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GUIDE KEEPER! It's a relative term

OK, so there have been post about keepers versus traders in your book, lanyard, etc but what is a keeper really? Is it tradeable?

My kids and I wear Lanyards with our keepers to show off but as I have explained to them, the term KEEPER is a relative term because what if someone offered you a pin either higher up on your grail list or a pin that has 2,3 or even 4 times the value?

I have about 20 pins on my Lanyard and I refer to them as keepers. When a trader asked me while looking at my books if they are for trade, I said they are my keepers, however, if something came along I just had to have, I may be willing to give one up.

The trader mentioned which pin they would like to have knowing it would take a good trade to get it and guess what, they had one of my highest grails for Max and we made the trade. Even if you have a set you are trying to complete or completed, if something came around you wanted more would you consider trading it? What if they offered you 2 sets you have wanted for the one set?

I think a better term may be this are my hardest pins as I am attached to them and it would take a great trade to sway me.

I know, some of you have pins you would never trade. never say never. So you have a DSF Grape Soda (Ellie Badge) and you worked very hard for it and will never trade it, then someone who wants it that bad offers you 2 pins that are DA100 pins and valued at $300.00 each. So you're gonna still keep the Ellie Badge? Just an example so I believe all pins are tradeable and even when we say it's a keeper, there is a price for everything.

There is only one pin I would never trade and its not a grail, its the first pin I ever traded and it stays at home in a frame anyways.

So would you agree that the Term KEEPER is a relative term?
 
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GUIDE KEEPER! It's a relative term
I agree that the term "keeper" is relative. "Harder to give up" is probably a more suitable term. I mean I have a few pins that I would never trade (for sentimental reasons) but those I probably would just leave at home.
 
I've never thought of it too much, but now that I'm thinking about it.. There may be 2-3 that are definite keepers, but if the right pin came along, then it might make sense to do the trade.
 
This is so interesting for me to read, as a Magic the Gathering player.... I've been trading my cards for a couple of years, and just getting the hang of it! It seems like trading pins will be similar... Some people will have their keepers mixed in with their trades, and some people will separate the two, and it'll just take a little inquiry to figure out who is who. I look forward to trading with people! I'm always worried (in any trading context) someone will get offended if I make a "bad" offer, but hopefully people will be gentle and give me some slack since I'm still pretty new at all this.
 
The vast majority of my personal collection I would think of as `keepers`` but for many of them, if the right offer comes along, there is always the possibility they could move on. I have a large and extremely varied collection, and one of my initial goals was to get as many different characters on a pin as I could. This means that if a pin is the only one I have with that character, it is much more likely to be a permanent `keeper`until I find another pin with that character. That, and my dalmatian pins, which I started with a goal of 101 different pins, and now I have no idea how many I have, but I`m probably on my 3rd or 4th set of 101, lol. I don`t have to worry about taking them anywhere, as I am nowhere near parks or stores that trade, so virtually all my trading is online and most of my collection is framed, so I also have to be willing to search out that particular pin and then open the frame to get it out. This makes it much easier to say no to most enquiries. Still I got the urge in one of the trade auctions on here recently and offered a couple of pins like this, so I guess yes I am willing to dig some out and send them away. Others I don`t even want to think about, so I don`t go looking to see where they are. The truth of it all is that most of the fun is in the hunt for the pins, not in the having. The thrill of the hunt, the rush of adrenaline when you see something you`d love to have and the burst of enjoyment when you make the deal to get it...that`s what pin trading is all about for me! To the next mine, my dwarves, we have pins to dig out.
 
I'm new at posting here, but collected in the late 1980s-early 1990s, then again in the last 5 years. But I'm limiting myself a lot more these last 3 years.

Most of my "keepers" are just that--I will keep them. They're not going anywhere unless I need the money to live on. And I want to complete the sets--though that's unlikely. I just can't afford some of the Club 33 pins (Seriously, $200 for a pin?! I just can't justify that! I want to! But I can't.) and, though I'm willing to trade a number of my "traders" for just the one pin, but most of them are old-ish and are (*tear up, everyone*) unwanted by collectors.

My keepers? They are in cases and stay at home. I have pictures of them on my iPad, so my collection can be viewed if I can ever go to a show.

I have pins that I'm willing to trade which are not "official traders" of mine. I've had them for literally decades. I suppose I should make them accessible for trading.
 
iamdisneydan said:
I understand the risk of finding another DA100 that you are trading but remember mu scenario, you hae lets say a DA100 Jessica woth $300.00 and someone is willing to trade you 3 other DA100 Jessicas worth $900.00. I am just mking an example that for the right price/trade, almost everything becomes tradeable. I am not talking easy pin for hard pin, this is hard for hard and so on.

Unless I have a personal attachment to a pin like a friend who died gave it to me, It is tradeable.
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I agree with this definition of trader vs. keeper in general. There are some pins that, I don't care of you're offering me the DSF Tangled Marquee for it, you aren't getting it, etc, the first Jessica Rabbit my brother gave me, my very first pin (a goofy), or the Indiana Jones pin that I was wearing when I met Spielberg. But for other keepers, I do think that if the right trade came along, I might be willing to part with some of them.
 
I have one and only one pin that is a 100% no debate about it keeper.

Pin 26358: WDW - Elliott the Dragon

Why you ask? Well it is the last thing my grandmother gave to me before passing away. I have other pins that I value alot and it would be hard for me to trade them, but if the harder to find grail Goofys came along I would atleast haveto think about it.
 
I keep 99% of my keepers at home - I have a special little bag to take to events that have my "most likely not going to trade but if they have a grail I will" pins. :)
 
I really like how this was put. It is very true. This last weekend at the DSF NBC event there was a pin my girlfriend has been really trying to get for her main collection but she wasn't finding anyone who would trade for her. Either she had nothing that caught other traders' eyes or it wouldn't be a fair trade to her. But she has part of her collection in her trading book (she finally had to get a new book specifically for her collection since we ran out of room for our traders) and ended up trading a pin that she has been holding on to since we started collecting. It wasn't in any of her main collections just her "random characters page" but she really liked it because it was her first PTD pin. But she is a completist and really wanted this other pin for her collection so she let it go.
 
I agree with the original post. I have pins that would be EXTREMELY hard to take from me, but if the right this came along?? Who knows. There are some grails I'd give up some of my "keepers" for.
 
Something I've been learning as I get started is that I thought it was always one for one, and edition size for edition size. It never occurred to me that something I hold in high value is not worth nearly as much to someone else. I've gotten some good trades in my opinion lately because of that and it's opening my eyes to seeing other ways people trade. I think I'm starting to hit that part when there are some pins I have that maybe I should start putting on the trades list just cause if the right trade came a long I really would get rid of it. Where at the beginning I never thought I would.
 
So true! Which is really why i use the term "keeper" for my hard to trade pins and "NFT" or "NFS" for the collections that will not be leaving my person until i'm dead XD
 
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