MIKE Travers has held an eBay account for 15 years, but never felt the need to use it until last week.
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His first ever purchase?
“A priceless Australian icon” - the Sydney Olympic Rings.
The former Pyrmont selfemployed engineer, now based in Brisbane, purchased the Rings (pictured here in vendor Bernard Maas’ Goulburn shed) for $21,100 last week, following a mini-bidding frenzy.
Originally broken by the Goulburn Post, the story of the Rings’ sale went global, with media outlets in the US, UK and Asia running the story. It was this publicity that brought the Rings’ sale to Mr Travers’ attention. “I got a call from a mate on the night the auction closed, who’d seen the story on Fox Sports News, and I logged in, once I remembered my password,” he told the Goulburn Post.
“I’ve never bought anything on there before, the account’s just been dormant for 15 years.
“It all happened in about 10 minutes.”
Mr Travers said he had no intentions to profiteer from the purchase, “I’m not going to put them behind a turnstile and charge people $10 to look at them,” he said.
“My plan is to put them back in the hands of the Australian Olympic Committee, the Sydney Olympic Park Trust or the NSW Government.
“I want to see them on public display, so that future generations can walk past them and have a look.
“Over the past few days, I’ve spoken to a lot of people, and they’ve all told me they reckon the best place for them is the Sydney Olympic Park.
“They’re a priceless Australian icon, and I didn’t want to see them scrapped and ending up in some skyscraper in China.”
Mr Travers said he had been in touch with Bernard Maas, the man who sold the Rings, to arrange removal.
He was in Goulburn on Saturday to look at his new purchase, which he described as “massive”.
“The rings are my responsibility to move, and I need to move them ASAP.
Bernard needs the shed space, and I’ve been organising some short-term storage in Goulburn,” Mr Travers said.
The five steel rings measure 70 metres by 40 metres when assembled and weigh a hefty 40 to 50 tonnes.
The Olympic Rings were constructed by Goulburn firm Kermac Engineering and Welding, but for the past 15 years have lain in the former Kermac shed.
Over the years, there have been several attempts from community groups to have the Rings mounted over looking the Goulburn bypass, or erected at the Olympic precinct in Homebush.
None of these have come to fruition.
