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Are the veteran pin traders leaving the hobby?

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Are the veteran pin traders leaving the hobby?

Scarlett K

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Hello DPF. I've only been on this site for a few months now and this is a topic that has made me a bit sad. It seems every day or so i see a post from one or more veteran pin traders that states they are leaving the hobby and selling their collections that they worked so very hard on . And I know the hobby itself isn't dying out because it seems for every veteran that leaves another four newbies(like myself) join the hobby. I mean I know people leaving the hobby is normal because things change but is it just me or does it seem like alot more pin veterans have been leaving as of late? and if so why?
 
I'm still fairly new to pin collecting (I don't really trade pins) since I've only been collecting for a year and half but this is an expensive hobby. I see a lot of people leaving the hobby because of economic reasons. I've cut back on collecting because its expensive. Some people need to sell their collections or traders to help pay for bills. Though some people may just not be as into it as they once were as well.
 
Yes I'm glad you brought this up! I notice a lot of people who are older or who have been doing this hobby awhile , on and off DPF, are leaving because they don't want to have to deal with sharks and people that take advantage of others!!! I don't blame them there are some crappy people in this hobby who are only in it to make money and who take advantage of others and it's really sad because I like the older generation of pin traders because I feel they know a lot more and they are not in it for the money but the thrill of the trade and now that there are more and more younger generation of pin traders coming in there is more selling and making money than actually trading and if they even trade they make sure it's not really fair for the opposite trader and that really makes me upset and mad. So to answer your question, yes, more and more veteran traders are leaving the hobby and that's a real shame because I know many people in this hobby that don't deserve to be called a pin trader but that's just my two cents!
 
I was thinking the same thing. I looks like a lot of great collectors are leaving the hobby. I don't notice a lot of new ones. The most people I see around are always the same, great people but not very much it feels.
 
Pin trading itself has changed. The hobby has migrated from trading to more collecting. Scrappers haven't helped and the sharks have made it even worse. I'm down to less than 70 on my wants list and I know that I won't be able to trade for those. I'll be lucky if I'm even able to purchase them as they will be too expensive for me.

There are a number of people I really appreciate and I'd be really sad if they chose to leave the hobby. Others...not so much. It has changed a lot since I joined in 2010 and I hope the tide turns back to the way it was.
 
As one of the oldest/longest pin trading vets here (been trading over 14 years) I can say that I have seen long time people leave for a very long time. It is not really anything new. That is just part of collecting no matter what the collections are. Yes for some it is economic reasons. For others it is the way people are treated. Some have also moved on to other hobbies. It is just the circle of collecting life. This economy (that is supposedly improving, yeah right) is playing a big part of things. It is a very expensive hobby if you want to keep up with many collections. But you also have us old timers who have no intention of going anywhere.
 

Oh, great points!!! The fake pins out there right now and the fact that Disney chooses to not do anything about it as well as Disney taking away the ability to trade in the parks is also driving people from this hobby. It seems like Disney is trying to kill a very profitable part of itself.
 
I want to put my two cents in this also. I have been pin trading since early 2000 so I consider myself as a fairly "old timer". I still love to pin trade and I'm not ready yet to sell off my collection but here are some things that make pin trading less enjoyable for me now a days.

I have collected some very hard to get pins over the 14 years I have been doing this (ie; Flubber mystery pin, wet paint pin, Mickey for president pin, Maleficent Diva pin, plus alot more of those types of pins) and now those pins not only have gone way down in price but now the new people who are starting to collect want nothing to do with these pins because of all the new LE 100, LE 250 pins that are coming out. So we spent so much time and money getting these pins and now they are not worth squat.

I hate now that you have to be so extremely careful when trading and buying pins because there are so many scrappers out there. Makes me sick!!!

Those are my two most negative things now a days that makes pin trading less enjoyable. I stay with it though because pin traders are the nicest bunch of people out there and I really enjoy interacting with them!!
 
Im newly back to pin collecting but collect other things. For me its the money. I only collect ones I really love and Im not a completist.

With the Disney LE/Designer dolls that I also collect, sometimes I look at them and just get sad about how much money is just literally SITTING there. But I love them too much to let them go, and some of them it took me awhile to track them down. If I run into any money problems though, they would be the first to go.

I get turned off a lot too by the scalpers and fakers that you have to deal with in collecting anything. To some people its just a business, and sadly they take away from the people who are true collectors and just love the merch.
 
It's more normal than you think, about 50% will be back in a few months. The hobby sadly has changed so much it's just sad to see it now a days. Greed is such a focus point now that it's all about what the pin costs in the secondary market. I think it really stated getting bad in 2009-10 more and more came in to the hobby and more resellers followed looking for a profit.
 
You are right. I'm a newer pincollecter. I just dont know the worth of most pins escpecially the older ones. LE just makes it easier to recognise value.
As for collecting instead of trading. I just have a few pins and most aren't worth a lot of popular. As I aint visit the parks a lot (in the future) It is just hard for me to trade. I'd love to, if i could...
 
Half left with the closing of Dizpins a few years back.

More have been trickling out since then due to scrappers, sharks, and the economy and secondary market prices.

The changes in PinPics and online trading in general have driven more away.

But a few of us are still hanging in there. Though I've moved primarily to collecting rather than trading anymore - basically since no one has what I still need for trade!
 
When I started actively trading in Feb./March of last year, there were a bunch more active people here on DPF that were experienced traders. I would get at least 3-4 trades done per week. To say that I've traded 5 times in the past month is an exaggeration.

I agree with a great deal of what has already been mentioned...

Primarily, however, I think the big reasons are the varying prices on pins -- and let's be honest, value affects everything collectable -- and the ordeal with Pinpics has alienated a bunch of traders that were more active. I think that when the dust settles -- when DPP gets the trade assistant and the comparison tools ready -- we'll see the activity pick back up!

Also consider -- the past couple months are full of holidays, which is not only the time when many people travel and spend a fortune on gifts for family members, but is also the time when depression is most common, and people tend to shy away from activities like pin trading. I suspect that we will see more activity in the early months of this year!!
 
The second market prices aren't the problem. there are people grabbing pins only for pofit, thats true. but if no-one bought it for these rediculous prices they wouldn't list it that high. And to be honest a lot of people would sell a pin if they get 10x the original price, that's normal to my opinion. And the traders who don't buy pins for these high prices are still around (I think)
 
I've kind of taken a break the last 6 months or so. Pin trading has gone south with the tables leaving DLR, Pinpics going haywire, crazyness at DSS with lots of new people and them hoing out pins so much you can hardly trade a DSS pin unles it was the "it" pin of a given release, etc. I still have all my pins, I'm not quitting. But I have definetly scaled back how much I'm buying & trading.
 
While the Pinpics changes has a lot to do with it, I think there's also just overall change of topic and tone. Like Tbird said, a lot of us old timers collect things that are VERY different than what newish traders collect. With a disparity like that, it's hard to trade, it's hard to bid on trade auctions, it's hard to just join a discussion when you aren't into what the "hot" thing is, and it's hard to generate discussion when no one else wants to talk about what you want to talk about. So it becomes easy to just fade away. I'd be interested if old timers are really dropping off, or if they are just not participating in online discussions.

I also wonder if there's a difference between what I consider an "old timer" vs who the OP considers an "old timer." I've always suspected that the lifecycle for collecting pins is somewhere between 3-5 years. And that was even when pins were originally big, like any relationship 3-5 years gets "itchy" and a lot of people just move on. DPF is now 3 years old, so its time for a bunch of people who were new to pin trading with the start of DPF, to start falling off.
 

No way! I'm one of those who started the same year the DPF started and I'm not going anywhere!!! But even my way of trading/collecting has changed. I have taken a 'break' from the forum due to drama, so I imagine others have as well. Life ebbs and flows along with people's hobbies.

As long as the good ones don't leave, I'm here to stay.
 
I've been collecting and trading about a year and a half. Things have changed a lot. As everyone has already mentioned, too many are in it for the money. It really bugs me when I try to make a trade and the person has to first jump onto Ebay before they make a decision. I also am not into what's "hot". I have several collections but my biggest is Mickey Mouse. They don't necessarily have to be an LE to make me happy so you would think I could trade for those fairly easily. Not so. Everyone seems to want princesses or villains so if I don't have those to trade, I can't even get some OE Mickey pins. It's not simple and fun like it used to be. My wants list is huge and I get a pin now and then but I know I won't get most of them. It is getting too hard.

 
we have been collecting since 2000, trading with people other than cast members since 2006. still love pin trading in person but less and less opportunities. turned my trade assist off during holidays. have not traded o pin pins in 6 months even though we receive 5 to 10 requests a day. sometimes I can not keep up with the pins still have, a lot are WAY lop sided. The scrapper pins stopped us from trading lanyard pins. Some off our older trading friends just have not had the money to actively collect new pins during the recession.
 
Been collecting/trading for over 12 years.
I agree 100% with everything Jabberwocky wrote.
My sentiments exactly!!
 
Great thread, Tbird and some of the others who've been at it a while. I'd be interested in seeing some of the pins that "used to be cool". My personal tastes are pins that others probably don't care for so I'd be interested in seeing what used to be the "hot" pins. Thanks, sorry for interrupting.



 
Another issue making it much harder to trade is Disney's cut-back in the number and length of official pin trading events. It used to be that there were pin trading nights once a month, and a 3-day pin trading event at Epcot every year. Now, we're lucky to get 3-4 pin trading nights a year and the last pin trading event was only 1 day long if you didn't get in on the "special" Friday event.

It just means fewer actual opportunities for face-to-face pin trading, which can be disheartening for older (and newer!) traders.
 
I think hopemax put up a thread not long ago where we talked about some of the old pins that everyone used to want that no one remembers anymore? Try a search for hopemax and older grails maybe?
 
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