Taking care of your pin collection

Hi everyone,

I have been very active on this forum but more on the doll collector side of things and have only now started looking into the pins after finding out about the Disney Store UK exclusive releases.

I apologize if this has been asked before but I am relatively new to pin collecting/trading and you could probably say that I am more of a collector than a trader of pins at the moment mainly because I haven't really built much of a collection, also I don't live anywhere near a location where I can attend events or walk into a shop and just browse for pins, so generally if I want a pin I just buy it and because of that I have built more of a collection.

So my question is, how do you guys keep your pins that you generally do not trade? Or your "keepers"? I understand that you can buy books that are designed to hold pins in them but them my question is in order to place the pins in the books you would have to remove them from their cardboard backing is that right? I noticed that when looking at some pins to buy generally people advertise if it is on it's original backing as if this makes it more valuable or at least helps verify its authenticity. So my other question is for someone like me, who is more of a collector, would it be a good idea to remove the pins from their backing? Or should I just keep them on the backing and try and find another form of storage for them that can accommodate for pin whilst it still has its backing on?

Also are there any other forms or method of storing the pins away safely other than the pin book or the lanyard?

Apologies as I know some of these questions are real noob questions and excuse my naivety especially if they have been addressed in the past but I was not sure where to look to help me with my query.

EDIT: Sorry I just remembered that because I buy most of my pins from the secondary market or through other people instead of directly from the market is there a way that I can tell if the pin is authentic or if is in fact a fake?

I keep my pins on corkboards displayed in my room ^_^! I keep the cards in a little folder too!

The vast majority of my pins are in those Disney pin trading book/easel things. I do take them off of the card backs. I don't expect to depart with any of those, but I do keep all the cards. My jumbos, various regular sized pins, and sets that came with pretty boxes are still in those boxes and in a storage box. I usually don't open any sets that were cellophaned closed, so those are in the storage box too. Any fragile pins I put in little plastic boxes, such as the Piece of Disney History pins or the one Tangles PODM I have; they're all still on card. I have 2 large pin bags, and one is for individual Disney villains and the other for Disneyland 50th anniversary. But I like the easels...much easier for me to organize themes/characters. And I take a phone pic of each page of all my easel books, since I reference them a lot at the Disney parks. But dang, the easels are almost $40 (reg price) at the parks. Thanks goodness for AP discounts.

I keep both my traders and keepers in a bag, books work too, where you keep them on a page with corkboard behind the page (since I hate the way corkboard looks). A quick remedy you can do for the cards is that, I take my keepers and traders off card usually, but I attach a small post it with the pin's name so I can identify it if I ever want to trade it. I just look through all my cards and the post it that say the pin I'm trading away on it goes right with the pin I'm trading so it is still "Mint On Card."

As for telling counterfeits from authentics, I'm not too good at telling that, but generally if a pin I want has a warning, I'll make sure to ask someone who does so I don't end up keeping a scrapper or counterfeit.

cyke23 said:

The vast majority of my pins are in those Disney pin trading book/easel things. I do take them off of the card backs. I don't expect to depart with any of those, but I do keep all the cards. My jumbos, various regular sized pins, and sets that came with pretty boxes are still in those boxes and in a storage box. I usually don't open any sets that were cellophaned closed, so those are in the storage box too. Any fragile pins I put in little plastic boxes, such as the Piece of Disney History pins or the one Tangles PODM I have; they're all still on card. I have 2 large pin bags, and one is for individual Disney villains and the other for Disneyland 50th anniversary. But I like the easels...much easier for me to organize themes/characters. And I take a phone pic of each page of all my easel books, since I reference them a lot at the Disney parks. But dang, the easels are almost $40 (reg price) at the parks. Thanks goodness for AP discounts.

Click to expand...

Do you have a link with a picture or the easel things you're talking about? That's what I'd like to do too but haven't found a good one. Are the official disney products? Thanks

I frame mine! You can find pictures around the forums of some of my framed Jessica pins!

My keepers are displayed on boards in my room. I have a themed lion king board, a 'random board' and I'm planning a themed frozen board. I am running out of space though!

My traders are in a pin bag. My Hercules collection is displayed on large painted canvas , one like Olympus, one like the underworld and one like Greece. My frozen collection is displayed on tiny canvases with little easels with a drawing on the the background.

I keep my pins in d-ring binders on pages I make. It is really easy, take the clear plastic full length pages made to hold papers and put a piece of heavy construction paper in them. That makes them more rigid. I don't keep the cards for my collection pin unless they are something special. My wife keeps books also, but she does also have cork boards, one for each collection that she keeps her nicer pins on.

I keep my pins on the original cards I use baseball card plastic pages the pins on the cards fit nice and tight inside of them then I use 3 ring binders to put the pages inside.