Hong Kong & Japan - Is Pin Collecting Just Different There?

For those of you with experience trading with Hong Kong and Japan, do you know if pin runs are just different there? For example, according to PinPics, Pin 87771: Costume Stitch and Scrump - Fantasia has a huge trade ratio but isn't it an OE? Shouldn't there be a huge number of people who own this pin? I have recently been trying to trade for the HK Puppet series (for example: Pin 94767: HKDL - Puppet Series - Peter Pan with Tinker Bell and Capain Hook) and most of the requests have been for one of my LE300 for one puppet pin. If I am reading PinPics right, a set for five would be about $28 American dollars, so one would be about $5.60) and it seems to be an open edition. Are there other factors that I should be considering that would make this a fair trade?

Please help me in my education!

I think that there are not a lot of HK traders- or they don't really know about Pinpics. :dunno:

Also, the puppet pins are newer- and they DO come in a mystery set.... so some of them are harder to get without spending a lot of cash.

You are right to wonder! But here are a few things to think about:

Unlike DLP and DSUK there are far fewer people in those countries that trade online. It may be the language barrier or somthing else but if less pins are traded, then it kind of makes them limited edition in availablity.

Also many of them do not trade because of customs in their country or the amount it costs to ship here. It's much cheaper to send to Europe from Hong Kong then it is to America.

Many traders in countries other then the UK (This includes Paris) think more about the actual physical cost of the pin rather then what the pin has appriciated to. Why? Because it takes the hassle of trying to figure out LE into the cost, what the price difference for the two countries, and many other things. Many traders are fine with trading if the original cost of the pins are about the same.

From what I know of Japan pins, even if it is "OE" it is actually an LR. They make a certain number and then the pin is done. So unlike here at the parks, where a pin might be restocked for years, often with different manufacture dates... There, it is just... Gone, after a certain time. I assume the HKDL pins are the same way, but I could be wrong.

For this reason there are actually many JDS/TD pins that are not registered with pinpics.

Okay, so- I don't know a lot about Hong Kong trading, but I have been to Japan several times, and have talked to some Japanese traders before. You'll probably want to ask Movingthestars or Roger, because they definitely know more than me, but I do have a little insight. Oh, and my on-hand experience is only for the years 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2012.

1.) From what I've been told by Roger and some traders, there's almost no online trading community, no events, and no gatherings...even fan-run ones. You buy your pins, and that's it. There is a somewhat small secondary market, but I think it's generally frowned upon by OLC, so it's much smaller there. There are some secondary shops in Akihabara and Nakano, but the pins are very hit and miss, and usually it's the TDS game prize pins. All this is important to point out that once a pin leaves the shelves, it's very hard to find it again.

2.) A lot of the trading was shut down after problems with customers- mob scenes, setting up blankets and selling INSIDE the parks, general problems like that. TDR shuts down problems really fast, from what I've seen. Without events and such to attend, my guess is that most traders just became collectors (and maybe resellers). A very few brave ones use Pinpics, and some even come to the events over here.

3.) The selection at TDR/TDS and the JDS has gone way, way down. Pins sell out quickly, and many seem to end up in personal collections (and some as souvenirs for guests that aren't even "collectors"). Every year we go, the selection is worse and worse.

4.) In trading with them, it's best to not worry about edition sizes as much as original price, and try and find them something they have trouble getting. Each trader is different, but as a general rule, they love Stitch, Pooh, Chip and Dale, and the Fab 5. I've traded so many LE 250 Stitchs, you have no idea. That said, the pins are only worth what you feel they're worth. Everything shows up on eBay eventually...

5.) Shipping and customs have never been a problem for me, either in cost or getting held up in customs.

6.) Language barriers might be an issue in how many traders are on Pinpics (a reason there aren't many), but the ones that are on tend to not be daunted by it (or are fluent in English enough that there's no barrier at all).

EDIT: Oh, and the Stitch series you mentioned...they sold out very quickly, and were popular worldwide- they're harder to trade for than a lot of the pins out of Japan.

I totally agree with you!
I've never been to Japan but I have a couple friends in hk that come to trade here because they say that pin trading is not "big" there. They also said that they have a pin trading event like once a year so very different from here. The series that come in tins are sometimes hit and miss because I've heard that stitch is hard to find, especially in open series pins also since he is a very popular character.

The Japanese Disney theme parks aren't actually owned by Disney; they license the characters. Their pins technically aren't part of Official Disney Pin Trading. From what I understand they used to be, but found Japanese guests way too obsessive so they discontinued it. They relaunched their program as Pin Collecting and discourage trading on property. They do not have any CM lanyards. So most pins there get purchased by visitors as souvenirs although a small trading community does exist.

HK is part of Official Disney Pin Trading but for whatever reason whoever is in charge of updating their information on odpt.com rarely does it. Pin trading is not popular there as collecting isn't as big a part of Chinese culture. Also that resort in general has bad very poor attendance numbers; when I was there I never waited longer than 5 minutes for anything. If you've ever pin traded at Universal Studios, the HK experience is a lot like it. There are so few traders yet they so diligently refresh their lanyards so they're full of really nice open edition pins. They do not release LEs often (probably a little less often than Paris), but they have lots of OEs of characters you do not often see at the US parks. If you collect Marie from Aristocats you'd love HK. They have her on everything there.

This is very interesting. I had a pin pic request from Hong Kong last week ($10 to ship). I would love to be able to trade/buy more from both Hong Kong and Paris

I have been collecting these mystery sets as well. I have found it much better to wait until we have have 3-5 pins to trade. Because it is soooo exspensive to mail. $7-9.

I've done some trading with a few Hong Kong traders and a couple from Japan, but there are very few of them. As someone already said, the small number of traders means that few of their pins end ip being traded online. Also, I don't think they deal with ebay much, because most of the pins sold there are from U.S. sellers, many of whom wii not ship to Asia (some of them won't even ship to Canada).
The result seems to be very disparate ways of valuing pins. For example, I've dealt with experienced traders who are more than happy to trade an LE 300 for a hidden mickey Duffy - this actually makes some sense, because the number of people wanting the HKDL pins I collect is usually very small, whereas they don't have access to hidden mickeys and Duffy is popular there. On the other hand, I've dealt with traders who don't seem to 'get' that some pins they want are now worth much more than the original retail price, and they can't understand why you won't necessarily trade LE for LE.

As a pin trader for over 11 yrs., I'm saddened by the changes in Japan pins. I used to trade regularly w 3 or 4 folks in Japan, but not much any more As stated by others, so few new pin releases in Japan, and the essential downplaying of pin trading. It's very sad. I miss the good old days

Ive had the same experience as Suzanne, I used to trade regularly with a few Japanese traders, but nowadays I just dont hear from them. The only time I can raise a Japanese trade is by offering LE's for OE's. Shame as I too love alot of the Japanese pins.

iheartpins said:

I have been collecting these mystery sets as well. I have found it much better to wait until we have have 3-5 pins to trade. Because it is soooo exspensive to mail. $7-9.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I do that, too. But then again, I do that domestically, too- I hate paying for shipping on one pin.

pargani said:

Also, I don't think they deal with ebay much, because most of the pins sold there are from U.S. sellers, many of whom wii not ship to Asia (some of them won't even ship to Canada).
The result seems to be very disparate ways of valuing pins.

Click to expand...

They don't- the big online auction site in Japan is Yahoo! Auction. Remember when all the auction sites popped up and everyone was vying for a spot? Ebay won here, Yahoo won over there.

But if they're fluent (or you're fluent in their language), you can explain how the pin they're asking for is super hard to get. Best to have a handful of alternatives to offer if you're going to take away an option, though.

Mary (movingthestars) can probably shed some light on this, but I met a Japanese pin trader in the US. He told me that Tokyo Disneyland (and Tokyo Disney Sea) do not release pins on a constant basis. They are only released at limited times for special/specific occasions so there are no rack/open edition pins. Once they sell out, they are gone, never to be released again.

The 30th anniversary of Tokyo DL is coming up this year so there will probably be lots of special pins.

We traded once with a Japanese couple that was visiting the park and they told us that they love love love Jack from NBC and Duffy, they go insane for Duffy. At the time we didn't have any Jack in our trader book aside from a HM Jack Crest and they gave us a 25th Anniv Beast. We were happy and they were so happy they got that pin as they said they can trade big with people there.

So they probably value the pins here not so much by the LE size but what they can get there ? We don't know with who or how they were going to trade but they were ecstatic about getting a Jack pin.

starry_solo said:

They are only released at limited times for special/specific occasions so there are no rack/open edition pins. Once they sell out, they are gone, never to be released again.

Click to expand...

That's not true. There are a selection of open edition and rack pins they keep around- it's just very small. There's a small pin store by Pirates that has these pins. However, from 2007, 2010, and 2012, it was smaller every year. Some of the pins were even the same from 2010 to 2012.

Everything else you said was pretty spot on. If you're lucky, you'll find one LE pin for whatever's going on (Spring Carnival Easter, 10th anniversary, whatever), and the Disney Store MIGHT be releasing something. I've definitely found more pins in Aki and Nakano the last few trips than in the Parks.

Does annyone know if there are castmembers with lanyards in Hong Kong or not? My husband and I will go to disney hong kong this fall and I want to know If I can trade over there. Been in WDW and Disneyland before and always trade a lot and for lovely pins. I always try to take DLRP pins with me because thats my "home"parc. I just don't know how much pins I will take with me towards Hong Kong. Any one anny idea about trading there with CM?

Yeah their CMs have lanyards with really nice pins. Pin trading isn't as popular there so you don't have people stripping a the CM lanyards of the good stuff. I'm not sure if they have Hidden Mickeys.

i dont know if my information i received was incorrect, but i have chinese friends, and they always tell me that in China they're not allowed to do social networking of any type. I've heard that from more than 1 person so not sure if its incorrect but that definitely plays a factor if its true.

bombardon3 said:

Yeah their CMs have lanyards with really nice pins. Pin trading isn't as popular there so you don't have people stripping a the CM lanyards of the good stuff. I'm not sure if they have Hidden Mickeys.

Click to expand...

I believe that HKDL is getting their first Hidden Mickeys this year.

bombardon3 said:

Yeah their CMs have lanyards with really nice pins. Pin trading isn't as popular there so you don't have people stripping a the CM lanyards of the good stuff. I'm not sure if they have Hidden Mickeys.

Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken, there was a ton of 2013 HK hidden mickey's just listed on pinpics. It caught my eye because I didn't realize they did hidden mickey's there. I thought only DLR/WDW/DLRP and in the past DSUK did lanyard series pins?

Yes to everything LOL--foor a while there i had 2 gals i traded with in japan and we did 4/5 pin trades and both did well...have not hard from them in ayear. Just traded with somebody in china and it was hard, they langauge was tough. I typed like this......MY 2 pin for you 2 pin bla bla bla nd it was still hard.
Also in a few instances they didnt have consistant internet--it was like they only got on every 2 dyas or so...then they only could get to a post office once a week. Im off track i know, but just sharing my experiences incase anyone trades and wonders why they havnt heard from their trader.

I finally managed to get hold one of my ultimate grails the other day which was an open edition japanese pin (28630) But it was very hard to get hold of, I think because it was old and it seems there are not many traders from japan.