Dr. Lori Verderame
by Dr. Lori Verderame
The 2021 Summer Olympic Games (Tokyo 2021) will be held in Tokyo, Japan and collectible objects from the XXXII Olympiad will soon be known as the collectibles of the future. The inspirational and popular international multi-sport event will take place in Tokyo, Japan.
On a recent trip to Tokyo, I experienced that the great Japanese city is quite prepared to host the world even in the aftermath of a global pandemic. Shops are brimming with Olympic items and in Tokyo’s main and impressive Government Building, there is a fine exhibition about the history of the Olympic Games.
The exhibit geared to the general public features the Olympic Flag and the Tokyo 2021 mascots for the Summer Olympic and Summer Paralympic Games. The exhibit helps visitors learn about the history of the Olympic Games through signage and other didactic displays. Special items include the opening ceremony jackets to be worn by members of the Japanese Olympic Team. These pieces of clothing were available at the exhibit and the jacket design was based on a traditional Asian kimono jacket or haori with an open front and large sleeves. Along with the haori jackets in the blue and white, the exhibit featured life-size stuffed animal mascots for the Olympic and Paralympic games and photo areas for Olympic themed selfies.
Olympic Flag on display at the Tokyo Government Building.
The highlight of the exhibition was the display of the beautiful and inspiring Olympic flag. The Olympic flag is raised at the opening ceremonies and waves throughout every Olympic Games. The flag was last handed over to Tokyo at the conclusion of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The flag features the colorful and highly recognizable Olympic rings design on a white panel with fringe of the ring colors surrounding the perimeter. The flag was displayed in a large museum style see-through display case along with its wood storage/traveling case decorated with engraved gold-tone metal plaques from the previous Olympic Games held in Atlanta 1996, Athens 2000, Sydney 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016. I expect that the interior of the case is lined to archival standards with an appropriate museum quality material that will keep the textile flag protected from the wood case’s off-gassing.
The most recognizable figure of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games are the anime-inspired Olympic mascot named Miraitowa (mirai meaning future and towa meaning eternity) created by artist Ryo Taniguchi. More than 2,000 mascot designs were submitted to the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Committee from Japanese artists. Designs were narrowed down to three finalists and the winner’s design was chosen by Japanese elementary school children by a nationwide classroom vote. Ryo Taniguchi’s Miraitowa mascot design won with 109,041 votes. Collectibles at the Olympic Games will be varied including the traditionally traded Olympic pins, Tokyo Olympic sportswear, keychains and of course, small scale Miraitowa mascots toys.
When it comes to Olympic Games collectibles, the market is most active about two weeks prior to the current Olympic Games and continues throughout the Games. If you are considering liquidating your Olympic collection, plan to start your marketing efforts online now. Online sales will be active since this is a major international event. For sellers, continue your marking efforts throughout the Games and end your Olympic collectibles sales about one week after the Games’ closing ceremonies have occurred. This will give you time to benefit from the worldwide press coverage associated with the lead up and events of this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games. By continuing the sales of your Olympic collectibles after the Olympic Games have closed, this will give latecomers a chance to buy your items after everyone else has gone home. With events like the Olympics and the sale of Olympic collectibles, you can’t expect buyers—online or offline–to be interested in these items weeks after the end of the competitions. So, start promoting Olympic objects early, ride the promotional wave during the Games and then give an extra week for buyers to purchase the leftover Olympic items. By September of this year, the Olympics collectibles market including the Tokyo Olympics will cool significantly. After that, you’ll have to wait another four years for the next best sales opportunity of any Olympic objects.
Looking forward, Paris, France will host the Summer Olympics in 2024 and Los Angeles, California, USA will host the world for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Dr. Lori Verderame is the award-winning Ph.D. Antiques Appraiser on History channel’s #1 show, The Curse of Oak Island. Visit www.DrLoriV.com and www.YouTube.com/DrLoriV or call (888) 431-1010.