Breaking up sets?

I'm curious about other people's opinions on something... how do you feel about breaking up boxed sets of pins?

Say you bought or were gifted a box set of pins, but you only really like some of them, or you like some more than others. Are you comfortable keeping some on your pin boards or books, and putting the others up for trade? Or do you hate to break up a set, even if you don't necessarily care for all the pins in it? Take some of the boxed sets currently on disneystore.com as an example; the Cinderella or Mickey or Tinker Bell sets.

On the other side of it, if someone else had broken up their set and was trading them, would you trade for some of them, hoping to get the rest later? Or would you only want the whole set no matter which pins are your favorites?

Tangentially to that, do you take them out for display (even if you were never going to trade any of them) so that you can see them, or do you keep them closed in the box and have to open it to look at them?

What are your thoughts?

Unless the set is displayed in a way that I absolutely love and love every pin from the set, I usually find myself breaking up sets and trading off the ones I don't want. Sometimes they can be pretty decent traders, as not many people break up the sets on pinpics- or at least from what I've noticed

I mean it depends. If I just want one pin from the set then ill get rid of the rest but yea, it can be painful at times lol.

I can't bring myself to break up boxed or framed sets. It's just not natural, in my mind.

depends ont he box set. I think some can be broken up but it seems a shame to me to break up a set when it has a pretty box XD! Like I have a japan set thats in a box and I can't bring myself to remove the pins from the box cause the box (and art in it) is so pretty! The recent lady and the tramp set on ds.com makes me think this too cause of the hat box, but sets like the rescuers set (on ds.uk, the box is RUBBISH) and the princess designer set I think can be broken up because the pins are more important to the individual collectors over the box they come in.

Framed sets I can't see me ever breaking one of them up, it seems a shame to break up the 'illusion' hehe <3!

I've been fighting over this for a bit now.

My friend gave me 3 boxed sets and basically said TRADE THESE.

She doesn't care if /i trade them separatly...but I wonder...if I break them up will only 1 pin be wanted and the rest not? Will I lose out on trades because it's now broken up? which will I lose out on more trades for whole set or part of? @_____________@

I think it's okay to break some sets, but not all.

Take this set



You could collect Belle, but she'd be missing an arm (same with Prince). You'd need both pins to be a complete picture. Don't really need the rose or the crown.

So, it depends on the set.

For Romancing_Train, I'd keep at least one set unbroken and then trade out the other pins. But, try to trade one complete set of pins individually, before you go onto the second set.

i dont know
i want this set cause it cool

i want these pins but cant stand the cartoonish frame set



mickey and ducks arent that good

I think it depends on the themes/characters represented among the pins in the set.

For example, I have two framed sets. One of them is a Finding Nemo framed set. I collect Finding Nemo pins, so all of the pins in the frame fit in my collection. The other one I have is a Bug's Life set, and the same goes for that one: I collect Bug's Life pins, so they all fit into my collection. Therefore, I would never dream of breaking up either of these frames, despite the fact that I like some of the pins more than others.

But there are some sets that are themed with similar-type characters, but from multiple different movies. For example, princesses. If you just collect Aurora, then the other pins of Jasmine, Belle, etc. don't fit into your collection. Therefore I would understand someone considering breaking up the set. Then of course, there are people who collect a few pins from every princess, who would likely keep those sets together.

I think that it depends. If it is a framed pin set, I would rather have it intact. If I buy the pin set directly than I keep them as a set. But I have no problem buying either one as an individual pin second hand. I have several framed pin sets that I would probably break up and get most of my money back by selling the other pins, but I just can't break them up.

i HAVE THIS PROBLEM ALL THE TIME, I get boxed sets but many pepole only collect a certain character. so if you trade it to them you have to find someone else for the other single pins.

I have 2 complete halloween party sets and 2 complete christmas party sets and a carousel pin set, and i reallllly dont want to break them up. i would love to sell or trade the entire set but thats 15-20 pin including AP and jumbos. I worked really hard to attain every pin but it kills me to split up a complete collection.
i know they are not boxed sets but its close enough.
as for framed sets, i cant believe people would break them up. i had a guy break up his pinquest framed set and i got the tinkerbell le 50. i was happy to get it and i also got the haunted hallway chair that is le 75 from a set and the haunted mansion wallpaper pins. i asked why he did it and he said the frames were too bulky and he only wanted a few pins. when i asked if he had the frames still he said he threw them out! yes, threw them out.

im fine with breaking up sets as long as its not me doing it.
i suppose if the set was ugly and not very desirable you could break it up as good trader pins.
not everyone has wallspace for a huge frame with 4 pins in it.

It totally depends for me. As a general rule I don't like doing it but here are some examples:


Easy to break up because the set isn't complete anyways but I do feel bad throwing the boxes away when I have a ton of them:

Wouldn't like breaking it up, but could do it because the pins are from different categories:

If I had this set there is no way I'd be able to break it up. However, I really only liked the Snow White, maybe the Rapunzel, so I just let someone else do the dirty work and bought the one I wanted:


And this one....I couldn't bare to do it. I knew the Alice one was the most desired but I wasn't going to tear the frame apart, couldn't do it, so I got rid of the whole thing:

I also have a problem breaking up series/sets even if they aren't boxed or framed. If I ever do, either I need takers for all of the pins or the least wanted ones have to go first. Otherwise, the good ones go and I'm stuck with the remnants of an uncompleted set. Like these:

And when buying/trading for sets or series, if I only like one pin I try to get just that one but if I want them all I try to get the set as a whole so that I don't have to hunt any down, which I may never be able to do. Also, at all costs I do try to follow the Seven Dwarfs rule and never trade for just one dwarf. All or none!

I'll answer my own question... one of the things I love about pins is seeing them. Putting them on display and seeing them when I walk into the room, or when I glance up from my computer, unexpectedly seeing them makes me happy. I don't like keeping them in boxes where I only see if I go pick it up and open it up; I like them there to make me happy whenever I'm in the room doing something. So I probably wouldn't break up a framed set just because it's already doing what I like pins to do.

I remove pins from boxes to display them on boards... but I'm still debating about whether to trade some of the removed pins. I don't *dislike* the pins, but I don't particularly love them the way I do others in the same set, and I keep thinking I could trade them to people who would love them more, for pins I love. But then again maybe I couldn't...

Vixy said:

I'll answer my own question... one of the things I love about pins is seeing them. Putting them on display and seeing them when I walk into the room, or when I glance up from my computer, unexpectedly seeing them makes me happy. I don't like keeping them in boxes where I only see if I go pick it up and open it up; I like them there to make me happy whenever I'm in the room doing something. So I probably wouldn't break up a framed set just because it's already doing what I like pins to do.

I remove pins from boxes to display them on boards... but I'm still debating about whether to trade some of the removed pins. I don't *dislike* the pins, but I don't particularly love them the way I do others in the same set, and I keep thinking I could trade them to people who would love them more, for pins I love. But then again maybe I couldn't...

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Oh, that reminds me of one I forgot.

I didn't really want the gold one but didn't want to break up the set. So, the colored ones is on my board and the gold one sits in the box in storage somewhere.

I think the framed sets shouldn't be broke up! However, I think it could be good after so long because alot of people would break them up and if they are already low edition then you might be left with one of the last remaining intact sets.

Vixy said:

I'll answer my own question... one of the things I love about pins is seeing them. Putting them on display and seeing them when I walk into the room, or when I glance up from my computer, unexpectedly seeing them makes me happy. I don't like keeping them in boxes where I only see if I go pick it up and open it up; I like them there to make me happy whenever I'm in the room doing something. So I probably wouldn't break up a framed set just because it's already doing what I like pins to do.

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Totally agree...when I walk into the room with our pins, it makes me smile. We have a couple of framed sets....I could probably break them up to trade the pins, but my husband wouldn't let me...lol!

Being a Figment collector, I've broken up bunches of sets. The only sets I don't break up are ones that are entirely (or mostly) Figment.

Keeping sets together, to me, implies that on some level you're just collecting for resale value. I know everyone doesn't think that way, but I'm collecting the pins I want because I love them, not because I think I can resell them as complete sets down the road.

A framed set I would not break up, because it has a background and the pins have been displayed in a meaningful way with the background. As for boxed sets I'm not as stringent, especially if there is only one pin I want out of five, like for the Lady and the Tramp boxed set, I only wanted Si & Am, that left me with 4 or 5 pins that I thought were cute, but really didn't have any place in my collection. It was a hard decision but by trading them away I can get pins that I do want for my collections. Anybody collect the dogs from Lady and the Tramp. LOL

I have a bunch of mystery boxes from disneyshopping.com

i have placed a lot of those pins in my traders binder but I still have the boxes.

I have one complete set (treasure) and I am hoping to complete another one day (NBC).

i do have one framed set that I hope to trade because I do not want to take it apart.

i have a related question. Do you think puzzle sets should be seperated or not? I know of the NBC puzzle set that was sold with 5 pins + box, should the pins be traded individually or as a set? I think that the pins will look odd without their counterparts.

I break-up boxed sets all the time. I really just want the Villian in the sets and end up Trading the rest. Since this usually applies to DS.com sets, I wait until they go on sale, use a coupon or whatever and buy them then.

I also try to Trade for the Villains I don't have from other sets that I cannot obtain.