The Gold Coast Bulletin

GAMES GEAR GOES UP FOR AUCTION

- KATHLEEN SKENE

FANCY serving dinner on a Commonweal­th Games medal ceremony tray? What about serving a medalmatch volleyball to your mates at the beach, or accidental­ly dropping your very own gold medalwinni­ng shot on your foot?

You can do these things and more if you’ve got the cash, with GOLDOC auctioning off a swag of cool memorabili­a from the Gold Coast games – much of it signed by the athletes.

Based on the level of bids yesterday morning, you could plunge your own sweaty mitts into the boxing gloves used in an Oxenford medal match for just $90; fling the men’s gold medal discus around your local park for $550; dribble a Team Australia autographe­d men’s match basketball around your own loungeroom for $505.

Also available are signed and unsigned match balls from the netball, hockey and rugby 7s, as well as batons from the athletics relay and lawn bowls jacks and mats.

As of yesterday morning, the highest bid had been placed on a match-used netball, signed by the silver medal-winning Australian Diamonds, for $1505.

In the middle of the pack, you could grab a relay-used baton or a shot put for around $300.

Bids for the cheapest gear available was $65 for a lawn bowls official foot mat.

More gear, including gymnastics apparatus, is set to go online soon.

Organisers are also creating memorabili­a for regular sale, including framed sections of the athletics track, to be sold for $295. Just 100 of those will be made, with the majority of the track being shared around local schools to use.

Games official merchandis­e is also still selling – with anything Borobi becoming rarer by the day – while baton bearers are being offered personalis­ed golden “souvenir batons” for $200 each.

Elsewhere on the internet, souvenirs not available to the general public that were given to corporate guests and dignitarie­s, are on sale for big bucks – with silver batons from the Games charity ball online for $450 each. Bids on the sporting gear are live now at the GC2018 website and close on April 30.

 ?? Picture: GETTY IMAGES ?? Athletes at the baton exchange in the Men's 4x400m relay final.
Picture: GETTY IMAGES Athletes at the baton exchange in the Men's 4x400m relay final.

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