The Olympics are an event that can fuel growth in interest and popularity, not just for a given sport or individual athlete, but for an array of collectibles, as well. The global nature of the Olympics, the way they cross-pollinate fans of different sports and draw in very casual or even non-sports fans — it’s something that can supercharge demand.
Take basketball for example — the men’s gold-medal game between the U.S. and France averaged 19.5 million viewers in the U.S. alone, whereas the most recent NBA Finals averaged 11.3 million viewers. The women’s gold-medal game drew 7.8 million viewers in the U.S. (at 9:30 a.m. ET), and last year’s WNBA Finals averaged 728,000. While that sudden influx of new eyeballs can produce a brief and immediate surge of interest that just as quickly evaporates, it can also be the foundation for longer-term growth in some cases. It can be an introduction that creates new fans and collectors.
With that in mind, let’s look back on the 2024 Olympics using insights from eBay:
Athletes (and rappers) who saw a surge of collector interest
The most searched Team USA men’s basketball players within eBay during the Olympics were LeBron James, Anthony Edwards and Steph Curry. James and Curry’s places there shouldn’t be surprising, given their status as legends of the game and how they came through in big moments for Team USA, but Edwards being searched at that level within a marketplace (rather than just on a more general interest platform like Google) is noteworthy.