How did you decide what to collect?

I'm having trouble deciding on a theme to collect, so I thought I'd ask how everyone else made up their mind. I really want to focus on one thing, as at the moment I'm pretty much just buying random ones and it'd be nice to have a goal, but I keep changing my mind on what that one thing should be.

So, what made you decide to collect the things you collect? Was it just the character or theme that you liked or were there more factors in it?

i tried to think of any movies or rides that I really enjoyed and that I know I will always love. I know that seems kind of hard to choose because there might be tons of those you love or you might not really like any. Or maybe choose a kind of style of pin you like. I love the way retro pins look. It will take a while, but it will come to you. I had the exact problem.

Well I started with Tigger/Mickey..I still look for those..but I also focus mostly on Jack Sparrow and Pirate themed
and CM Exclusives...

A combination of "things I like" and "ability to actually acquire them." If you love Jessica Rabbit, for example, she is very expensive to collect because many of the pins featuring her go for a lot of money. So if you have limited funds, you might want to pick something a little easier.

I chose characters who share the the same personalities and beliefs as I do, as corny as it sounds. There are just certain characters out there more so than other characters that you can simply relate to. My pin collection is a reflection of myself! Besides that, I also collect pins that are intricately detailed, or have unique designs.

A warning: when I first started collecting, I had no theme in mind. I decided to simply collect any rare or popular pin out there, which I think was a bad choice later on. After awhile, I started to realize why I even had these high-end pins, as they had no sentimental value to me other than the fact that I thought they were worth having because everyone and their grandmas wanted that same pin. Big no-no. Don't fall for that kind of collecting :lol:

I'm just starting out so I haven't necessarily gone from one theme to another as others have. But for me, I just noticed any pins that looked good to me. That could be include pins that have some meaning for me or just include favorite characters, or they could be completely random. For example, I don't necessarily have a thing for any of the princesses in general, but I have found myself thinking that some of the princess pins look really nice. I don't know if the random approach I'm taking is necessarily a great one, but at least when I look at my collection (once I have an actual collection, that is) I'll be looking at a bunch of pins that I love, for whatever reason I chose them Good luck!

When I started out trading I really liked Vinylmations... until I realized how many fakes there were. At the start of my last trip to Disneyland, when I traded with other guests for the first time, I would say "I like Vinylmations, train sets, Minnie Mouse (for my daughter) Haunted Mansion, Nightmare, Attractions pins, and holliday pins." By the end of the week it was "Haunted Mansion and Nightmare." I don't have time or the desire to keep up on all those different categories. There are some vinylmations and train sets I still want, but I don't want all of them, lol. I mostly focus on Haunted Mansion now.

I only started Disney pin collecting within the past two years. I wanted to collect characters or themes that I liked and that only a few pins were released a year. So, I started with Crush, Oswald, and the Christmas gingerbread house pins. Through internet trading, pin events as well as e?ay, I have been able to complete my collections for those pins released prior to 2010, when I started collecting. I have since expanded my collecting themes into D23 event, Star Tours 2.0, Tron, and Annual Passholder pins. Keep It Simple & Small!

We (my wife and I) started out with Mickey and Holidays. We still collect those, but the strategy has shifted to whatever LE pins are released every Thursday as we have found that we generally enjoy the look of most of those pins. We buy at least two of them and simply use the extras as traders for older Holiday and Mickey pins or anything in a side theme.

I guess you could say that we pick up anything that catches our fancy, but limit purchases to the LE releases at Disneyland and whatever Mystery sets we like, as Mystery sets trade extremely well and we have some fun chasing down the missing pieces.

I will say that pin trading can get horribly expensive and you either have to be extremely disciplined or pick a theme that doesn't have a rediculous amount of pins every year.

Well ours started as my young son's Stitch collection and then I slowly took it over! Especially after he left for college! Is that terrible?

Thumper: because he is my fav character, disney or other.
Tangled: because I thought I could keep up with new pins, and its a great movie.
Tinker bell and pixie hollow fairies: for my daughter because she made me watch the Tink movies over and over for 3 months.
Pink pirate: oops, I stole the pink DLRP pirate tinkerbells from my daughter and it went from there.


Now, princesses for my newest daughter..... :hsd:

it never ends does it?

I started out with Chip and Dale, picking up pins every December when my family went to Florida. It wasn't until Tangled came out that I decided I needed all the pins I could get from that movie - and it was the reason I even got into pin trading haha.

I collect Jasmine and Ariel because they were my favorite Disney movies, and Alice because my middle name is Alice after Alice in Wonderland

For me I based it on nostalgia and favorites. Sometimes a little something extra finds its way in though!

When I started collecting I was unfocused and collected any and every pin I liked at that moment. I have since settled on Alice in Wonderland as it was one of the few Disney movies that didn't make me cry. I have some sets that I like and I collect things that reflect moments from my past, from movies I loved as a kid and from movies that my grandkids love today. I have small frames (8 X 10 for most). The best advice that I can give you is don't rush into any decisions. Just wait and over time your pins will tell you what you collect. I realized one day that I had a ton of Alice pins and that was my cue that she was my collection. If you rush into a decision, you will inevitibly wind up collecting too much and making too many expensive mistakes. I know.

For me, I chose to collect things that represented something important to me. The two Disney movies Treasure Planet and The Great Mouse Detective are both important to me because I love both books they're based off of (Treasure Island, which sadly has way too few pins of its own and Basil of Baker Street). They aren't general Disneyfied variations of fairytales, they came from real books and stuck close to the story (even if Treasure Planet is all sci-fi). As a kid I spent most of my time reading instead of doing what most other kids did so books mean a lot to me. Since both those films do have so few pins, I want to collect all of what is offered, even if that means lots of patience and sometimes more money than I should spend on pins.

Besides those two important themes, I also collect Donald (my favorite Fab 5 member) and anything else has to be due to some sentimental connection.

Thanks for all the responses so far! It seems that this is something I'll have to think about. I'm leaning towards Ariel, Alice or Tink at the moment, as that'd give me plenty to go for, although I'm worried there might be a bit too many, especially for Tink.

My diehard love for Pixar movies came first. Then years later, when I realized there were such things as pins that featured all the characters that I knew and loved, I decided to collect one of each character. That soon turned into collecting any Pixar-related pin that I like. So I never really had to think of a theme.

Now, within the Pixar theme, I have a few smaller side-themes, such as Monsters, Inc. Doors, which I decided on because doors were such a huge part of the movie, and because most door pins are hinged, and I really like hinged pins in general.

I also have a few non-Pixar themes that I've come up with since I began collecting Disney Pins, such as Mother's Day/Father's Day. I decided to collect this theme because it allows me to collect cute baby animals and some other characters from Disney movies that I like, without collecting a ton of pins. There are not that many Mother's Day/Father's Day pins, because they only release a few each year. And again, as with all of my themes, I only collect the ones that I like.

For me anything thats cute! But I go to Pinpics and type in my fav movies or charaters and see if there is anything there and if not then I think about cute scenes I like, like the mad tea party and stuff. I use Pinpics all the time! And I don't get things in sets just to complete them, if I don't like the pin I save my money and room for something I like =)

PrincessPirate said:

Thanks for all the responses so far! It seems that this is something I'll have to think about. I'm leaning towards Ariel, Alice or Tink at the moment, as that'd give me plenty to go for, although I'm worried there might be a bit too many, especially for Tink.

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Tink.... don't be a completist if you collect her. Pick a theme for it. I just finally settled on a tink theme for my toddlers collection. "Purple." So it is still Tink, but with purple bavkground, or flowers.

for me it just became natural...I mean I choose Dumbo because I absolutely love him!!! And his pins are soo cute!!! Then when Tangled came out I just absolutely fell in love with the movie and the princess herself so I went ahead and started collecting pins of her

I collect Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mulan, Hercules, Bolt, Aristocats, and a few random pins that remind me of my childhood. Lol, sounds like a lot. But, since I am an artist I find that I am pretty picky on design and artwork. So, I do not collect just any pin from these categories, only the ones that I feel have excellent artwork and overall design.

My best advice for you is: don't be afraid to be picky! Just because a pin has your favorite character on it doesn't mean it's worthy of your collection.

For me it was really easy to decide what I collect. The little mermaid/Ariel. Ariel has always been my favorite charecter and the little mermaid has always been my favorite movie so... don't know if that was helpful but if I were you just collect your favorite!(also I agree with tales be picky!)

talesoftobv said:

My best advice for you is: don't be afraid to be picky! Just because a pin has your favorite character on it doesn't mean it's worthy of your collection.

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This all the way.

I started out just with Treasure Planet (my favorite movie, not just Disney movie) for years before I even cared about pins in general which is why I own almost every TP pin now, and I went a little crazy with Princess and the Frog and Tangled too, but for all the other themes I have pins of, I quickly realized that it wouldn't do to collect a bunch of random ones I wasn't going to be in love with, because I would just end up getting rid of them down the line. So to echo Tanya, be picky with what you add to your collection. Make sure you really love what you add. Otherwise you probably will just be drowning in pins you don't have the space for.

I originally wanted to collect only Nightmare Before Christmas because I've been a fan of Tim Burton and Danny Elfman's work without even knowing it for most of my life, lol. When Frankenweenie is finally released there's a very high chance I'll collect pins from that too for the same reason. And for that one I can try to be a completist since I'll be there from the beginning.

But as I was looking through Pin Pics creating my wants list I saw so many other pins I wanted. I added everything I liked to my wants list. When I was done there were thousands and thousands of wants and I began to cut down on them because there was no way I could afford get them all. The ones I had a hardest time cutting down on was Donald and his family and Goofy. So I kept those but only the ones I really wanted since there's so many.

For me, Donald is sort of a stand-in for my favorite uncle who is very very similar in personality. So much so that in our family when we speak of "Donald Duck" we need to clarify on whether we mean the cartoon character or my uncle, lol. This uncle is extra special to me because when I was 3 and a half I almost drowned in a pool and he was the one who saved my life. (Interestingly, his daughter's favorite character is also Donald.) As for Goofy, he reminds me of my father, especially in A Goofy Movie (which I love.)

Daisy isn't as important to me but I like to collect her too (especially when she's with Donald) I guess because purple is my favorite color and she frequently wears that. Another thing is that she is currently voiced by Tress MacNeille and I've been a fan of her since I first heard her as Gadget on Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers.

Scrooge is the most recent addition but I'm most picky with him since he can be pretty darn expensive. Since the last fall I had been working on reading the comics and they are everything I always wished DuckTales had been. I wish I had known about them when I was a child.

Heh, well if there's one thing that I'm good at, it's being picky. Unfortunately I also tend to be a completeist, so maybe Tink is one to avoid for the moment. Though I guess I could be a picky completist, and just aim to get all of the ones that I actually like.

There are SOOOOO many tink pins! Start by being picky and then work your way to being a completist.