almost done with my first year of pin trading

[VillainousGoof]

Last September my girlfriend and I became both annual passport holders (a lifelong dream for both of us) and pin traders simultaneously. When we purchased our passports we agreed to go at least one day a month for the whole year, because we are probably never going to be able to do this again. We had never traded pins before, but we grew up making the 7 hour drive to Disneyland at least once a year with our families and we love disney and disneyland with all our hearts. We started pin trading with the intention of buying just a few rack pins and trading them with cast members only, but we quickly became pin addicts, overwhelmed with a flood of insight into a world of $300 or more le pins, online pin trading, spending hours at pin trading tables instead of going on rides, and driving an hour or more out of our way through the worst traffic imaginable so that we could possibly be the first to get a new PTD. We have spent countless hours and an irresponsible amount of money on this hobby that we started almost as a joke, and now as our time as annual passholders comes to a close I am pretty sad and I'm not sure what to do. My collection is not what I expected and part of me wants to go on as just an online trader and, and part of me wants to sell and/or give away all or at least most of my pins to people who will get more use out of them. Have any of you been through this? Anyone care to share your experiences and advice?


Also, thank you all for all of your help and guidance and for being the awesome, happy, funny, disney nerds you are. I hope you all get your holiest of grails!

Thanks for those of you who managed to read all of that.

 

[ryanfury]

Do you go to the norcal meets?

 

[LuvSimba]

Don't do anything in haste. Wait and see what happens. There are many trade meets outside of Disneyland held by other traders (and I heard some of those meets are a blast..maybe one will be in your area). I think if you sold/traded all your pins away, that you might regret all the memories lost of your year pass at DL.

 

[Bryana]

I agree with LuvSimba. Don't do anything in haste. I think you just wrote my story. I hit my one year mark at the end of August. I, too, have spent an irresponsible amount of money on pins this past year. I'm in a bit of a slow down right now. I'm not buying mich and I'm not trading much. However, I do "window shop" a lot. My love for pins hasn't changed. I think ive finally learned some disipline. I've met a lot of great people both online and in person this year. I wouldn't trade this part of my life for anything. If you're feeling a bit of a lull, it's ok. Don't think because you don't have passes, you can't trade because you can. Just find other avenues outside of the park like online and pin meets. Use the money you save from the annual passes to buy more pins. HA!

 

[kupo1121]

I'm hitting my first-year mark the first week into September so I'm very close as well. Not as close, but very close. I never knew that so many of us are hitting our 1-year marks around the same time ^_^ IDK but I always viewed so many of you guys as pin trader veterans Is that bad? :lol: Anyways, onto your post.

My collection is not what I expected and part of me wants to go on as just an online trader and, and part of me wants to sell and/or give away all or at least most of my pins to people who will get more use out of them. Have any of you been through this? Anyone care to share your experiences and advice?

DON'T DO IT!!! (you'll get it if you watch Hercules)

If anything, you both should keep all of your pins as a memory of your whole year, but the last thing you should be doing is giving it away. Your pin trading life is nowhere near anything, you just got to the first year, if anything it's just begun. Marriages aren't supposed to end at the first year anniversary...IT'S A CELEBRATION!!!!

If you think you being away from the parks means you cannot be a pin trader, take a look at the whole lot of us (including myself and many others like David, Darris, Hollie, Maya, and a whole slew of others) whom are not located anywhere near a park (some of us being located across a whole pond!!! A WHOLE POND!!!!) and I don't see any of those I just mentioned quitting anytime soon. Sure there are many perks to being able to go to a park, but for those that can't, that just makes the visit to the parks all that much more special.

So the last thing you should do right now is have either of you quit, try online pin trading and if you that doesn't quench your appetite (it's hard going cold turkey from the parks I'd imagine) then you might have to invest in another annual pass What can I say? You'll be forced to enjoy endless rides, great food, great company, and beautiful pins for another year. That's what you get!!!

 

[abrown1087]

I have a similar story: I collected pins every year we went to WDW from 2006-2009. My family came upon some rough financial times when I graduated from college so we couldn't go to disney for 3 years. I stopped collecting pins all together since we didn't go to the parks, and just kind of left the pins I had to collect dust pretty much until I found this forum. I kind of regret that because I missed a lot of cool stuff and events, and DPF lol. Getting back into pin collecting has been one of the best things I've done even after the crazy money I've spent since last year. So like everyone else said don't jump into a decision you may regret. Even if you aren't continuously adding pins to your collection or trading over the next year you can still have fun with pins! maybe come up with fun ways to display them together if you haven't already done that

 

[VillainousGoof]

Thanks a lot everyone, I am going to keep trading I think, and kupo, I love your gifs and memes and all that, awesome! lol