Phelps Best Hope Those Endorsements Happen

Those eight golds that Michael Phelps won are apparently valuable in sentiment only. According to MarketWatch, all eight of the medals are worth about as much as one second of Tiger Woods' life:

If Michael Phelps were to melt down the eight gold medals he won at the Beijing Olympics Games and sell the gold, he could probably only make about $1,225.

The famed gold medals are mostly made of silver, not gold. Only six grams, or 0.19 ounce, of gold is required to coat the medal. With gold futures closing at $806 an ounce on Monday, an Olympic gold medalist couldn't ask much more for the precious metal -- but the value of the precious medal would be much higher.

Obviously, the medals could actually be sold for much more to idiots who like to collect the possessions of others. For example, a Polish swimming auctioned off her ’04 gold medal for $82,599, despite the metals themselves only being worth about $150. Once again, this proves that collecting memorabilia is the most effective waste of valuable resources imaginable. Go earn your own trophies.

In other news of athletes striking it “big,” American wrestler Henry Cejudo stands to collect a total of $65,000 for the gold he won on Tuesday night. His response to taking home this king’s ransom: “I’m rich. Maybe I can start investing.” Good luck with that, thousandaire.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.