QUESTION What would you have done differently?

If you were starting to collect pins today, and you knew everything you know now, what would you do differently?

I have been doing this seriously for less than a year, but there is so much I wish I had known, and I am still learning so much. I’d love to know what advice you would give yourself if you could go back.

Interesting question...

Come up with collection rules to avoid getting carried away. My MMRules really help me with FOMO.

Trade for your biggest pin wants close to the release.

Stand your ground (with a smile) for how you want to trade. There is no right or wrong way to trade.

Don't trade all your best pins fast. Trade some fast, but hold onto some and see how they age. (This probably means, leave some pins at home... if they are in the trade book, they will be traded.)

I would like to say I have always done this one, but not perfect and emotions happen: trade with kindness and generosity. Definitely better at this today than I was at the beginning.

Not buy bulk pins. I purchased a few bulk pin packages only to find out a majority of them were scrappers or fakes.
Develop a photo list of pins you are trying to find. It helps at pin trading events. Keep a list of the pins you are trading, that way at the end of the day you can remember to remove them from your trade list database.

I'm with @firechief18 - don't buy bulk lots from Ebay or Amazon... (been guilty of doing that during the early days). I would also set up some connections to the parks I couldn't get access to easily much earlier. Playing the waiting game has always been better for me in the long run for pins I really wanted. Try being patient to trade those amazing, rarer traders for great things down the line. Don't be afraid to ask questions in forums like this either.

Do not be afraid from walking away from a trade you feel uncomfortable making. When I first started trading online (over 15 years ago) I was offered more pins for a pin than I thought was reasonable (it was an le 1000). It made me uncomfortable. I thought either I am getting a very good deal (I don’t think fomo was a phrase yet), or I am getting a bad deal. I didn’t know enough to know which. So I decided to not trade it and tried to learn more about the pins I am trading.

I still have than pin.

All great advice. We've all been beginners, and there is much to learn. I was gifted a large collection years ago, and started making trade offers right away, only to be told that some of the pins in that collection were fakes. Everyone was very gracious in educating me, but I wish they hadn't needed to.

Advice I give to new traders: If you don't have access (or $$$) for the big stuff, focus on small pins - mystery sets, hidden mickeys, open edition pins, etc. - and see the joy in them. If you set your sights on the big stuff and you don't have access or funds, you'll always be disappointed.

To this day, some of my favorite pins are the common ones in my collection. $$$ value does not determine what grabs your heart - nor should it.

But personally, I wouldn't have done anything differently.

I was blessed to have found a great pin community early on, and people who've become longtime friends from this hobby.

I had a focus on my collection from day one - I knew my theme and stuck with it. I've picked up and traded off some side collections along the way, but I know my focus and that was key to not going too far off the rails. lol

My biggest regrets is not setting up a personal tracking system in Excel or something so I know which pins are the ones I bought myself, direct from Disney or source vs CM trades vs trades with other people. So I would have provenance I could refer to and have confidence in which pins are authentic. Plus, and inventory not reliant on online databases.

Second, assuming I couldn't get a pin. When pin trading started I lived in Washington state, and had infrequent trips to either DLR or WDW. It meant I had to be realistic about what type of pins I could obtain without being a big spender. This has served me well. FOMO is really easy to let get out of control which brings a lot of negative energy into collecting. I still just pretend most WDI / DEC (WDCS) pins don't exist as far as my collecting is concerned. However...

There was another collector who used to post here who had a goal of collecting all the Disney Auctions Stitch pins. A massive goal for those who know the volume and costs associated with that. But the years I watched her ISO list dwindle down without the sense she was throwing insane money at it. Slow and steady, within her means. When Frozen was released it was super, super hot. I am a winter solstice baby, so I have an affinity for the designs, the colors, the icongraphy (less so the actual story, funny enough), but after watching the Stitch quest, I decided not to be daunted by the difficulty. I kept plugging away, jumped on sales when Frozen collectors "got out because it was too expensive to be completionist." And now I have a pretty sizeable Frozen collection, with a lot of the early HTF pins.

On a similar note, I've always collected Figment. At the beginning he was one of the most popular characters and now he is one of the most popular characters for park people. In the middle, though, he ebbed and flowed. I did a good job of trying to keep up with new releases but I never spent as much time as now think I should have on tracking down stuff from the early years, or event stuff. During Covid, I made him a focus and picked up a lot of great pins at prices I was comfortable with, and I found myself asking, "What if I had been doing this the whole time?" Instead of thinking there was a group of Figment pins, I would just never own.

Sure, there are not a lot of recent grail quality pins, due to my limits on what I am comfortable spending on a single pin. But for those that are willing to spend more there have been opportunities to buy some of these at "not peak price." Slow and steady, and your collection will blossom.

I wish, during my rare Disney trips, I had bought more of the regular releases that I liked rather than spending my pin budget chasing after blind bags - coming home with almost no pins for my collection & a bag full of traders was an awful feeling.
Likewise, not buying local blind bags & saving the money to buy an absolute favorite pin online.

Thank you @TheMickeyMouseRules @firechief18 @dznycrzyfmly @Mcgilligan @Sithathoriunet @Jabberwocky @hopemax @Ach West for taking the time to provide such thoughtful and insightful responses. I am not responding individually because I want this thread to be place for your collection wisdom to shine clearly. I am definitely learning from your responses and hope others are too. Thank you

Ach West said:

I wish, during my rare Disney trips, I had bought more of the regular releases that I liked rather than spending my pin budget chasing after blind bags - coming home with almost no pins for my collection & a bag full of traders was an awful feeling.
Likewise, not buying local blind bags & saving the money to buy an absolute favorite pin online.

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The blind bags/boxes provide a lot of my traders to get other pins I'm looking to get. Online trading is pretty fun. I have fun with the 5-pin exchanges, hopefully participants can get a pin they're looking to get.

Oh, & two things that I did do correctly with Disney pins from the beginning . . . because I learned them the hard way from other things I collect.

I know people will disagree with me, but . . . 1. Don't get anything you don't specifically like!
Feeling like you 'have' to buy a pin you don't like because it completes a set, or because it's part of a general theme you collect, will quickly make your collection feel like clutter - when you look at your pin board, you won't be happy seeing all the pins you love, all you'll see is the mass of pins you hate.

And in reaction to the above, 2. If you want to cull don't a collection, don't purge everything at once!
If you have become overwhelmed, it's easy to feel like you don't like any of it anymore . . . which can lead to getting rid of things you'll regret. Removing one or two things a day - the ones that immediately jump out to you as 'well, I'm definitely not keeping this one, I can't stand it!' works out so much better (& doing a little bit every day is much quicker than trying to go through your entire collection at once).

Here is my list
1: Narrow down my collection instead of collecting everything that is pretty (my main collections are Clarabelle and attractions yet I have hundreds of other pins...)
2: Set a strict budget since I don't live near the parks and this hobby gets expensive quickly
3: Get into trading and make pin friends online (something I still want to do)
4: Slow down and collect gradually over the years. There is always a pin I am interested in and FOMO is a daily battle with how much I am on social media.
5: Be knowledgeable about fakes but don't let them ruin the hobby (in the rare instance I make it to a park I feel discouraged by the fakes on pin boards instead of spending my energy having a great vacation)

Jabberwocky said:

Advice I give to new traders: If you don't have access (or $$$) for the big stuff, focus on small pins - mystery sets, hidden mickeys, open edition pins, etc. - and see the joy in them. If you set your sights on the big stuff and you don't have access or funds, you'll always be disappointed.

To this day, some of my favorite pins are the common ones in my collection. $$$ value does not determine what grabs your heart - nor should it.

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This is such a great point! I just traded for a grail pin from PinandPop and it's an older OE Stitch pin but the backstory behind it makes the pin one of my absolute favorites. Sentimental value is often a key factor when adding things to your own collection.