Newbie pin collector...hi guys!
Hello! :wavey:
I joined this forum mainly for the sake of talking about dolls, which I love to collect, but looking around I'm thinking I might like to start collecting pins, too! I love Disney, and that love goes way back in my family, but no one has ever collected pins before and I just think they're adorable. Over the past few days I've done a lot of research and learned quite a bit about counterfeits/scrappers and and grails and LE pins and all that, and I've decided that I'm going to collect my absolute favorite Disney themes- Frozen, Alice in Wonderland, and Fantasia/Sorcerer Mickey, and just any other random pins that I love
But I have no idea how to get started! I know I need to buy some traders, and I know not to get the big lots off of ebay, no matter how tempting that is. I want to be a smart pin collector! But I don't have a ton of money to invest at the moment, so is there an easy, inexpensive way to get a collection started so that I can start trading?
And I have some more questions! How do you decide what your "grails" are? Are they just pins you really like, or are they usually always really hard to find? And how do you go about buying newly released LE pins? I've seen where some people who live near the parks will do pickups, but can you ever order them directly from Disney or buy them at the Disney Store? And I can see where this hobby would get extremely expensive, so does anyone here set like a monthly budget when it comes to getting pins? That seems like it might be a good idea...lol :lol:
Anyways, sorry about all the questions, but any advice would be greatly appreciated! I can't wait to meet everyone and start collecting!
I joined this forum mainly for the sake of talking about dolls, which I love to collect, but looking around I'm thinking I might like to start collecting pins, too! I love Disney, and that love goes way back in my family, but no one has ever collected pins before and I just think they're adorable. Over the past few days I've done a lot of research and learned quite a bit about counterfeits/scrappers and and grails and LE pins and all that, and I've decided that I'm going to collect my absolute favorite Disney themes- Frozen, Alice in Wonderland, and Fantasia/Sorcerer Mickey, and just any other random pins that I love
But I have no idea how to get started! I know I need to buy some traders, and I know not to get the big lots off of ebay, no matter how tempting that is. I want to be a smart pin collector! But I don't have a ton of money to invest at the moment, so is there an easy, inexpensive way to get a collection started so that I can start trading?
And I have some more questions! How do you decide what your "grails" are? Are they just pins you really like, or are they usually always really hard to find? And how do you go about buying newly released LE pins? I've seen where some people who live near the parks will do pickups, but can you ever order them directly from Disney or buy them at the Disney Store? And I can see where this hobby would get extremely expensive, so does anyone here set like a monthly budget when it comes to getting pins? That seems like it might be a good idea...lol :lol:
Anyways, sorry about all the questions, but any advice would be greatly appreciated! I can't wait to meet everyone and start collecting!