Nine months before the Beijing Olympic Games, China continues to offer a range of various Olympic Games products. Some of these have been sold for a lot of money, and amateur modellers of precious metals have not been left out.
It is the Olympic souvenir collectors that are bound to be satisfied. The Beijing Government decided to sell miniature models of the ‘Bird's Nest' starting from November 19th.
Seven miniature models in precious metals of the main Olympic stadium were put up for sale at the Building for Fine Arts in Wangfujing, the commercial centre of the Chinese capital. The price range is large enough to satisfy all the wallets.
A basic pewter model (scale 1:3,200) is for sale at 980 RMB (US$133). The silver miniature costs 17,800 RMB (US$2414). The 120 carat gold model goes for 46,800 RMB (US$6,344), which is about the same as what a small car would cost.
$7,860 for a mascot
These prices don't seem to overly bother the buyers. On the day of our report, there had been a rush on the golden models. Another shipment was due in soon after, so there wasn't too much panic in the sales camp. There are, however, only a total of three thousand copies, so if you want one, you'd better hurry.
Besides the miniature Bird's Nest, there are other figurines available. The five Olympic mascots (Fuwa) are offered in Xinjiang Jade and cost 290,000 RMB (US$39,300). These too are limited in numbers, with just 2,008 sets.
There are only 29 sets of the 2,008 carat sets, which sell of the extraordinary price of 1,080,000 RMB (US$146,360), and these are expected to fall into the hands of a few lucky collectors.
