Got some pin questions.

I'm still very new to this whole trading thing. I've got a nice Lion King collection started up, but I don't think buying everything off ebay is gonna cut it. With that being said, I got a few questions.

numero uno.

What makes for a good trader? How do you find a balance between traders that people want without imploding your budget? Where would be a good place / way to get them? I don't live anywhere near any of the parks, and I'm not likely to be going anytime soon.

I also want to know about PODM's. How many scenes did they frame? At first, I thought it was all the 'iconic' scenes and whatnot, but I'm not so sure. Are they still making them? Also, what's up with the Lion King beloved tales? Why is Mufasa's mane black? Was it some colossal flub-up that nobody bother to fix?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm sure any info you give will help.

The Piece of Disney Movie pins were released once a month during 2011 and 2012 and are LE 2000. The cels of the pins from the first year were cut from one continuous section of movie (about 78 seconds worth). Animated moves duplicate each frame to cut down on the number of unique frames that needed to be drawn, so that means that someone may have the exact cel you do, but overall they are pretty unique. Since the first year pins covered a time slice, there are usually quite a few that are less desirable than others. Ie. Dumbo had maybe 1/3 of the pins with Dumbo in them, and the rest were other animals.

The second year, they raised the price $5.00 and used more scenes from throughout the movie, but in general, these they did duplicate exact cels more than the first year, so there are more pins with similar scenes, but overall, there were fewer 'bad' scenes - thus I think the second year pins are more moderately prices as there are more pins that are acceptable to have in a nice collection.

There are other threads and resources on the internet to show the variety of cels that were in each released movie.

They are no longer making these pins, and it is doubtful at this point they will ever resume them. The craziness at the releases was getting out of hand, but I think the biggest issue had to with getting permission from the movie division to use the actual movie cels in pins.

As for traders, unless you have access to Disney events (Florida, D23), the parks, or Disney Studio Store Hollywood, you will likely find it difficult to get access to authentic disney traders that people want at a reasonable price. I'm sorry to say there are not many options for those in other locations to get in on the ground floor of desirable pins at cost.

Hello, let me say that I have had many of the same issues. It seems most people want older HTF pins or newer LE and HTF pins. Which to us means a lot of money because I also live very far from any park and can't afford to go anytime soon. I have been in this hobby a year now and while I have had fun zapping a few people and getting zapped by the great Docfish2u, I have not had the pleasure to make a single trade.

As somebody who has been in the hobby for many many many years, it has become harder and harder to get good traders at a reasonable cost. I have spent 10's of thousands of dollars to have the traders I do over the years. Sometimes it is hard finding trading partners when you have lots of pins. Most of the pins I trade for are for pins I will use as traders. I have to feed my trading addiction somehow. Plus it allows me to meet really nice people all over the world. I can't stress this enough, this is an expensive hobby. Patience is of utmost importance. I now have pins I never thought I would have in my collection. If a pin was meant to come to you it will. I am also a big believer in pin karma because I have seen it happen. Look for good deals here in the sales forum. Put the time in and figure out what characters and types of pins are hot. Remember those same characters and types of pins may not always be hot. So if you are buying them show patience and get them at a decent price. You don't have to be the first person to buy a hot new pin and spend all that extra money to do so. All newer pins come around again. If you see a Disney Auction/shopping/P.I.N.S./catalog pin come up for auction for a fair price jump on it, you don't see those all that often. Set a budget and try to stick to it. It is very easy to become crazy in this hobby. It won't happen overnight that you build up a large trader supply. Some people have decided since it is hard to trade to just buy what they want and forgo the trading experience. That is always a shame, but very understandable.

When I started trading it was not uncommon to sit down at a table with somebody and make multiple trades. One of my best days ever was 12 years ago when I had my first pin book filled with pins, I met a very nice lady at Disneyland and by the time we were done trading we had made over 40 trades. We just kept finding pins in the others trader book. Now I have to do that online. But it still does happen.

Number 1 rule, have fun. Pin trading is supposed to be fun!!!

im with doc- patience will always win.. i think new traders have it often harder than old as its harder to get established in the much more volitle pin world.. but overall you must crawl before you walk before you run to be successful without dropping serious (often wasted) coin.. research some pins, educate yourself on scrappers etc then start watching the sale boards n ebay for good deals- grab a few then try to trade for some other basic pins, then slowly build...

if you aim for the higher end like beloved tales etc at the start youll find it a million times harder than aiming for high le pins or older racks.. heck ive been trading 15 years and still dont have a lot of super high end...

Thank you all!

@ docfish2 that is a lot of money to spend on pins. I wish I had that kind of dough.

Believe me, I watch eBay like a hawk. But you say there are other sites? What are they called?