Why we do what we do?

This has probably been discussed before- but I've been going a bit pin crazy lately. I was almost OUT of the hobby due to personal issues. But life is like that ups and downs! Now I'm going to PTNs more frequently, trying to trade every week and putting money back into the hobby.

I've always been a collector- I had sailor moon when i was younger, then in my 20s I started with BJDs. At the end of my 20s I discovered pin trading and it has really led to be an addiction. I find it weird to think I have a sentimentality for pins who's value is only existant among a group of other collectors by myself.

I was just wondering what your reasons were for loving this hobby, or hating it? What is the personal philosophy and psychology of my fellow pin traders?

I have the personality of a hoarder. It is natural for me to develop deep emotional attachments to "stuff" xD When I was younger my parents used to go insane because I refused to throw away seemingly meaningless items.. the biggest saga we ever had was when I just WOULD NOT throw out a huge stack of coloured paper. I just couldn't! What if one day I started a project that needed hundreds of sheets of brightly coloured A4 paper?! :rofl:

I am not quite so overwhelmingly protective of useless things now (and I finally threw out the paper stack a month ago! ha ha) but I think it was a natural transition to move on to hoarding other things. I actually obsessively collect anything to do with the Lion King and that's how I stumbled into the pin world. My inner hoarder took over from there and decided it needs all of the cute pins :lol:

I think most people are either collectors or they aren't. Those of us who are tend to enjoy the hunt. I've always enjoyed Disney and pins are a great collectible because they are (relatively) affordable and they don't take up much space. Nostalgia is a big part of why I collect what I do. For me, collecting pins has nothing to do with perceived value or any kind of investment. My favorite pins aren't always the ones that are valuable in terms of what people pay for it. It depends on the character/s, themes and the design of the pin. Collecting pins is just fun for me!

I like keeping it simple. Why do we do what we do?



:rofl: Why fight it? :rofl:

I have always enjoyed characters, design, art and obtaining pictures, figures and such of said characters. I get obsessive over the things that I like as they become a part of me as well. I like collecting with an end goal of being a completist, because I enjoy the hunt and seeing my progress along the way.

Disney pins just makes sense for me, given that I grew up with Disney movies and gained attachments to lots of characters, pins are small and easy to store, there are thousands of potential additions, lots of great art on them, etc..

Plus... SHINY!!!

I still collect pins because I think they are beautiful and shiny. I am not a completist for any of my collections, so if I don't like the art on a certain pin I'll pass it over. My main collection is Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. I started collecting those pins because I fell in love with Snow White my first year of grad school. I was really stressed and anxious over grad school and seriously considered dropping out. I started learning about the history of Snow White, making of the film, marketing, etc. and it got me back into history. While my actual research is far removed from the film, it still holds a special place in my heart. As for collecting Snow White pins, I also collect other merchandise associated with the film. I also collect Pocahontas, Ariel, Tangled, Aladdin, and Sleeping Beauty pins. They are my favorite Disney movies and I collect the merchandise associated with them. I'm debating on whether or not to collect Beauty & the Beast pins since I love Belle so much.

I collect pins and other merchandise because I love the characters I collect. They mean the world to me. I like having pretty merchandise and art (which I consider pins and fine art...wonderground gallery is my new addiction) of my favorite characters around my house. It makes me happy.

Also, I might have picked up my hoarding tendencies from Ariel.

Ultimately... I think I'm a hoarder... and this is just my latest obsession

What a great question! And... I don't know. I ask myself all the time why do I collect pins and have yet to come up with a reasonable explanation. I'm not a hoarder, so it's not about gathering things. I'm extremely shy to the point of being thought of as antisocial in most settings so it's not about social interactions. I rarely visit Disney parks and most of my pins come from the secondary sales market so it's not about momentos. Maybe GreyWyvern is correct and I'm part of the mad clique.

I'm a collector. I always have been. When I was little I collected Barbie dolls, McDonald's happy meal toys, stuffed animals and sooo many other different toys. As I got older my collections changed to stamps, buttons, vinyl figures, fairy figurines and pin badges/Disney pins. Hmm, perhaps I'm borderline hoarder! :lol: The point is that I have always enjoyed collecting things. However, Disney pins have stuck around much longer than anything else (I've been slowly collecting since 2003) because of the nostalgia. Disney was a shared favourite of mine and my mom's throughout my childhood and still is now - she collects Disney mugs and I collect pins - so my pin collection means more to me than anything else I have collected. I don't know if that makes sense but that's the best way I could put into words why I collect pins.

I've always been a collector of things. I like making lists of what I want & seeking it out... "The thrill of the hunt" so to speak. I definitely get the sentimental attachment & hoarding thoughts, but I like to keep my collections to a displayable size rather than stashed away in storage boxes.

Disney pins are a side collection for me. I grew up on Disney animation & I've always loved the art & style. When I was younger I dreamed of being a Disney artist, but obviously that didn't happen, haha. I'm definitely not a pin completist... just picking up the ones I like & making small theme groups to collect.

On the collections subject, my main collection outside of pins is My Little Pony (mainly 80's toys & merchandise rather than the current reboot). I have an entire room filled with my MLP collection & Ive been an active member of that online community since the late 90's. I've collected various 80's toys since I was in high school, but I've downsized the majority of the other toy line collections.

So in the end I think all of my collections circle back to childhood nostalgia. If it makes you happy, why not?

I'm a lifelong Wonderland collector. Pins were a side collection that became the main focus of the collection over the years. This impacted the rest of my Wonderland collecting which has narrowed down to just pins, some plush (though that's slowing too) and things I can wear - from clothing to accessories. Anything else I can just say no to and have even started pulling some random stuff from my general non-pin Wonderland collection to sell at some point that I'm not as attached to and does not fall into my main three collecting categories.

I too have been a collector for most of my life. For me it started with baseball cards. I collected from an early age, and well into my 20's. After the hobby started to fade, I got into autograph collecting. I would send photos to actors, singers, historical figures and such, and see how many of them I could get to actually sign the photos, and in some cases send a hand written note with the reply. I have two huge albums of autographs, of which about 75% of them are authentic. Sadly some celebrities use a stamp, or an assistant to sign their names for them.....

In 2001 I moved to Orlando and got a part time job at the Magic Kingdom. That's where I discovered the pins. At first I would just collect the pins of the attractions I worked at, and later I started collecting only limited edition and surprise release pins. This hobby has lasted well over ten years for me, and it hasn't let up!

I have been a "collector" since I was very small. It started with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Over the years is has been sports cards, comic books (on 2 separate occasions), all things Disney, old school video games and now pins. Thank goodness my wife is a saint, she has seen a lot of these collections come and go.

For us now, the pins are nice and fun to collect, but the people we have met are so much more valuable to us!!! There are some amazing people in the pin trading community all over the world. It is not uncommon to make 50 or pin trades overseas and in the US because of the great people we have met. Those kind of trades are amazing. It takes me back to a time a while ago where you would just sit down at a table in the park and open up your books and start swapping pins. Back then it was mostly OE pins so you would just trade pin for pin. You didn't worry about how much a pin was worth, just if you liked it.

So we have seen the ups and downs of pin trading and decided the people we meet are worth sticking around.

I started with pins as a simple memento of trips... the 50th Anniversary of Disneyland, the Mysterious Island pins of Tokyo Disneysea, 15th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris... but on our last trip to Disneyland in 2012, I was struck by how many people were wearing lanyards. It seemed to me that beyond being simple mementos, pins were a form of public identification with other Disney fans and the Disney brand (or "magic" or whatever you want to call it). People were identifying on the one hand with being a Disney fan and being part of that shared experience, but on the other hand they were demonstrating their individual interests and identity within that community. So you know, one person is into Tinker Bell and another person has all pins from old black-and-white cartoons on their lanyard, but they all commiserate on being Disney fans. It was really cool to see and I wanted to get in on that too!

Besides that, I have a collector's mind as well. Heck, I WORK in a museum! Besides pins, I also collect fossils, tiki mugs and dinosaur toys. I have a collection of memorabilia from a particular 1925 silent film, though I don't actively collect it anymore. I have a small collection of Disney vinyl records as well. I'm not sure if DVDs count as a collection either, but I've got pretty well every Universal Studios Monsters movie available on DVD, every Vincent Price/Roger Corman horror movie, just about every Disney film made while Walt Disney was still alive, nearly every Studio Ghibli film, and so on.

Collecting Disney pins make me happy. I love finding special pins. I think it's the memories, people (traders/collectors) and experiences that are attached to the pins - or attached to the characters and movies that they represent that make me happy.

Yep, Disney pins make me happy.

It's quite simple for me. It's like a treasure hunt but even better since you're always going to get something in return for what you give. Finding that grail or even just an OE or HM pin I've been eyeing and finally obtaining it gives me tremendous self-satisfaction and just makes me happy as many people mentioned before :drool:

My parents started me out trading when I was young as a way to help me build self-confidence. Also, because my father can not go on most of the WDW rides, it allowed him to do something while I was riding them with my mother. So pins have been a great memory-maker for me, and I guess that's the primary reason. I know where almost every single one of them came from.

And also, as Ninpin said, SHINY THINGS!

I am a collector as well, from snow globes, to barbies and beanie babies, trolls and rainbow bright. It's just part of who I am. With pins I love disney and they make me happy to look at and remind me of great trips, family and friends. I have thought of it as an investment, and an investment in art. Putting my pins on display is art for my home. So instead of commissioning a painting or finding a work of art I love, I use these to add art to my walls. The pins and art make me happy!! They remind me of good times!!

Now my collection of pins has become an obsession, similar to what you said, and as of late I have been spending more and more on pins and rare pins, etc because part of it is the thrill of the hunt for the rare pins and esp grails I want and also meeting new people! But I had to really do some self reflection recently and I also realized as much as it was the thrill of the hunt and my love for disney, it was also filling a need, a need to do something and to feel productive (long story short I had to close my commercial photography studio a few years ago due to chronic illness and major health complications) and doing research on pins, prices selling at, watching the pin market to see what has even value, etc and then finally cataloging and displaying, keeps me busy and keeps my mind off my chronic illness.

Like most of us, I always had the collector mindset. I collected Barbies and Breyer horses when I was younger. It runs in the family, really. My family all enjoy buying pins from our various trips and visits to important sites as small mementos. We have them from National Parks and historic sites as well Disney pins. I decided to focus on Disney pins a bit more recently. I have been buying pins on trips to Disneyland since I was about 15 (I'm in my late 20s now) but I went a bit crazy last September on a trip to WDW, so I decided to dip into actual conscious collecting and trading.
I also collect dolls but I try to limit the amount of them pretty intensely. I don't have a lot of space to store dolls, so I think pins are probably better for me to channel my collecting energy.

+ I have a degree in Fine Arts and I'm drawn to pretty things, things that catch my eye. And pins catch that (especially PODM scenes, stained glass and designer pins because they have been brought by massive creativity of designers). Combined with the fact that I love Disney (partially because their art intrigues me), it's logic that I collect pins.

- I don't have the money for what I want to have or do.

I love Disney films, and I love art. Pins merge those two things together flawlessly. Pins are also small and compact. I can own as many as I want without worrying how much space they're going to take up. Also, I always love when I have to put a little effort into pin hunting. It makes the experience totally rewarding, not to mention a lot of fun.

Thanks everyone for your responses! Make me feel like my reasons are a bit more shared, and I do see some shared themes

i don't necessarily collect pins but i love collecting merchandise, especially rare items, so i hope it's alright of me to share.

i collect mostly snow globes because of the intricate details. i love to paint/draw and animation definitely captures my attention. it's sort of nostalgic in a way? reminds me of my love for these films in terms of story and art.

most of the time, i feel a connection with a character or appreciate the message that they are conveying. "adventure is out there" is like my motto now.

plus, it's kind of nice having that feeling of "i'm one of the only people in the world who has this", even though it might not be that rare of an item.

i turn on my ratatouille snow globe (the one with the eiffel tower, which reminds me, i need to update my siggy) because i am slowly planning my paris trip and like to have the hum of the motor of the snow globe in the background and the lights of the tower.

to tie it back to pins though, i sort of impulsively bought a live action cinderella pin. this is the fourth disney pin i own haha. in any case, like i mentioned, i am not a pin collector but i bought it because i have fallen in love with the movie and it's pretty. it will remind me to "have courage and be kind".

I have a very eclectic personality, and I love to collect things. I collect sneakers (BIG Michael Jordan fan), concert posters, comic books, among many other things. Going to Disney world and discovering pins this year just caught my attention! Plus they're GREAT conversation pieces!