Need some help...

[Katdianee]

Hi guys, I'm in need of some advice... How do you get all of your traders? It's getting tough, because I don't have anything besides the generic traders that everyone has, so I'm watching a lot of my grails go by... Do you just buy a bunch of pins in hopes that someone may be interested in them someday? I'd really appreciate any advice you all can give me. I've been trading since 2001, but didn't start taking it seriously until a year or so ago, so I feel like I'm missing info that may help a lot. Thanks in advance

~Katie

 

[Vixy]

I've only been trading for less than a year, but yup... I pretty much bought all mine to start with. When I was in the park trading with cast members, I bought some starter/booster sets to use as traders with them because I was looking for certain Hidden Mickeys. Sadly I lost some money over that because it was before I learned about scrappers, but I did find some to keep.

Since then, mostly I've bought from the sales threads here on DPF. I tried to buy things I was actually interested in at least a little, so that if nobody wanted to trade it, I wouldn't be stuck with pins I didn't like. I don't know if that was the best strategy, because there are a lot of people with wants very different from mine that I have nothing to trade with them, but it'd be hard to build up a collection that pleases everyone! I still watch the sales threads for things I like. I went a little crazy at first and am trying to sorta kinda stick to a budget now (I'm not too very good at it).

But yeah... I wondered this same thing myself for a while, and everyone told me "patience."

 

[Luis75]

Well it's a bit of luck, money, timing and sacrifice. Luck because sometimes you just get lucky and someone has something you really really want. Money because when you're lucky enough to find someone with what you want you have to have money to buy it from them. Timing because sometimes what you buy isn't worth much and later the value shoots up and vice versa. Sacrifice because sometimes, like a lot of us, you have to camp out in a cold alley for HOURS to buy a set of pins and then use those to get what you want.

You also want to make friends with as many traders as you can because some can help you find what you need for a decent price (assuming you have no traders).

You want to aim for things people want and not just what you want. I love Lion King but I would NEVER have gotten anything in my wants if I didn't also hunt for things people want and I used that to trade for my wants. Look here to see when people sell and buy anything that looks like a good trader. If you see someone with a pin you want ask if they can sell it to you. As you can see, it takes time and money to get a lot of good traders but if you budget yourself and look for deals you won't loose an arm and a leg.

Good luck and feel free to ask me if you have any more questions or need help finding stuff.

 

[Katdianee]

Thank you Vixy and Luis, I probably need your help down the road. I appreciate the help. I think patience is definitely my biggest fault... I keep forgetting I've only been here for less than a month, haha. I think it's just that, I've had my wants list around for so long, that now when I see all these amazing pins that I've never imagined could pbe right in front of me, I want to jump at every opportunity. I get torn, because I like A LOT of things... Aurora, Alice, Jasmine, any princess really, and other themes, so I get attached and find it hard to just buy something in hopes to trade it. So I guess I better figure out what my main collection should be and start trading ones that don't fit?

 

[talesoftobv]

I tend to look through people's wants list on my down time here, see what's popular and such. Then when I am on ebay I search for pins for my own collection, and then search for traders as well. If I see an interesting pin, I will look it up on PinPics and see what the stats are like. Usually if it's decent (ie. 7 trading 60 Wanting) I will bid and try to win for a reasonable price (On this note as well, I tend to look up completed listings for what the pin sold for previously).

Also, look out for ebay lots that have legit pins. Like people selling off their collection. For example, I bought this lot for $90, it has 49 pins in it. All of them were legit, some had okay stats some not so good. lol.

Now, if you feel like that's too expensive, what you can do is put aside 1/3-1/2 of them. Make "trader" lots and sell them for like $2.50 a piece. You will not make any money, but you won't be spending as much.

 

[5titch]

Best advice ever, don't jump in too quick
Your bank account will no like it -.-

Anyways...
I just got 11 traders thanks to another user who had auctioned them. I ended up trading 4 pins for them in an auction
And I got those 4 pins from a grab bag from another user, lol

 

[Luis75]

Yeah haha that's always a good idea. I focused ONLY on Lion King for a while and now that I am down to needing just a handful of pins I am starting up a Dalmatians collection. I have seen people do princesses, my gf for one, so It is possible. The way she did it though was having Jasmine be her first collection and she worked on that for a while. Then did Rapunzel and actually finished that collection since there isn't many pins and slowly but surely she is moving on to the other princesses getting pins she really likes from each. Once you know what you want and weed out the rest it makes life much easier haha.

 

[talesoftobv]

Also, after a while I go through my collection, see what I don't love anymore, and then put those up for trade.

 

[Katdianee]

Wow! Thanks so much for all the advice!! I do have a couple more questions... How do you decide which pins to collect for a certain theme and what not to collect? I'm mainly collect Aurora right now... In my sig I have a "most wanted" aurora list. Should I just stick to trying to find those and building up my traders till I can obtain them? I know a lot of them are extremely hard to find... Is it also a good idea to buy traders that I'm not interested in so that I'm not at all tempted to keep them when I need them to trade... Like for example, I'm really not a stitch fan unless he's with other characters or dressed as other characters. Should I get some good ones of him to trade? I know DLRs PTN is coming up and I'd like to go and be able to participate...

 

[5titch]

All the pins I collect are Stitch pins, nothing else (unless another character has snuck in the pin)
I really should go through and narrow down what I want, but that would mean getting rid of pins I just got at WDW (too many memories, lol)
So for now Ill probably just collect Stitch and see where it takes me

As for the traders, I know a few people on here like Stitch (myself included), so you could always trade or sell them here
I know there are some users on here you could buy just traders from, and that might help you at the PTN
Other than that, when you collect traders, just keep that in mind, they are traders. Pins you want to use to obtain a better pin in your grail list

 

[talesoftobv]

Wow! Thanks so much for all the advice!! I do have a couple more questions... How do you decide which pins to collect for a certain theme and what not to collect? I'm mainly collect Aurora right now... In my sig I have a "most wanted" aurora list. Should I just stick to trying to find those and building up my traders till I can obtain them? I know a lot of them are extremely hard to find... Is it also a good idea to buy traders that I'm not interested in so that I'm not at all tempted to keep them when I need them to trade... Like for example, I'm really not a stitch fan unless he's with other characters or dressed as other characters. Should I get some good ones of him to trade? I know DLRs PTN is coming up and I'd like to go and be able to participate...

So, when I first started I ONLY was going to collect Briar Rose and Peter Pan..... Well, then I got tired of only finding Tinker Bell pins. lol. I noticed that I was always looking at Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine pins longingly, so I gave in! lol. I was then collecting 4 Princesses.... then Tangled came out. Oh boy, I needed the pins of her!

And then it all started to go down hill from there! I now collect Aurora, Ariel, Rapunzel, Belle, Mulan, Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, Pocahontas, Merida, Cats, Hercules, Donald & Daisy, Woody, Jesse, Bullseye, and random Japanese pins.

Basically start small, but only add the pins YOU LIKE 100%! Don't get sucked into the completest thing. If you don't like the fact that Aurora's hair is a mess, then don't get that pin! If you dislike the fact that Alice's eyebrows are too think, don't add it to your list! Be picky and love your pins!

 

[Katdianee]

So, when I first started I ONLY was going to collect Briar Rose and Peter Pan..... Well, then I got tired of only finding Tinker Bell pins. lol. I noticed that I was always looking at Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine pins longingly, so I gave in! lol. I was then collecting 4 Princesses.... then Tangled came out. Oh boy, I needed the pins of her!

And then it all started to go down hill from there! I now collect Aurora, Ariel, Rapunzel, Belle, Mulan, Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Tiana, Pocahontas, Merida, Cats, Hercules, Donald & Daisy, Woody, Jesse, Bullseye, and random Japanese pins.

Basically start small, but only add the pins YOU LIKE 100%! Don't get sucked into the completest thing. If you don't like the fact that Aurora's hair is a mess, then don't get that pin! If you dislike the fact that Alice's eyebrows are too think, don't add it to your list! Be picky and love your pins!

Haha I'm kind of giving up on Tangled for a while since it's near impossible to get most of them. Thankfully, I haven't caught on to the Ariel bandwagon...yet. But I'm really starting to be interested in Jasmine, Snow White, and Cinderella pins. It's just hard to narrow it down, because (not to sound childish) they're all so pretty! If I find one I like, I want it, regardless of theme. Which is why sometimes it's good that people post only the online pics, so that I'm not as tempted.

I think if I had to narrow it down, I'd like to many collect Aurora, Wendy, Alice, and certain collections like princess premiere birthstones, the designer princess, and reveal/conceal girls. I know they're all ridiculous to find, but I think I like them so much because they each have characters that aren't as common as the usual princess.

But I will learn to be picky! it's probably near impossible to get all of the pins of a character anyway, unless they're newer...

and thank you 5titch!!