We've pretty much been "heads down" building it so it was nice to look back and see how far we've come. Thank you
@Mcgilligan for setting that in motion for us.
Here's a brief (not so brief?) history of growth at Pin & Pop...
We technically launched the site in October of 2018 with 5,000 pins using data and photos that Pin Trading DB graciously allowed us to use. We already had the pins grouped together in series but we did not yet have a lot of basic functionality like user accounts or collections or even search at that time. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to focus on a pin trading platform that was more than just messaging back and forth like the other sites and facebook groups, but we also knew we needed the extensive database of pins first.
In 2019 we kept adding pins from PTDB and added core functionality like searching and user accounts. We had our first “real” account signup on April 9th, 2019. By December of 2019 we had a total of 30,000 pins and I started coding the initial trade functionality.
We held our first “Pop-up Pin Board” trading event in April of 2020. All the listed pins for trade were from our own collection and we felt pretty excited that we had a total of 21 trades. We continued to do trading events throughout 2020 and did our first Happy Haunts trading weekend in October that year. Most of the pins for that event were still from our personal collection but we did start to list pins from select people who had been helping us refine the trade system over the course of the year.
2021 saw us ramping up the trading events and starting to gain some momentum within the community. We launched Pin Books that year and finished 2021 with a total of 46,000 pins in the database and facilitated 1,500 trades. We had an amazing group of supporters through Patreon over the last half of 2020 and through 2021 but it didn’t quite cover our cost. We would spend about $200 - $400 extra per event on server costs and packaging and shipping. We had to cap the number of people we allowed to trade because we started to scale our costs as the trade event grew. It was OK though because we were learning so much and it was awesome to connect with people that loved pin trading as much as (or even more than) we did.
In 2022 we launched the Log Book, the Rarity Scale, and added Loungefly Backpacks to the site. I did a lot of code rewriting and optimizations that year because traffic was growing so much that the site would get super laggy and crash. Every trade event would have me crossing my fingers and watching the system dashboards closely to make sure the site didn’t blow up when everyone started trading. We got the issues sorted out and as we finished 2022 we had processed over 6,000 trades and had over 54,000 pins in the database.
When 2023 came, we knew we needed more help. We had a couple local volunteers who would come over and help us unpack, verify and repack all the trades that were coming in. Then we hired our first part-time helper because there was more work than we could handle. The pin database was gaining momentum as well so we put together the Mod Team from some of the amazing community members that were already doing the work without having (or needing) the official title.
We also launched the Trade Arcades in 2023 and built an extensive admin system to manage and track the thousands of pins we receive and process from each Trade Arcade event. At the end of the year the pin database was around 66,000 pins and we had facilitated over 14,000 trades.
2024 and the beginning of 2025 have been a blur. Similar to the challenge of scaling the technology in 2022, we’re now facing the need to scale our processes and workforce so that we can get trades authenticated and shipped out faster. We’ve hired a second part-time helper and are hoping to move into a small office space to further facilitate getting pins out the door and into their new owner’s hands faster.
We’ve been able to establish the Authentication Team made up of some long-time pin collectors and researchers to help verify pins. We’ve expanded the Mod Team and are considering establishing a Collectors Advisory Team made up of collectors and traders to help make sure we’re focusing on and building the right things to best serve the community.
We launched the new Dashboard, the Profile page and the Pinsight Image Search tool. We’re close to launching a new pin details page that includes the ability to set your Trade Value and Sell Value for a pin as well as a new photo gallery area that can show both authentic and fake versions of the pin and let you compare the fronts and backs side by side.
As of May 1st, 2025, we have over 90,500 pins in the database and we’ve processed over 27,000 trades. We’re seeing about 50,000 people hit the site every month and our users have collected over 1.38 Million owned pins and 1.4 Million ISOs.
I think the focus for the rest of 2025 will be to improve our ability to process trades much faster and also improve our communication and how we connect with the pin trading community so you should see us popping up at more regional in-person pin trading events.
