of his or her media market.
Why do some media pins bear the Olympic rings or a Games logo? Because the media corporation is also a sponsor or supplier — and at a high enough (read: financially high enough) level to allow the use of rings or Games logo on paraphernalia ranging from pins and packaging to apparel and equipment.
A prime example is NBC, which paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights to broadcast the Olympics. Other media sponsors include Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Time magazine, Reuters, Kyodo News and other major national and international media corporations. A local example is KSL-TV and KSL Radio, an "official supplier" for the 2002 Salt Lake Games.
Some of the longtime Olympic media players have become quite adept at producing popular pins, despite being restricted from use of Olympic symbols and logos. Many such pins feature eye-catching designs using landmarks and symbols representative of the Games' locale.
Also, some sponsors and suppliers produce "media" pins — not because they're in the print or broadcast business but to distribute among the media. The result is another limited-quantity, specialized pin that becomes popular among traders.
Sports pins
After all, the Olympics are about sporting events and athletic competition — and that fact isn't lost on pin producers.
Many pin designs center on one or several of the sports of the Games — in Salt Lake City's case, the 15 Winter Olympic sports.
The design may depict one or more athletes participating in an event or equipment relating to the sport. It may feature the Games' mascots involved in the event. Or it may highlight a current or past Olympian in a specific event.
NOCs, NGBs and IFs
NOC, NGB and IF — yes, there is some reason to this Olympic alphabet soup. And it
pays for the collector to know the difference.
NOC is the acronym for national Olympic committee, such as the United States Olympic Committee. Nearly 200 NOCs are recognized by the IOC, with about 40 percent having athletes participating in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games.
NGB stands for national governing board for a specific sport, such as the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association or USA Luge. And IF represents international federation, or the worldwide governing associations, such as the International Skating Union.
Each group has its own official pins, which often are among the most sought-after by collectors at an Olympics.
Mascots
Mascots didn't become a part of the Olympics until a little multicolored dachshund named Waldi at the 1972 Munich Summer Games. Since then, mascots have become a very visible part of the Olympics - and Olympic pins.
The mascots most recently have included the 1996 Atlanta Whatzit/Izzy computer-generated character, the 1998 Nagano Snowlets quartet and the 2000 Sydney platypus-echidna-kookaburra trio.
The 2002 Salt Lake mascots — Coal the bear, Copper the coyote and Powder the hare — can be part of any SLOC-authorized design, ranging from the mascots featured on their own pins or participating in one of the Olympic sports. The mascots may also appear on sponsor and supplier pins — such as a Coca-Cola or McDonald's pin — if the sponsor's contract with SLOC allows the rights of such use.
Dates, anniversaries and holidays
It's OK for a pin to be "dated."
Seems like you can find an Olympic pin celebrating just about any holiday or calendar date imaginable, from New Year's Day and Thanksgiving to Grandparents Day and the Fourth of July.
Others commemorate significant countdown dates — three years to go, six months to go, 200 days to go and so on.
Still other pins may celebrate anniversaries, such as a year anniversary from the announcement of a city's winning the balloting to become an Olympic host city.
Sites and events
For some pins, the topic sounds like the real estate adage of "location, location, location."
Some pins feature an Olympic venue or location, such as the Olympic Oval, Soldier Hollow, the Main Media Center or the Olympic Village. Others may tout a related location, such as Fort Douglas, or a venue city, like West Valley City or Provo.
Some pins may highlight Olympic events — other than athletic competitions. Examples of these pins include the opening and closing ceremonies, the torch relay, pre-Olympic test events or pre-Games media gatherings.
Bid pins
A city or organization doesn't have to wait for the Games to come before producing Olympic pins.
A committee bidding for future Games will pump up its campaign by distributing pins and other promotional materials emblazoned with the city name, the bid logo and the target year.
 |
Bid cities are recognized by first national Olympic committees as their official bid finalists and then national bid city, followed by recognition by the IOC as a candidate city, finalist and eventual bid winner. That could result in different pins marking the different stops along the process — bid-city pins, candidate-city pins and finalist pins.
And once a city wins the right to host the Olympics, another logo change is
likely in the works. For example, after Sydney won the 2000 Summer Games, it dropped its outline of the Opera House skyline design for its "millennial man" logo depicting a torch-runner made up of boomerang shapes. And SLOC eventually dropped its vertical three-sided bid logo for the current snowflake-like emblem representing the sun over a snowy mountaintop.
Quantities and limited-edition pins
You'll hear and see phrases like "rare, "very rare" and "extremely rare" used with pin trades, and quite often you're left to rely on the word of others.
You may be told that only a few hundred or a thousand of this pin or that pin were made — and the trader may have exact knowledge of that fact, may be passing on a second-hand rumor or may merely be pulling your leg. "One of a kind" may simply be that the trader is trying to unload a last unwanted pin.
However, some "limited-edition" pins can be verified before a trade or sale. These pins will have a pin-edition number and total quantity imprinted on the back of the pin as part of the manufacturer's name and information (sometimes a pin number will be printed on a sticker on the back of a plastic case or box).
So, a Pin A imprint of 375/2002 and a Pin B imprint of 1476/5000 means the first pin is No. 375 of 2,002 pins manufactured in the specific style or design and the second pin is No. 1,476 of 5,000 such pins.  |
Bridging past and future Olympics
Besides the onslaught of pins commemorating the 2002 Salt Lake Games, you'll be able to find pins from past Winter and Summer Olympics. And, if you look hard enough, you may be able to find pins for the 2004 Athens Games, 2006 Torino Games and 2008 Beijing Games — plus bid pins for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.
One way that pins link the Olympics is through "bridge" pins, which feature two different Games. For example, one bridge pin might feature the 1998 Nagano Games and 2002 Salt Lake Games as consecutive Winter Olympics. Another pin may feature the 2000 Sydney Summer Games and the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games as consecutive Olympics.
Sets and puzzles
Pin sets can be small, several-pin combinations featuring pins with similar themes or design variations. These sets are often sold in small display cases or frames.
Other pin sets can be larger collections, composed of related pins representing a series of subjects, such as past Games, participating nations or competitive events.
 |
For example, during the past two Olympics, IBM has released common pins depicting some of the more popular sports in Nagano and Sydney. IBM also released special, limited-edition framed sets with its sports pin, with smaller framed sets featuring a handful of Winter or Summer Olympic sports. Larger framed sets for the 1998 Nagano Games included a pin for each of the winter sports there, while the Sydney set had the 30-plus summer sports from the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Pin puzzles are two or more pins that fit together to form a larger image. A puzzle pin often will stand alone on its own merit of design and depiction but, when accompanied by adjoining pins, creates a larger-scale scene or illustration.
Odd-shaped edges may in fact allow pins to interlock like simple puzzle pieces,. At the Nagano and Sydney Olympics, Coca-Cola featured one puzzle pin for each of the 16 days of the Games, with the pins placed together to form the shape of a Coke bottle.
Staff, volunteer, guest and MVP pins
Staff and volunteer pins denote just that — pins given to one's own workers, whether it be an organizing committee, an agency or a sponsor.
These pins are often in high demand among traders because of the limited quantities made — a small number distributed among staff or volunteers, as compared to the quantities of a pin for general distribution.
Other types of people-oriented pins are "guest" and "MVP" pins. These are given to individuals who arrive in groups hosted by sponsors or to those who are invited to separate special social events or festivities.
For example, a sponsor may bring in a group of its own suppliers as "guests" for a weekend of Olympic events and festivities — and give them a "guest" pin to commemorate their participation. Or a major corporate sponsor may hold an invitation-only banquet and social event at a special location during the Games. The host may distribute special "guest" or "MVP" pins to commemorate the event.
Unofficial pins
Keep an eye out for fake Olympic pins. Other pins may try to suggest — or outright misrepresent — some Olympic tie-in.
For example, a pin that kept cropping up during the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics was a supposed Nike Olympic Pin — the Nike "swoosh" emblem above the five interlocking rings.
Trouble is ... Nike was far from an Olympic sponsor with rights to use the rings. In fact, the shoe and apparel giant was criticized by Olympic purists for its onslaught of visible marketing through billboards and posters that inundated Atlanta and confused spectators into thinking Nike was in fact a Games sponsor.
There may be some appeal to collect a pin or two like this ... and some of the more brazen or limited efforts may result in a pin valued by collectors.
Food pins
It's obvious that a predominant flavor of the Salt Lake Games pin trading has been food-related pins. Or haven't you heard of the three-digit prices being paid for the "original Jell-O pins" bearing the SLOC emblem and poking fun at Utah's penchant for gelatin salads and desserts?
The result has been, pardon the pun, a smorgasbord of food-related Salt Lake Olympic pins, ranging from Mormon muffins and "funeral potatoes" to ice cream and honey.
Utah's food-pin craze is evidence that collectors — particularly novice traders — will snatch up pins that have special meaning to the local market.
Security pins
A relative newcomer with a knockout punch in the collecting craze are security-related pins.
Police departments, fire departments and all sorts of law-enforcement agencies — including the FBI — produce pins. At first, the pins were merely identification pins used for officers and officials. Now, these agencies may offer a wide range of pin styles, featuring anything from emblems and miniature police badges to handcuffs, police cars and firetrucks.
Value
A pin's value is often like beauty — it's in the eye of the beholder. You can get a feel for approximate street values of pins by comparing prices of pin shops, traders and street vendors.
But a pin that may be a common one among traders may be one of the most valuable in your personal collection.
A big part of a pin's personal value is how you obtained it. Perhaps it was swapped with an athlete downtown or with a foreign fan at a venue. Maybe it's a pin the represents an event you attended, a sport you enjoy or a country you've visited.
|
|
|
