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Keith McCord ReportingAnother long-time fixture of Salt Lake's Olympic games has closed its doors. Today was the last day of business for the Olympic Spirit Store, where you could buy hats, shirts and pins with the Olympic logo.
During the height of the Olympics, you could buy just about anything with a logo on it, from several stores located around the state. Today the last store closed with a big sale--everything was a dollar!
People lined up first thing this morning to grab one last bit of 2002 Olympic merchandise. Tim Hamann had a sack full of stuff.
Tim Hamann, "I got a Salt Lake City book, a hat, some smaller books to send home to my parents in Illinois.”
Diane Gonsalves sat on the floor going through a bunch of pins for her friends.
Diane Gonsalves: "I am buying pins for everybody else.”
Scott Sherner filled up a whole box. Had he bought the same things during the Olympics, all this would have cost him about $700-dollars. Today it was about $40.
Two years ago Olympic items were the rage-- especially while the games were on. Remember the demand for the berets? People lined up daily for those. Thousands of people jammed the giant pin trading area to buy and trade pins. Hats, jackets-- anything with the rings--people wanted them.
Store co-owner Angie Mettler says it's kind of a sad day, having to sell it all, but the time has come. Olympic licensing rules were such that the suppliers could only manufacture these items until September of 2002.
Angie Mettler, Co-Owner, Olympic Spirit Store: “We had a lot of merchandise, and it did last us two years, and all we have left is pins, and we can't fill a big store with just pins."
So if you have anything with the Salt Lake 2002 logo on it, it's now officially a collector’s item. No stores will ever sell the items again, but there's always eBay.
