Artist Proof Pins, are they worth collecting

I recently acquired a pin that I have been trying to get for a long time:



And last night, when I added the Costumed Jessicas I got from DS.com to the trade list, I received a reply to an Artist Proof version of the same pin. Now, I understand that Artist Proofs (APs) are harder to come by, etc, but are they really worth trading for if you have the non AP version in your collection already?

For me Personally... if i come across an AP version of a pin ihave in my collection i will add it... AP's are harder to aquire and in my opinion do hold a higher value... you will see that the responses are going to be about 50/50... for some AP stands for just "Another Pin"... i personally like the AP hunt...

It's funny, whenever I acquire a new pin through a purchase or trade, 95% of the time I don't check if it's an AP (bad practice, I know =/) I guess I fall under the "AP=Another Pin" group, like Shoeguy1 mentioned. Again, that's just me.

BTW, awesome pin Billy =D

Especially when it comes to an AP of the exact same version as what was released I'm definitely in the "AP=Another Pin" group. The sets and different metal color ones are much more intersteing, but not a must have to me. I have a few regular AP pins but only because I wanted the pin and somehow it ended up to be an AP that I got. Unless is is the different metal sets like from DS.com then they don't hold much more value than the regular version in my eyes.

I never thought of it... But I do not check my pin back to see if they are an AP. But to be honest, I could really care less, If it fits into my collection I take it.

for me if I have the pin already in my collection then I dont see any point in having the AP version when its the exast same as the normal released pin.

I know there is an AP set of the UP LE100 3-pin set from DS.com and ive seen them on ebay for $300 each and I mean $300 for the gold, $300 for the black and $300 for the silver..so would be talking $2800 for that set if I wanted them but I have the normal release so Im quite happy with that.

So to answey your question..No they are not worth collecting but thats for me personally.

If you look at it from a rarity point of view (Like an LE) they certainly havelow numbers. As most of you know, once the artist designs a pin there are 2 stages. First there will be a PP "protype pin) made and typically they can come in 3 versions so the artist can make a choice. Silver, Black and Gold backed pins. The artist may also have used some different clors on various pins to see what they like best and thats where the AP's come in. I have 3 of the same pin all AP's that used different colors for 2 areas of the pin. I think this is really cool and there are only 3 - maybe 20 max of each pin. The artist then chooses which one they feel looked best. Even in artwork, it may look nice but much different once on the pin so they sometimes use different colors for this purpose.

I feel AP pins do hold a greater values because they are special for many reasons. But again, as I mentioned in many previous threads, everyone holds a different value for a pin and they all have different taste and likes and to many, its just another pin. To me, PP's are top and AP' are second. If the pin was an LE1000, yours is like an le 20. And like the ones I have that are different colors, some of those are one of a kind.

Although I do not search out PP's or AP's if I come across one I like I will put it into my collection and replace the pin that is there if I had it already. I do like the gold version of most pins best so I want the gold version of the AP in the DS pins most of the time. It is all subjective to taste I think. Someone told me once that I should keep both the AP and the regular pin so the last haunted mansion AP I acquired I just added it to my collection instead of getting rid of the regular one. I kind of still think it is overkill but OK. I have managed to collect an entire set of pins in AP for my collection, that is cool to me. I have some really valuable pins in my collection but ultimately I like what I like. Having the AP is a way of increasing the value of what you like. If the person wasn't asking too much for their pin I would trade for it... why not?

Funny story... I had a pin in my book (I probably got through my any pin for any pin board) but I saw that there was a scrapper/counterfeit pin going around that was a matte finish of this pin on PinPics. Well this pin was a matte finish so I was sure it was a bad pin and put it in my scrapper/counterfeit book. I was going through my scrapper/counterfeit book the other day rearranging the pins and took this pin off. When I looked at the back of the pin I found out that this pin was a prototype pin... wow... kind of funny though. The pin went from trash to treasure in one glance... LOL! I ended up checking them all but that was my only unnoticed treasure...