I wasn’t supposed to collect Swedish NOC pins
It didn’t really start as a plan at all. I wasn’t supposed to collect Swedish NOC pins. But then a few from Berlin 1936 appeared, and suddenly they were part of the collection anyway. Then another one came along through an auction, and after that yet another. Before I had really had time to think it through, I also had the chance to get hold of a pin from Squaw Valley 1960. And at that point, I was already lost.
Now, here I am with around 40 of the 81 Swedish NOC pins that AOPC has catalogued. On top of that, I have one pin that I believe may not yet be included in their listing. So, in one way or another, the die has been cast. What started as a side track has become a proper collecting area, and now I am naturally trying to find the ones I am still missing — even though there are a handful that very rarely appear for sale.
As with many collecting areas, collecting NOC pins is easy at the beginning. Each week, a new pin can be added to the collection at a low price, but fairly soon the flow of new items starts to thin out, and the low prices become less common. Olympic memorabilia can also be difficult to value and requires quite a bit of experience before you can judge what a reasonable price really is.
For anyone who is curious, AOPC has a free app where you can browse catalogued NOC pins from all over the world. It is both fun to explore and useful as a reference source, especially when you come across a pin that is difficult to identify. Collecting NOC pins is a bit like many other collecting areas: at first, it feels easy. New items can be found every week, often at fairly reasonable prices. But after a while, the supply starts to thin out, the rarer examples become harder to find, and pricing becomes more difficult to assess. Olympic memorabilia is not always easy to value, and it takes both time and experience to understand what a fair price is.
Perhaps that is exactly what makes collecting so interesting. You start with just a few pins, mostly out of curiosity, and suddenly you have a project that requires patience, knowledge, and a little bit of luck. And even though I originally had no intention of collecting Swedish NOC pins, it seems the Swedish pins have now decided to stay.