At exactly 9:30 a.m., the recognizable notes of the official music of the 2024 Olympic Games resound in the hall of the Saint-Exupéry gymnasium in Blagnac, on the outskirts of Toulouse. After endless hours of waiting, the glass doors of the building finally open to hundreds of enthusiasts, second-hand dealers, resellers and other curious people who have come to take part in the last major clearance sale organized by the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (Cojo) in this Sunday, October 27. Xavier, Marie, Simone and Stanislas are ready – for a few minutes already, the group of friends has put away the camping chairs, throws and survival blankets in which they have just spent the night. Coming especially from Paris, these collectors did not hesitate to sacrifice a few hours of sleep to camp in front of the sports center, and thus avoid having the most coveted objects “stolen” from them. Their plan worked: they will be among the first to enter the gymnasium, where hundreds of boxes were unpacked the day before by teams of volunteers.
Ile-de-France residents know very well what they are looking for. With a glance, they scan the tables soberly arranged in a U shape, covered with all kinds of goodiesclothing, accessories and decorative items from the organization. Without stopping in front of the pins, water bottles, sun creams or lanyards sold for one to two euros, the group heads directly towards the complete outfits of volunteers, flame bearers and officials, including t-shirts, shorts, pants or shoes are sold between 10 and 40 euros. Marie rushes towards an official poster of the Games, while Xavier looks for his size in the batch of navy blue windbreakers distributed to staff members during the competition. Simone, for her part, tries to complete her list established for days: without even looking at the price of each object, the Parisian grabs parasols, a watch, a poster, a series of jackets and t-shirts of all colors and sizes. the sizes, sneakers much too big for her but “which correspond to the size of [s]on son”… While the sale is limited to 20 items per person, choices will have to be made. To keep the volunteers’ famous bob, the mother leaves aside the white and gold outfit of the flame bearers.
With a big smile on her face, Simone finally goes to the checkout and spends the 355 euros in her basket without batting an eyelid. “Is that all?!” the buyer even exclaims in front of the surprised look of the young woman in charge of the sale. “Usually, I get something for 500 to 600 euros!” she assures. Since the announcement of the organization of the Olympic clearance sales last September, this enthusiast says she has participated in “seven or eight” of these events, mainly in the Paris region. Enough to fill an entire room in his apartment, currently littered with boxes. “But I intend to decorate it as soon as possible. They are unique objects, which bear witness to an event that you will only experience once in your life,” she says. “The pleasure is having them all, finding colors or sizes that you don’t yet have,” she explains.
The Olympic mascot at the Blagnac flea market.
© / Céline Delbeque / L’Express
“Bringing the spirit of the Games to life”
Neither the thousands of participants in Paris, nor the hours of queue in Nanterre, nor the red rain-flood vigilance in Nice dissuaded the fifty-year-old from going to these clearance sales: almost every time, Simone spent the night in front of gymnasiums, municipal buildings or shopping centers made available to Cojo by partner cities. To the point of becoming friends with other collectors, who find “the same faces at each event”. “Our families or our friends don’t always understand us. Here, we found people who share the same passion,” confides, delighted, her friend Marie.
“This is exactly what we were looking for: to bring the spirit of the Games to life, by allowing all those who experienced a magical summer to prolong the pleasure a little,” underlines Line Malric, deputy for sport at the town hall of Blagnac. . The elected official had to adapt: the Cojo, which had initially planned a final clearance sale in Nice on October 17, decided to organize a final date in Blagnac given the success of the event. “We put it all together in less than a week. I quickly found the volunteers, very eager to wear the green uniform one last time,” laughs the assistant. On this Sunday morning, the presence of these volunteers is more than necessary: more than 2000 people showed up at the Saint-Exupéry gymnasium, hoping to acquire their “little piece of the Olympics”.
A popularity which no longer surprises the organizers – over 24 dates, more than 350,000 objects were purchased by second-hand dealers for 1 to 60 euros or sold to partner communities, all members of the “Terre de Jeux 2024” label. The total profit from sales – on which the Cojo did not wish to communicate – goes entirely to the organization, which specifies that without these clearance sales, “these objects would have been destroyed or recycled”. “It would have been a shame not to take advantage of it, especially when we see the popularity of certain items!” underlines Carole, a Toulouse volunteer during the Paris Games and once again present for the Blagnac sale. Placed in front of the stands of colorful volunteer bucket hats, the young woman smiles as she talks about the success of these hats during the Games. “Everyone wanted one, some even had theirs stolen! A police officer offered to exchange my bucket hat with his cap, but it was so precious that I said no,” says She.
“There is money to be made”
On resale sites, the famous volunteers’ bucket hats are sometimes sold for 70 to 100 euros.
© / Céline Delbecque / L’Express
The popularity of the bob is such that the organizers have limited the sale to one headgear per person, for the modest sum of 25 euros each. But for some visitors, the investment is more than interesting: on the Internet, reseller profiles offer the item at 75, 80 or even 100 euros each. On sites specializing in second-hand clothing, products considered “rare”, such as “packs” including the complete set of volunteers or certain windbreakers, are also resold five to ten times the price offered in clearance sales, reaching sometimes several hundred euros for a simple jacket. “Very limited edition, almost impossible to find!” a seller boasts on his profile, offering a navy blue windbreaker for 420 euros. “There is money to be made, unfortunately,” complains Marie, who has seen the number of resellers multiply in the queues of the clearance sales in which she has participated.
“They take large quantities, queue alone then are joined at the last minute by 20 people, or simply cut the queue,” regrets the thirty-year-old, jaded by the unfair stratagems of these resellers. Over the course of events, his group of friends claims to have seen “fake invalids come with crutches so as not to wait”, people with reduced mobility enter as a priority with “six or seven accompanying people”, or even a man “stands change several times to cut the queue without being spotted by the security guards. So much so that on this Sunday morning, the town hall of Blagnac preferred to call on the municipal police to monitor the event, while a guard kept watch all night over the tens of kilos of objects unloaded the day before in the gymnasium. “I really never thought it could work to this extent,” Carole marvels between two sales. A few meters from her, Xavier finally found his navy blue windbreaker, in the size he wanted. He will leave with more than 400 euros worth of products – and the feeling of having extended “the magic of the Games” by a few hours.
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