Advice from the experts

As most of you already know, I'm a serious Alice in Wonderland Collector. But my friend and hubby have made the point that I collect things "related" to Alice but aren't actually Alice in Wonderland. So....if YOU were an Alice collector would you also collect things that had the Cheshire Cat, Red Queen, etc. and other characters in a group or would you stick to things that are related directly to the movies? Just wondering.

Are you just a Alice collector or do you just Alice in Wonderland? Because if you collect just Alice pins then no on collecting Cheshire Cat, Red Queen and everyone else from the movie. But if you collect Alice in Wonderland then everyone including Alice would be collected.

Does that make sense?

For me I collect Pirates of the Caribbean and for me that means anything that has those words on it. So that means I'm getting the movie pins also. And Haunted Mansion pins I collect ones that have Mickie, Minnie and others on the ride. The same with Belle I am wanting pins that have her in different settings.

Theme Expansion

Slippery Slopes…how far are you willing to expand the limits…this is a question I would ask myself if I was debating the issue about pin collection and possible expansion of theme.
I am willing to do this with Halloween to include Haunted Masion and Day of the Dead pins I like.

I guess I'm Alice in Wonderland, but there are so many pins (I have all of them but about 20) that feature other characters and then smaller Alice. Like the DLR Castle, the Cheshire cat topiaries, the villians and Divas pins, and I'm almost hitting the 4,000 mark with pins. I absolutely have to downsize. I can't even keep track of pins anymore. I think I need someone to come to my house and help me figure out what to keep and what has to go and then help me get rid of them. I'm a lousy trader in that I always want the other person to be happy even if I don't need their pin. So my collection keeps growing. If I could settle on Alice in Wonderland and maybe just stick with things directly related to the movies I might do better. HELP!!!!!

The question I would ask is which character do I like BEST in AIW? That could be a good way to slim down your collection. Like if you like alice first then cheshire but you could do without the red queen and the minor characters. That MIGHT slim down your collection quite a bit. Good luck! I wish I lived near you I would so come and help, I think a day(month..year?) of pin sorting would be fun hehe!

Yea, I've been "organizing" my collection for years and it's no better. There are too many bags and boxes to take to events and I'm lousy at trading online. Not to mention that my wants list is also known as the impossible to find list. If you want to come down let me know You might have to sleep with the pin bags.

I would say you're an Alice and Wonderland collector-you collect all Wonderland related items. I am a Figaro collector and not a Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket collector. I only collect Figaro regardless of who he is with.

I've run into similar questions. At this point I collect only non-crossover "Aladdin" pins, but I have it in the back of my mind that someday in far distant future, if I have the extra cash and time, I could supplement my collection with crossover pins as well.

But I run into a dilemma with where to draw the line on what constitutes a crossover. Consider, for example, [pinpics]85373[/pinpics]. It's kind of Aladdin, but it's also kind of Mickey. Crossover or no? And if I've been including white glove pins so far, does that factor in?

I collect Simba and Nala[and an occasional Sarabi and Mufasa] from the Lion King, but none of Timon, Pumba, Rafiki or Zazu etc.

I'm not an expert but I understand your situation. I collect Goofy w/ the Haunted Mansion and Goofy with the Tower of Terror pins. I'm almost complete by my definition of the pins. For me, Goofy needs to be on the pin with the attraction or wearing the costume for the attraction. Goofy in a Doombuggy counts. Goofy dressed normal in a framed pin set doesn't, because the standalone pin wouldn't match my definition. Keeping this part of my collection small has made it the most fun portion of my pin collection.

i think mayb after you get your last 20 pins...why not work on sumthing new....you said you will have all the aiw pins...thats crazy and cool all at once...mayb you can pick a new thing and in 5 or 10 more years...you will b the only lady that has every pin from 2 things... I cant help you pick what to get from aiw...since you already have it all.. I think you are very lucky and im happy 4 you to have done so well with your pins. i wish you many fun years and hope you find sumthing new to put your good pin skills to use on...
agian congrads...on such a nice colletion.

"Its All About The Pins"

KT07 said:

i think mayb after you get your last 20 pins...why not work on sumthing new....you said you will have all the aiw pins...thats crazy and cool all at once...mayb you can pick a new thing and in 5 or 10 more years...you will b the only lady that has every pin from 2 things... I cant help you pick what to get from aiw...since you already have it all.. I think you are very lucky and im happy 4 you to have done so well with your pins. i wish you many fun years and hope you find sumthing new to put your good pin skills to use on...
agian congrads...on such a nice colletion.

"Its All About The Pins"

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Thanks, but I don't have them all yet and at my age finishing another collection isn't going to happen. Hence my desire to downsize. I wish there was a support group for pin hoarders I need a twelve step program to get me going.

I only collect Maleficent pins. She has to be on the pin somewhere either in her human form or dragon form, someone dressed as her doesn't count. Goons or Diablo by themselves gets passed by. If I have a pin in my collection without her it is because someone was nice enough to give me that pin.

I find it refreshing that a lot of you are so able to choose a single "theme" or character to collect. I wish I could do that. I get sidetracked and then I'm so anal retentive that I have to have the entire set of pins and not just the one with Alice or the Queen of Hearts. I have sets, and bags of sets.....anyone willing to start a group?

I have been going through my collection lately. This is was my process, from the beginning:

It all started with me collecting Briar Rose and Peter Pan, THAT'S IT. Well, the more princess pins I saw, the more I wanted. So, I expanded my collection to Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine. All fine and dandy, my pins fit on one large board. I heavily pursued Aurora to where she took up most of the board, from there I decided each princess needed a separate board. Then came Tangled. I said I need those pins.... and then I needed Cinderella and Snow White. Then I realized how cute cat pins were. OMG It never stops! LOL

Anyway, over the past month I have looked at my collection and realized that quite a few pins I have, I only keep because it has the character on it. I don't particularly like the pin, BUT it has Princess so and so. In an effort to make my collection smaller I analyzed pin by pin which I actually liked for the pin, not the character. I have cut my collection down by a third atleast.



I hope this helps? :S

I also collect the movies in general, rather than limiting myself to one specific character. If there's a pin featuring any character from the movies, it technically fits into my collection. But being a non-completist, eventhough a pin fits into my definition of my collection, I don't feel pressured to actually obtain it, unless I like the pin itself.

Here are some boundaries I've put on myself for now:

~If there's a set of pins, one featuring Hercules, one featuring Nemo, and one featuring Alice, I only want the Nemo pin.
~If the pin says "Nemo's Submarine attraction", but features no characters on it (like maybe just has a submarine), I do not want that pin.
~If Stich is dressed as a cast member for the Nemo's Submarine Voyage attraction, I do not want that pin.
~Similarly, regarding the "Monsters, Inc. Ride-And-Go-Seek" pins, there are some monsters in the attraction, that were not in the actual movie. Some of them were in the movie, but you have to pause it and look for them in the crowd to see them. So if the pin says "Ride-And-Go-Seek" but has no characters, or features characters that were not featured in the actual movie, I do not want that pin.

Im on the fence with this one actually as I collect stitch pins but I never had a theme or set to strive for until I decided to got for st patricks day, then experiment pins then invasion pins...but all related to stitch and they were all on my wants list I just organised myself to focus on a theme and stick to it until I had them all or till I hit a dead end.

I say you have not got sidetracked when collecting alice pins you just went from collecting only alice to Alice in wonderland pins in general as since Ive been collecting thats what I thought you was an AIW collector not just alice lol

and Margaret, if your wants list is known as the impossible list then I have no idea what mine is then :S