DELTA, B.C. – It’s not just an Olympic-size garage sale, it’s the Olympic garage sale.
Hundreds of thousands of the odds and ends it took to put on the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games are going up for sale.
Whether any athletes ever rested their laurels on one of the $199 leather sofas available is anyone’s guess. Most of the merchandise bears no sign it was used during the Games.
“They aren’t all branded but certainly they are all associated with the Olympics and that’s why people want to come by,” Graham Duncan, director of asset and investment recovery for the province of British Columbia, which is running the sale.
The province bought the goods from organizers at fair market value so it’s taxpayers who get to keep the proceeds.
Some items are unique to these Olympics: for five dollars a piece, there are boxes of fake decorative snow and for $12, barely used real shovels to push it around.
The Delta, B.C. warehouse was open to Olympic staff and volunteers earlier this week, with flat screen televisions and furniture among the most popular items.
A limited number of televisions and computers will be sold each day of the public sale, which begins Saturday and runs seven days a week until the middle of June.
Duncan said some of the goods will eventually be sold in other parts of the province, including Victoria and potentially Prince George.
In addition to the warehouse, B.C. Auction is selling items online, including the massive tower that sat outside GM Place denoting it as the hockey venue.
What isn’t up for sale through the province are many of the goods sponsors gave the organizing committee to help run the Games, like the thousands of cars given by General Motors or the mattresses provided by Sleep Country for the athletes’ villages.
Sponsors take those goods back. In the case of GM, the cars are being sold off in Canada and the United States, while the mattresses are being cleaned and donated to area shelters.
Games memorabilia is also for sale on eBay and organizers will donate some of it to museums.
They also announced Friday they’ll be donating surplus medical equipment to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
About 900 kilograms of medical and dental supplies and equipment will be airlifted by the Canadian military as part of the Olympic truce program.
“Our medical team had access to top quality medical and dental equipment and supplies in support of athletes at the 2010 Games,” said Dr. Jack Taunton, chief medical officer for the committee in a statement.
“Our work is done and as medical professionals our first thoughts are always to whom else needs help, so we are pleased to support our medical colleagues working so hard in Haiti.”
