newbie: how much to bring event trading

i’ve been to one event and took a mini pinfolio to a show. seems like everyone brought out pinfolio classics. is that amount of traders in the classics the sweet spot?

I trade out of 2-3 inch zip binders with card sleeves. Mostly baseball card sleeves.

I have brought anywhere from 1-5 of these binders to trade events. The limit is determined by space (if I am traveling) or my ISO goal. 2-3 of these binders might be my personal sweet spot.

It sort of depends on what you're trading/looking for and the size of the event. It also depends on the size of your traders, if you have a bunch of 1-2in pins you'll have a lot more of them on a page than someone who only has PALM jumbos to trade and can only fit 2 or 3 on a page. My friend has an issue with her shoulder so sticks to something around the size of the classic. I load up everything I can fit in a standard sized backpack and call it a day. If you're making 'easy' trades then you can bring an easy assortment, if you're grail hunting, bring everything - that's kind of my go to. Oh and for big events I always pack snacks because in a windowless ballroom with the trade frenzy upon me I will forget to eat! 🤣

Like others have said - it depends. For me, I prefer to bring all my traders as that increases my likelihood of making trades. (All of mine would be three larger bags and one small folio.). But that’s really only feasible for local events I can drive to. When traveling, like to the annual event at WDW, I bring a smaller amount. In those cases I usually bring a mix of pins at varied levels. But with pin and pop making it easier to trade HDs online, this year I only brought LEs with me.

I take a classic of regular traders and a mini with some higher value pins, and sometimes a handful of carded pins. My local events are all coordinated through a relatively small Facebook group, so we are able to arrange pre-trades and find each other at the event to make the switch. Last time I posted photos of my carded pins to see if there was any interest in those, and was asked to bring 4 of them, but was only able to work out a trade for one of them. I've been thinking about getting another pinfolio for my carded pins, because they sometimes fall out of the baseball card sleeves they are currently in, and I would hate to lose any.

Depends on if I have a table at the event or if I'm walking around. When we went to Pin City last year we took a lot of variety but only ended up using a Pinfolio Backpack for heavy hitters (the old one, not the newest version), and 2/3 Maxx products. That was enough for what I could trade for at the time because it was HOT, HEAVY and stunk not having a table. At a Kraken event, I've got a table and take everything humanly possible to get the most out of the event because you just never know what someone is going to want.

As noted it depends if you have a table or are walking but for me the answer is: as much as you can physically carry! Because you'll regret the trades you might have made if you'd had more with you for trade.