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Hello Everyone

Hello Everyone
R

rickztahone

New DPF Member
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Location
Reseda California
Just wanted to say hello to all. My daughter and son have all gone all in on pin collecting/trading. It is so much fun. I started pin trading with my daughter at DLR back in 2011 I believe. We would get one pin for every time we went in to the parks. As of late, we get more like 6-10 pins every time we go now lol. I’m sure I’ll be scouring the for sale/trade section for completers
 
Thank you all for the warm welcome. Any advice for those of you that have been collecting for a while on how to not buy everything that comes out?haha. I tend to go for the LR/LE more often than not but I definitely collect open edition ones when they call to us lol. Do most of you do this is a family thing or more just for you? Pin collecting has become such a bonding thing for my kids and I and I am so thankful for it
 
My advice is to try and focus your collection. I have been collecting pins for almost 20 years. When I started I would buy whatever pins caught my eye, and I would trade for them in the same way. I focused my collection on pins that are related to coffee, or computers, or Spanish (related), or Dr. Finklestein (from NBC), or mystery sets that have caught my attention, or sets in general. There are probably more areas I focus on, but I have categorized my collection (now I just need to finish sorting them into their categories). I recommend differentiating between pins in your collections and your traders (they may move back and forth). Outside of the park, it is mostly me. Inside of the park everyone gets involved. My wife likes music themed pins and getting a pin with the year when we visit the park, my daughter likes princesses, and my son likes Star Wars and Marvel (he will is currently the most interested in pins).

I would not recommend buying a bunch of le pins for the sole purpose of being traders. You can tie up a lot of money that way (I have some le traders in my possession for about 15 years, granted they were on sale at the time).

Many of us trade on pin and pop. I am using it to finish some mystery sets, and trade away some of the le pins that I have had for too long.

Is there anything else you would like to know?
 
When we are in the parks, we all trade! My girls have been trading since they were little (2 and 9). At first they
would trade for anything, now they are much more careful. I'm the only one that trades online and they are
older now. One still loves to trade and thinks it is the only reason to go to the parks. I have everyone's wants
on my account on PinPics.
 
Thank you that’s some great advice and I appreciate it. I started collecting with my daughter as a commemorative piece as it were for each visit. Those pins that originated this “obsession” go on our lanyards and we don’t actually trade those as they have emotions tied to them. So now we buy pins more for the trade value and the LE’s I buy because they feel more exclusive. In all my hobbies, I’ve never gotten in to them for the returns as it seldom works that way in real life. This adventure is for the sole purpose of bringing my kids and I together more as I’m sure many here can relate.

I really like NBC and haunted mansion pins. I have a whole lanyard dedicated to that like. I also love wall-e and monsters inc. my son loves cars and Star Wars pins (although he isn’t a huge Star Wars buff).

My daughter loves Lilo & stitch pins as well as Alice.

Pretty good bunch. Can’t wait to grow our collective and memories. We’ve already built an abundance of them thus far
 
My son (10) tries to trade on the boards but when he pulls at the scrappers I have to make him pause lol
 
My younger daughter got really good at recognizing scrappers. We have learned to ask, "may I
see that pin please," first. We take a look and then move forward. You are allowed to do that.
Sometimes I also say, "May I please look at that pin". Sometimes if a pin is unusual, I trade for it
anyway. You do have to be very careful not to get scrappers.
 
With as many videos I have seen on scrappers, I still have such a hard time identifying them. My goal is to get better at it. I picked up a very unusual Hong Kong pin last week at the park that I had never seen and it felt so light but I didn’t want to pass it up. I’m sure we all wish that all of the pins on boards were all genuine
 
Welcome to the Forum!


In regard to how to focus your collection, besides looking at it from a character/movie/theme point of view, you can also consider geographically or other origin. For example, I only collect pins from US Disney direct (with a few exceptions of course. There are always exceptions.) So no pins from Disneyland Paris or Tokyo, no Loungefly, etc.

And, since you mentioned you like NBC and low LE pins, I have to make a shameless plug for the pins from the upcoming DSSH Once Upon a Nightmare event. Somebody (gee, I wonder who?) has a sale thread up if you check out that section of the forum. (Actually, there are a couple of threads, not just mine. I mean somebody's.)
 
Reactions: imp
I never mind the heads up. I will certainly check that out
 
hello and welcome! It def helps to focus on your collection (and prob a good idea to define what your collection actually entails). It's so easy to get out of hand and buy all the pins you like haha
I started it more for myself but now I mainly focus on Dumbo since that's my husband's favorite character (and Belle/ Maleficent are pretty competitive and can get expensive)
 
Welcome to our Little, but Mighty Pin Community.

I think is So Awesome when a family trades Together. And, I love seeing children grow up with the Hobby. It teaches them so many Skills.

I was given some great advice when I started this hobby 13+ years ago, "Try and keep one's collection to just a few characters, theme's etc. It makes it a lot easier when it comes to a time when them need to be narrowed down." And it helped me, a lot. Now with that being said, I do have a few more collections then I honestly should, but, it think I would have more, if I hadn't been given that advice.

Wishing you many Wonderful trades, and lots of new friendships.
 
Hi and Welcome!

I can't second strongly enough about focusing your collection. I got the very-bad-but-well-intentioned advice of collecting every limited edition pin because it would be a 'good trader' when I first started collecting/trading back in 2002/2003 ... so I literally purchased multiples of every single piece of shiny metal with a pointy back attached if it was sold on a card that said limited edition. Regardless of whether I actually liked the pin. I wish I were joking. I'm still in the process of digging myself out of this mess and I'm finally starting to see a situation where I finally might be able to trade at some point in the vacuous future.

If I had to do over, I would limit myself to just a theme/character (or a few) that I actually like. The amount money I spent on potential traders I could spend buying pins (on the secondary market) for which I can't trade. And when it comes to your collection, 'value' isn't everything. If you like a pin and it makes you smile, get it. If you don't like the pin, it doesn't matter if it's the most 'valuable' pin in the world. Why would you want it?
Don't worry too much about this, you'll get better at this with time. But even then, anyone who says they haven't traded for a scrapper before either hasn't traded enough or is lying. Sometimes some scrappers are just so good that it's nearly impossible to identify them without a side-by-side comparison with a known legitimate example. Other times, if you're trading in less-than-optimal conditions (poor/insufficient lighting, you/cast member is in a rush) or you just don't know how the pin is meant to look, it happens and you trade for a dodgy pin.

My approach: I only trade authentic pins onto lanyards and boards. I do my best to check to ensure the pins for which I'm trading are authentic, but I'm not perfect. Sometimes I make a mistake and trade for a dodgy pin. If I don't notice until I get home, it's my loss and I won't bring it back. But if I notice while I'm still in the parks/at the resort, I'll trade it back onto the lanyard. The way I see it, I spend a lot of money on my trading pins and it shouldn't be my responsibility to clean Disney's lanyards and boards of dodgy pins for them.
 
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