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  1. #1

    Olympic "Gold" isn't really gold is it?

    You brits know this is costing you over a billion dollars to sit there and give away glorified trinkets right?
    Last edited by Tesclo; 2012-07-30 at 06:06 PM.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by conscript View Post
    No you're plenty free to post about the Olympics. Don't make posts like "you know you guys are shelling out billions for meaningless trinkets, right?" posts that are completely off topic and nonconstructive.

    Wow Japan takes the Silver, GBR to the Bronze. That is nuts. Poor Ukraine.
    The UK is literally shelling out billions to hand out "gold medals" that contain 1.34% gold http://www.zerohedge.com/news/auster...tains-134-gold
    Last edited by Fuzzzie; 2012-07-30 at 08:33 PM.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by vizzle View Post
    Okay - where does it say that the UK has spent billions on the medals?

    Nevermind, I see his post was deleted. I hope he makes a thread.
    -Snip- This is not the place for discussing moderation. It is also not the place to make sniping comments about other posters.


    This was back in march (the UK was 3 billion over the budget): http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/03...b-over-budget/
    note that's not even to mention the cost of all the security and having more military in the city than even in afganastan.

    The medals themselves aren't even worth much. The gold medal has 1.34% gold in it and is worth about $500 USD. The silver medal is worth about $260 USD and the Bronze is worth, get this! $3 USD! http://www.zerohedge.com/news/auster...tains-134-gold

    That is why I say they are trinkets. The UK is literally spending billions to hand out trinkets.
    Last edited by Northern Goblin; 2012-07-30 at 06:30 PM.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Tesclo View Post
    Right because talking about the olympics means I recieve infractions and my posts get deleted. Who gave that guy moderator status? Seriously.

    I'll answer your question because there are obviously people that want to talk about the olympics instead of just mindlesly posting results.

    This was back in march (the UK was 3 billion over the budget): http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/03...b-over-budget/
    note that's not even to mention the cost of all the security and having more military in the city than even in afganastan.

    The medals themselves aren't even worth much. The gold medal has 1.34% gold in it and is worth about $500 USD. The silver medal is worth about $260 USD and the Bronze is worth, get this! $3 USD! http://www.zerohedge.com/news/auster...tains-134-gold

    That is why I say they are trinkets. The UK is literally spending billions to hand out trinkets.

    I have no idea how this is "off topic" or "derailing" in the "official" olympic thread. But I guess I should just bash my head off the tv screen and post results instead of ask questions.
    They aren't spending billions to hand out medals. They're spending billions on infrastructure and city development.
    Why am I back here, I don't even play these games anymore

    The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by vizzle View Post
    They aren't spending billions to hand out medals. They're spending billions on infrastructure and city development.
    To a point, yes, I can agree with this. But what about all the added security? It doesn't come free. The opening ceremony wasn't free either.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by koodledrum View Post
    Incidentally, the "value" of the medal is unimportant, if I'm at the Olympics and they use a breeze block as an Olympic medal it will be worth a billion dollars to me to win one, I'm not concerned as to the value thereof more what it represents.
    It just seems odd to me that they can spend all this money on added security and building giants stadiums and whatever else, but can't even hand out a real gold medal.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Tesclo View Post
    To a point, yes, I can agree with this. But what about all the added security? It doesn't come free. The opening ceremony wasn't free either.
    Of course not, but that comes with hosting the Olympics. It's true that the Olympics does trash the economy, some even speculate that the Athens Olympics is the reason Greece is in the toilet right now. China lost money when they hosted in Beijing, where they even had to shut down factories just to make the air more breathable. And yes, UK did go over budget.

    BUT, there's a reason why countries fight for the Olympics. Even though it drains the economy, if they can survive it long-term (unlike Greece), it benefits the economy with all the new infrastructure and city improvements. In the long-term, it's a very good excuse to upgrade your city.
    Why am I back here, I don't even play these games anymore

    The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.

  8. #8
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Tesclo View Post
    To a point, yes, I can agree with this. But what about all the added security? It doesn't come free. The opening ceremony wasn't free either.
    Dude, it's a SHOW. It's meant to cost money - by 'show' I'm referring to the olympics. It's for FUN. Or do you not get the meaning of fun? Sure, competitiveness is involved too, but it's about bringing the nations of the world together.

  9. #9
    The opening ceremony cost £8m, to put it into context that would probably buy you an average premiership player or if you're an American, that will pay Alex Rodriguez for approximately the amount of time he'll be on the disabled list with a broken hand. What you're not taking into account is the revenue generated by the games, again some context, I have already spent £50 on tickets to two events, to which you can add two round journeys to Glasgow (£8 each day) & have been compelled to buy a nice Team GB hoodie (£28) which I likely wouldn't have bought otherwise, I'm also likely to visit London for the Paralympics (£10 ticket, £20 transport down there + whatever I spend while I'm there). That's just one person, there will be likely close to 65,000 people every day in the Olympic Stadium, probably close to 200k tickets for an average competition day - all of them contributing to the economy directly through the price of the ticket, many will be tourists from outside the UK needing a hotel room, most will make purchases as well contributing VAT to the UK economy.

    The whole ethos of "this is costing billions" is a short sighted view based on a complete disregard for the basics of economics as you're looking at the expenditure while completely ignoring the income side of the balance sheet.
    Koodledrum - Balnazzar EU - 85 Priest - Retired.

  10. #10

    Olympic "Gold" isn't really gold is it?

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/auster...tains-134-gold

    Taken from the above article:

    The 2012 gold is 92.5 percent silver, 6.16 copper and... 1.34 percent gold
    The resulting medallion is worth about $500

    For the silver medal, the gold is replaced with more copper, for a $260 bill of materials. The bronze medal is 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin. Valued at about $3!

    $3 value for a bronze olympic medal? Thoughts?

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Tesclo View Post
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/auster...tains-134-gold

    Taken from the above article:

    The 2012 gold is 92.5 percent silver, 6.16 copper and... 1.34 percent gold
    The resulting medallion is worth about $500

    For the silver medal, the gold is replaced with more copper, for a $260 bill of materials. The bronze medal is 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin. Valued at about $3!

    $3 value for a bronze olympic medal? Thoughts?
    Who pays for this again? And any level 10 with a mining pick can farm bronze. No way around it, bronze just isn't expensive. On the flip side, the gold medal would be pretty astronomical in price.

  12. #12
    Elemental Lord Spl4sh3r's Avatar
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    If you were going for medals you wouldn't care about its value in currency.
    Last edited by Spl4sh3r; 2012-07-30 at 06:55 PM.

  13. #13
    medals arent meant to be sold anyway.... They're meant as a trophy....
    Also, making those hundreds of pure gold medals would cost an insane amount of money just for throwing away like that.
    Last edited by Martinussen; 2012-07-30 at 07:01 PM.
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  14. #14
    The olympics will bring in billions.............

    Stop looking at the short term costs and look at it as more of a long term thing.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Psilar View Post
    Who pays for this again? And any level 10 with a mining pick can farm bronze. No way around it, bronze just isn't expensive. On the flip side, the gold medal would be pretty astronomical in price.
    As it should be considering one needs to train their entire life to compete within the olympics. These are literally glorified trinkets at this point.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Spl4sh3r View Post
    If you were going for medals you wouldn't care about its value in currency.
    Exactly. Having something to show that you were able to do something better than anybody in the World would be priceless in my opinion.

  17. #17

  18. #18
    Posting what I said a while ago:


    Quote Originally Posted by Tesclo View Post
    To a point, yes, I can agree with this. But what about all the added security? It doesn't come free. The opening ceremony wasn't free either.
    Of course not, but that comes with hosting the Olympics. It's true that the Olympics does trash the economy, some even speculate that the Athens Olympics is the reason Greece is in the toilet right now. China lost money when they hosted in Beijing, where they even had to shut down factories just to make the air more breathable. And yes, UK did go over budget.

    BUT, there's a reason why countries fight for the Olympics. Even though it drains the economy, if they can survive it long-term (unlike Greece), it benefits the economy with all the new infrastructure and city improvements. In the long-term, it's a very good excuse to upgrade your city.

    ---------- Post added 2012-07-31 at 03:04 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Tesclo View Post
    As it should be considering one needs to train their entire life to compete within the olympics. These are literally glorified trinkets at this point.
    It's not about gold. It's about the meaning that comes with it.
    Why am I back here, I don't even play these games anymore

    The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.

  19. #19
    Most modern gold products contain very little actual gold ie jewllery due to the fact it's a very soft metal, and the price.

    It wouldn't have occured to me that the medals were anything other than gold plate. Their value is not in the raw materials,

  20. #20
    Deleted
    People seem to think that event like this costs the UK money, the fact is that it brings the country as a whole an unimaginable amount of business.

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