General questions about fair trading

[lulemee]

Hello,

I have only a small pin collection right now and wasn't very active in pin collecting the last years. I did only collect for myself in the past and never did trading. But in the last time I thought it might be a fun thing to do and also could maybe help me to get my grail pins I wish for since years. But since I'm new to this I have some general questions about fair trading. If this was already discussed somewhere, than I'm sorry, but I couldn't find a post with this subject.
Maybe the answers are completely obvious, but they are not for me, so I'm very thankfull for any help!

So first, what is fair trading? How do I know the value of a pin. Does the value of a pin depend on the Limited Edition number or is also the demand importend for the value. Are there any charakters or pin series more valuable than others? Is Ebay a good reference for the value of a pin or are there many scalpers out there? I come from the doll world, so I know that Ebay prices for LE dolls are mostly higher than the actual value through collectors.

When it comes to sets, are pins that were sold in a set a better deal than the same pins seperately? Or doesn't have this any effekt on the value?

Another question is, if I decide to buy a LE pin with a low Edition size only with the intention of trading it, does it make me a shark or scalper? In doll world it's not a good thing to do so, but how about the pin world?

Are older pins more valuable than newer pins when it comes to rack pins? Or what is a fair trade with no LE pins?

I hope someone can answer my questions. Thank you for your time!!!

 

[Romancing_Train]

When you search through ebay for prices check the LAST SOLD ones. Then do a generalized price range of what it's going for versus what it's listed for.

If it's really old, pretty low edition and it sold for expensive and for a really random low price go for a little lower then the expensive price. ((Some times good things happen and people snag a good price but one random low priced pin doesn't set the market lol).

You can also check the older pin pics and the disneypindb. Older pin pics since it's more comprehensive but DB since it has way more of the newer pins and a better updated thing of how many people are looking for it. (DB also has newer ands better pictures most the time).


It's hard to say what's fair now since there's mostly buying and selling going on now, but basically if your pin is about the same price, le, age as the one you want it might be fair. But some people may think theirs is worth alot more!

ALSO: totally unrelated but i was just on your dA because it popped up in my feed xD

 

[lulemee]

Thank you so much for commenting @Romancing_Train. So this means, pins with the same LE edition size doesn't have to have the same value? But it woudln't be an unfair trade request, would it? For example a new LE 150 pin and an old LE 150 pin, are they tradable?

 

[Jabberwocky]

Popularity of theme matters too. An old le150 Jiminy Cricket pin probably wouldn't trade well for a new le150 Frozen pin, for example.

 

[Romancing_Train]

Popularity of theme matters too. An old le150 Jiminy Cricket pin probably wouldn't trade well for a new le150 Frozen pin, for example.

This is it exactly. But some of the much older tangled pins could gather quite a few newer frozen pins of the same level or lower.

Say the new frozen le300 stained glass Elsa you had but wanted the lion king beloved tales. Some people might love to do it, but some may reject it as there's more else's in circulation right now then the lion king. Both are low very rare pins, both worth hundreds of dollars but it depends.

 

[lulemee]

I understand. The popularity of a pin makes the value, not only the release year and the edition number. This makes it of course really hard to beginners to know what might trade for what, but that's life. Thank you so much for your help!