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A pin you never thought you'd get?

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A pin you never thought you'd get?
SimbaNala

SimbaNala

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Just for fun, how about we tell each other about a pin we thought we would never get. I've been lucky so far on getting one I must have for the most part. I can think of a few but I'll just share one right now.

I was still living in Las Vegas, Nevada at the time, and it was during Disneyland's 50th. My family was making trips to Disneyland about once every month and a half. Well, I was looking ahead at the pins that were going to be released before our trip that would have been in February 2006. A week before we would have arrived at our hotel in Anaheim, this pin was going to be released:

pin44876.jpg


I was really hoping that they would still have them in that week it would take me to get down there to get one. But then I heard how they sold out, and then how so many of them turned out to be damaged. It then seemed like a grail that would just never be.

So fast forward a couple days into our trip, (visiting so often, I came to know a few Cast Members around the resort). So this one day, it was about 4 in the afternoon and I was in Disney's Pin Traders near the monorail station, talking to a cast member I knew (the store was empty). Well, this lady came in and I moved aside so this cast member could help her. She opened a bag and said she wanted to return a pin. I saw her remove it from the bag and it made me want one all the more. I however thought, she would be returning it because like most of the others, it was damaged. Even the cast member thought so, he didn't even open it check it. He had worked that morning the pin was released and knew a lot ended up being damaged (the dangle inside the pin was broken, about half by his account). So after he returned it and the lady left, I asked to at least see it.

Once I held it, I loved the detail of the pin all the more. I opened it up, and saw that it WAS NOT broken! I couldn't believe my luck that a was able to get a pin that I thought I would never be able to get! It's still one of my favorite pins to this day, and I won't be trading it anytime soon!

So there's my story, anyone got another one to share? :)
 
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When I first discovered pinpics, I thought I would look up the different Pirates of the Caribbean pins. I was amazed with how many there were! But there was one pin that caught my eye immediately.
pin58734.jpg

Pin 58734: DSF - Fountain of Youth - Pirates of the Caribbean (Surprise Release)
LE 150!!!!!

It was so unique! The colors and the design made it look like it came straight off a pirate map! So I started to look around for it. I tried to trade for it on pinpics, no luck. Next I tried to trade or buy it on dizpins. No luck there. Then I tried looking for it at Disneyland (I should have guessed I would not have found it there. I mean, c'mon.). No luck. I tried eBay. Nope. Never. About a year went by. I never saw anyone post the pin up for sale or trade anywhere! I was bummed out.

Then one day on eBay, *poof*. There it was. A low starting bid of $20. I bid on it right away and would not keep my eye off of it. It had one day left, and I was the only bidder. As the seconds were winding down on the auction, I kept refreshing the screen to make sure I was the highest bidder. Then, the timer hit 0 seconds, and I was the proud owner of the pin. As soon as I got it in the mail, I checked to make sure it wasn't a scrapper (though it was not known if there were scrapper versions, but it came from eBay, so I better check!). It came in the original bag, with the original price tag. All was good. And now it is at the center of my Pirates pin collection.
 
Hey! I have 1500 pins I thought I would never get. I dont collect pins. I just bought one I liked and said I would not get anymore.
They are all pins I thought I would never get...lol

Actually I am a magician and really liked this pin but never came across it and not too many people were trading it but I finally have it. Not a super valuable pin but one I have always wanted: I also had a hard time getting the last POH we needed which was the C&D Railroad from the first series:
Pin 56376: Magician Mickey Series - Rabbit Out of a Hat
Pin 67660: DLR - Piece of Disney History I - Disneyland® Railroad
pin56376
pin67660

And for Lizzie is was These:
Pin 32314: WDW - Cast Pin Trading Award Summer 2004 - Top Dog Pin Trader (Pongo)
Pin 63775: DLR - Featured Artist Collection - 101 Dalmatians (Jumbo)

pin32314
pin63775

And finally Max:
Pin 37745: WDW - Star Wars Weekends 2005 - Jumbo Logo (Mickey & Darth Vader)
pin37745
 
There are probably three (one is a set) that stick out in my mind that I never thought I would get. The first was this set:



They were the first "impossible" pins that I can remember really setting my heart on. I knew I had a monster trader for a long time and I always got offers on it but I just didn't know what I wanted for it. Finally, I decided that I wanted to try for this set using it as leverage and it worked! I actually bought the first two (Belle and Jasmine) and then a few months later I was able to close a trade for the other four! It probably took about a year from the time I really started chasing them to me finding them.

The next one is this one:



When I first really started collecting back in 2005 I remember seeing this pin and hearing buzz about it. I can't remember exactly how much it used to go for (I want to say $300??? Anyone remember?) but it was enough that I though it was out of my reach. Almost 6 years later and prices on some of the older grails have fallen and the little bugger is mine! :)

The last one that sticks out in my mind is this one:



Once I finally decided to make DA Stitches my primary focus this one quickly became the one I thought I'd be least likely to get. My ultimate long long term goal would be to get every DA Stitch pin ever released (APs and Prototypes don't count because I don't care about them). Purely based on the fact that this is the lowest LE released at LE 50 (I'm pretty sure that is the lowest....right?) I thought it would be next to impossible. Plus, it was a GWP so who knows who got them....some of the people that got them may not even cared that much about pins and just shoved them in a drawer somewhere! Anyways, I had seen it on ebay before but at prices way above what I'd be willing to pay....well, at this time anyways. I mean, if it were the very last one I needed I might splurge but when there are so many others that I want more I couldn't justify it. But....one showed up on ebay at auction and I ended up getting it! Not cheap by any means, but at 50% of what I had seen in the past! So, with that one out of the way I'm actually thinking my goal might be attainable! Only....mmmmmm.....300 or so more pins to go!!! lol I just wish I could get out of the dry spell I'm in and make some more progress!!!
 
i had been after this pin ever since i saw it on pinpics.i thought i would never have it as there is never anyone trading it.It is a jumbo p.o.p and comes in a fab box.Pin 69691: UK DS Gift Box Award Pin
pin69691

Then one day i saw it on ebay in the generel badge catigory,it was at 99p i put a bid on and to my surprise no-one else bidded,so this was my best bargain buy aswell as bein a pin i thought i would never get
 
daxsmith said:
i had been after this pin ever since i saw it on pinpics.i thought i would never have it as there is never anyone trading it.It is a jumbo p.o.p and comes in a fab box.Pin 69691: UK DS Gift Box Award Pin
pin69691

Then one day i saw it on ebay in the generel badge catigory,it was at 99p i put a bid on and to my surprise no-one else bidded,so this was my best bargain buy aswell as bein a pin i thought i would never get
Click to expand...

wow i have been looking for this one awww... :D x
 
iamdisneydan said:
Hey! I have 1500 pins I thought I would never get. I dont collect pins. I just bought one I liked and said I would not get anymore.
They are all pins I thought I would never get...lol
Click to expand...

Remember the tag line for the first Stitch movie? "There's one in every family" Well, I think your the one in our group! LoL! (I'm just messing with you!) :)

These are some cool stories. I've enjoyed reading them. I hope more people comment and tell their stories! :)
 
Well I thought that this pin was another of those fictitious Cast Lanyard/Hidden Mickey pins which did not exist! Then I came across it by pure luck during a recent visit to WDW - it made the whole vacation & now sits proudly on my board!!

pin41768


Pin 41768: DLR - Global Lanyard Series 3 (Cloud Nap Pooh) Color Variation
 
Ok. Here's mine.... I found this on pinpics and definitely thought I'd never get it.

pin28189


A wonderful person on dizpins let me know that someone else was selling it! I got it for a very reasonable price! I love it!
 
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I never liked this pin until I saw it in person in the shadow box, then I HAD to have it! I bought it from a friend so I knew it would be in perfect condition.
pin15343.jpg
 
I think mine would have to be
pin69919


Pin 69919: WDW - Star Wars Weekends 2009 - Lightsabers Boxed Set

I would neve guess I would get this set.
 
Id have to say there are a few pins that I thought Id never get but these 2 are ones I remember -

pin70345


I never thought Id have this pin, as it was the last I was needing and I never saw it on ebay, no one ever had it on dizpins or anywhere else and my trading attempts via pinpics went unnoticed...then as there was only 2 people trading the pin on pinpics I saw one had an email address so I took the chance and asked if the trader would happen to sell the pin to me...luckily and to my surprise the trader responded and said Yes he would sell it to me and cost me $100 but so worth it as its such a beautiful pin.

the next one would have to be this one -

pin52782


Now everyone who is new to the forum wont know how much struggle I went through to get this pin, I had no luck trading it, wasnt on ebay for ages...I had a few nice members trying to help me out to get this pin and in the end I caved and bought it off ebay and I dont regret it as no one was willing to trade it except for DA100 Jessica pins...which meant $300+ and when I saw the price of it on ebay I thought thats reasonable since the only way I can trade for it is by getting a DA100 pin and there was no way I was doing that haha.
 
Since most of my pins aren't grail types nothing spectacular. But I don't have a lot of grail type pins because I'm usually unwilling to pay the price to get them. So while, this pin isn't the highest level, I did not think I would find one at a price I was willing to pay. But thanks to DPF.com I got it.

pin2969


And I did a bit of a bouncy celebration when I pulled this off a trade board at an Epcot pin event. I didn't want to spend the $25 it was going for, for what was still just a GWP pin. I still don't even know how I managed to find it, because it's such a small pin, and those boards are so big and so full.

pin1361
 
Thought I'd have to pay a fortune for it but not too bad; Pin 6349: DLR - Figaro in Bed

25j8f81.jpg
 
I have a few pins I never thought I would ever get.
First we have the following pin set:

pin33980
Pin 33980: Disney Auctions -Stitch Halloween pin set (6 pins)

I remember the first time I saw one of these pins at the park. It was the pirate pin and I fell in love with it. It was so big and the design was amazing. It wasn't until I got home and looked on pinpics that I saw how hard it wast going to be to even get one of the 6 pins. I always kept looking on ebay, and saw 2 or 3 of them sell for over $100. After a few years, I finally had the opportunity to buy it. While it was a pretty steep price, the mummy one by itself I had seen sell for $200. Knowing this, and after thinking a lot about it, I finally gave in and bought it. With stats ranging from 1 trading to 112 wanting and 3 trading to 104 wanting. It seemed like trading for each individual pin was going to be near impossible, and a few members agreed with that lol . So in the end, instead of spending more in actually trying to trade for it ( i would have to get alot more high end traders), I just bought it :) It was a pretty penny, but they are sooooooo worth it.

Now the following pin, I never thought I would even have the opportunity to purchase it, let alone trade for it:

pin57577
Pin 57577: DisneyShopping.com - Jessica Rabbit Costume Series (Maleficent)

This is one of those pins, that even those that don't collect Jessica or Maleficent pins admire it for how amazingly beautiful it is. I tried to trade for it for many years to no success. Then one day, out of nowhere, I get a request for one of my pins. A one to one. I accepted without hesitation and I have never looked back every since.




​
 
pin80978


I never thought I would be able to get this one as there are so many Tangled collecters, but I got It and now not to many more to get :D
It was a bit of a bargin as well I am so pleased with it.
 
pin78776


Pin 78776: Original Disneyland Cast Badge with Name

Issued when the park opened in 1955, this badge belonged to the man in charge of Disneyland's Department 41, the Maintenance department. They were the department that kept Disneyland working and looking its best. Original Disneyland metal badges are unbelievably rare; the supervisor badges like this one are even rarer than that. I about dropped dead when someone emailed me offering this badge for sale. Cost me $1,500 but for what it its, its worth every penny of that, and much more.
 
If we're talking pins we really never thought we'd get (and not ones that we just knew would take a lot of time and money...or luck), it was this one:



Pin 48745: Disney Auctions - Jessica Rabbit Movie Star (Jumbo)

For those of you that don't know, this pin was one in a batch of Disney Auctions that were supposed to be released, and then "got lost". They were sold, but never shipped. So when I first started my quest to collect all the Jessica pins, this particular pin was a huge problem. The AP versions had been put in an Auction for one of the events, but the actual pin was no where to be seen.

Then, a few years later, all those "lost" pins suddenly showed up on ds.com,...on a Wesdnesday. Needless to say, they sold out hella fast. I ended up on eBay, and bought one for $99. I *almost* had one at $75, but the price jumped up while I was debating. Back then, spending that much on a pin was a huge no-no for me, and I feared my husband's disappointed looks...haha!

But it was funny, because we were all caught flat-footed, and it was such a shock!

BTW, I only need 2 more of the hard-to-get Jessicas so I can complete my quest...if you have the Jumbo and the DA Santa pin, help a girl out! ~_^
 
I never thought I would get this, but after years and years they now sit proudly in my collection!

pin17180
pin19232
pin23954
pin50378
 
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