When you're really close to complete... it can seem harder than when you first start
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It's funny, when I first started out to really focus on collecting pins specifically instead of sporadically, and there were hundreds of pins to find, it seemed like a big challenge. But really, I found a lot of pins fairly easily - especially because there were only a handful of us who were seriously collecting Wonderland pins at the time.
I would go to trading events or send out trade requests or hit up the lanyards in the park and I could tick off my wants a-one, a-two, a-three! Because there were so many of them and enough were easier to find - hidden mickeys, OEs, high LEs, dated pins no one else wanted, etc.
But as I started digging deeper into my wants, being able to change a "want" to an "own" became a bit harder. There was more strategy and effort involved. I would have to think about finding LEs to try to trade for other LEs.
And still with time and luck and effort (and a lot of help from friends!!!) I moved those wants to the owns list.
And then it got even harder. The pins I was still looking for were what most folks would consider grail-level - LE 100s, pins from framed sets, pins that were old and not in circulation. The strategy got more pointed. I had to think about finding *grails* to try to trade for other *grails*.
But still I persevered. Over the course of many years. With focus and dedication and opportunity (and a lot of help from friends!!!).
Until I came to a point not long ago, where the now few pins I still needed (aside from keeping up with current releases), were not just grail-level pins, but actually impossible pins. Pins of such rarity (and age) that the thought of actually acquiring them was a source of such intense desire, combined with absolute anxiety at the thought of missing them if they came up or not being able to afford them or trade for them if they did. That early happy skip through the pin wading pool had reached the point of a desperate slogging push that slowed to near-glacial levels of progress it seemed. There were days when I thought "how can I ever even dream any more of getting some of these pins? They are beyond impossible."
But you see, I have a bad habit of forgetting something that I had been told from my very earliest moments in the pin trading community: if a pin is meant to be yours, it will come to you. Sometimes in a very hard way, costing a lot of time/money/pins/effort/stress. But sometimes... as if by magic.
This week, I had one of those magic moments thanks to -em. Who in a moment of absolute graciousness and serendipity, helped me move two more wants over to the owns list and into their forever home. (SERIOUSLY, -em, I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH. Along with... help from my friends!!!) Which leaves me with only FIVE older impossible pins left to find. Insane.
Point is, no matter how far you think you are from the pin that will fill that special place in your heart and collection, it may be just around the corner waiting for you. Give or take ten years. lol
So never say never. Tomorrow (and the pin that you think could never be yours) is just a dream away...
I would go to trading events or send out trade requests or hit up the lanyards in the park and I could tick off my wants a-one, a-two, a-three! Because there were so many of them and enough were easier to find - hidden mickeys, OEs, high LEs, dated pins no one else wanted, etc.
But as I started digging deeper into my wants, being able to change a "want" to an "own" became a bit harder. There was more strategy and effort involved. I would have to think about finding LEs to try to trade for other LEs.
And still with time and luck and effort (and a lot of help from friends!!!) I moved those wants to the owns list.
And then it got even harder. The pins I was still looking for were what most folks would consider grail-level - LE 100s, pins from framed sets, pins that were old and not in circulation. The strategy got more pointed. I had to think about finding *grails* to try to trade for other *grails*.
But still I persevered. Over the course of many years. With focus and dedication and opportunity (and a lot of help from friends!!!).
Until I came to a point not long ago, where the now few pins I still needed (aside from keeping up with current releases), were not just grail-level pins, but actually impossible pins. Pins of such rarity (and age) that the thought of actually acquiring them was a source of such intense desire, combined with absolute anxiety at the thought of missing them if they came up or not being able to afford them or trade for them if they did. That early happy skip through the pin wading pool had reached the point of a desperate slogging push that slowed to near-glacial levels of progress it seemed. There were days when I thought "how can I ever even dream any more of getting some of these pins? They are beyond impossible."
But you see, I have a bad habit of forgetting something that I had been told from my very earliest moments in the pin trading community: if a pin is meant to be yours, it will come to you. Sometimes in a very hard way, costing a lot of time/money/pins/effort/stress. But sometimes... as if by magic.
This week, I had one of those magic moments thanks to -em. Who in a moment of absolute graciousness and serendipity, helped me move two more wants over to the owns list and into their forever home. (SERIOUSLY, -em, I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH. Along with... help from my friends!!!) Which leaves me with only FIVE older impossible pins left to find. Insane.
Point is, no matter how far you think you are from the pin that will fill that special place in your heart and collection, it may be just around the corner waiting for you. Give or take ten years. lol
So never say never. Tomorrow (and the pin that you think could never be yours) is just a dream away...
If you don't mind my asking what were the pins?
