The 2026 Winter Olympics are winding down, and while athletes are packing their medals, a completely different competition has already begun. Scalpers and collectors are hunting down every piece of official gear they can find, and the markups are absolutely bonkers.
If you thought Olympic merchandise was just cheap trinkets to flip through a gift shop, think again. We’re talking about everyday items becoming luxury collectibles practically overnight. The real question is: are people actually willing to pay these crazy prices, or is this just wishful thinking by resellers with too much time on their hands?
The Plushies Taking Over the Internet
Let’s start with the mascots, because honestly, they’re kind of the face of this whole memorabilia boom. Milo and Tina, the official Milano Cortina mascots, started as cute little stuffed animals you could grab for somewhere between €15 and €50. Pretty reasonable, right?
Not anymore.
The smaller ones are now selling for triple their original price. The bigger plushies? You’re looking at four times what they cost fresh out of the Olympics shop. Some people are still ordering them directly from the official store at regular prices, but here’s the catch: good luck getting your delivery before June.
It’s wild how fast collectibles can shift once an event ends. There’s this manufactured scarcity that kicks in the moment the Games close. People start panicking that they missed their chance, and suddenly everyone wants what they didn’t buy when it was cheap.
Watches That Nobody Could Buy (Until Now)
Here’s where things get truly strange. The Swatch watches given to volunteers weren’t even available for public purchase. They were exclusive to people actually working the Games. That’s it.
Now those watches are showing up on resale platforms for €200 to €500 each, and they’re still in their original packaging. Think about that for a second. A volunteer got a free watch as thanks for their work, and now that same watch could sell for enough money to cover a weekend trip.
It raises an interesting question about value and exclusivity. Is something worth more because it’s rare, or is it rare because people believe it’s worth more?
The Tech Angle: Phones and Digital Culture
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 smartphones were handed out to athletes, and naturally, at least one has already popped up on eBay with a $1,680 asking price. This is where technology and collectibility get intertwined in ways that probably weren’t intended by the manufacturers.
A phone that retails for a few thousand dollars suddenly becomes exponentially more valuable because an athlete held it once. It’s not about the phone itself anymore. It’s about the story, the exclusivity, the connection to a global event that only happens every four years.
Pins, Medals, and the Snoop Dogg Effect
Pins might seem like the most disposable Olympic merchandise imaginable, but they’re flying off shelves and resale platforms. Standard souvenir pins start at around €15 on the official shop, but resellers are asking double that. Limited editions from Samsung? Try €100. Pins that were actually given to torchbearers? WIRED Italia found them listed for around €600.
Snoop Dogg’s special edition pins deserve their own mention because of course they do. Celebrity involvement instantly bumps up collectibility. Whether that makes sense or not is irrelevant. The market has spoken.
You can also grab replica Olympic medals if you’re into that sort of thing. Individual medals run about €50, but if you want the full set, you’re dropping €150 to €200. They’re not official, obviously, but that’s almost beside the point in the collector’s market.
The Real Economics Behind the Madness
What’s happening right now is basically capitalism on fast-forward. Supply becomes fixed the moment the Olympic flame goes out. Demand either stays high or evaporates completely. When supply is finite and demand is there, prices go up. Simple economics, except applied to fuzzy animals and wristwatches.
The interesting part is figuring out which items actually hold value long-term and which ones crash in price after the hype dies down. Some of this stuff will probably end up in a drawer somewhere, forgotten. Other pieces might genuinely become sought-after collectibles that appreciate over the next few decades.
The tricky part for buyers is distinguishing between the two. Right now, in February 2026, everything feels valuable because the event just happened. But in five years? Ten years? That’s when the real story of these collectibles will actually unfold.
Should You Actually Buy Into This?
Unless you have genuine interest in Olympics history or a weird attachment to this specific Games, the resale market feels like a trap. You’re paying premium prices for items that were mass-produced. Sure, there’s scarcity now, but that doesn’t mean they’re inherently worth the money people are asking.
The people making actual money here are the ones who work the Games, get the exclusive gear for free, and then immediately flip it. Everyone else is just chasing a story they weren’t part of.
Whether this becomes a genuine investment in pop culture history or just a bunch of expensive clutter collecting dust in someone’s closet probably depends entirely on how much the 2026 Milano Cortina Games end up meaning to the world.
