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Newbie Questions - Pinpics and Figment

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Newbie Questions - Pinpics and Figment
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Lavendersunrise

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Do people use pin pics to trade? I've sent a few requests and never hear back from anyone?

Also, are Figment pins good traders for the WDW sept event? There are a couple AP Figment pins at WDW right now and I don't know if I should buy them as traders or not.

Thanks!
 
People do use pinpics to trade..the bad thing is yes it takes many many trade requests to get a response. I have been trading for years and finally got a response and yes this year. So just keep at it.

Sorry I can't help you with your other question.
 
The problem with online trading anywhere, is that with about 100,000 Disney pins out there, it's hard to find the perfect match. Ask a stranger to think of a number between 1 and 100,000 and what are the odds that they are going to think of the same number you are? Pretty darn small, right? Everyone values their pins differently, or has different priorities in what they want to acquire. So just keep sending and eventually something will come through. I'd also add, for anyone paying attention. With unauthorized versions so prevalent, if someone were to put a note in their request that said "I am the original owner of this pin bought direct from Disney," I'd be a lot more likely to respond. I keep an eye on what the main bad Ebay sellers are selling, and when I get requests for those pins...I get scared but I don't want to interrogate anyone either.

Figment's popularity has waxed and waned over the years. There are less Figment collectors than there used to be, but the ones that exist are pretty die-hard. So there is a good possibility that they will have found a way to acquire the Figment pin via a trade or Ebay or by visiting WDW already. I'm not sure how many California collectors, or European collectors would also say they are Figment collectors. So it's kind of hard to say how good it might be. To the right person, they may be very excited and will trade well for it, but it might not be an all-around good trader, like a Princess or Star Wars pin might be. If that makes sense.
 
Like Hopemax said about trade requests and the analogy of picking the same number as another out 1,000,000-- one of the best analogies I've read-- basically applies to what makes a good trader since it's the same thing. A lot of us collectors are single-minded in our wants, so popularity of a character rarely comes into play with traders unless they know someone who has the pin they want and wants the pin you have. The game of roulette is pin trading in a nutshell. Pick your pins and pray to Hades it's gonna work. :lol:

I will add that as a veteran pin trader, if a new trader has any doubts or questions, I WANT them to ask me before a trade goes through. I am more than happy and willing to explain everything I can, and if I can't I'll send your question to a moderator or give you further contact info so you can find an answer pronto. I want the trade to work! I am appalled when traders act superior to others and can't find the time to help someone out in a quest for knowledge about our beloved hobby. You will come across some traders who are snappy and irritable but don't let them dampen your spirit. It happens to all of us, even those of us who've been trading for years. If a person can't/won't answer a simple question then they probably aren't worth your pin trading time anyways. Not to be confused with real-life stepping in, but you can usually get a feel for them by the type of communications they send.
 
Lavendersunrise said:
for the WDW sept event? There are a couple AP Figment pins at WDW right now and I don't know if I should buy them as traders or not.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the Pixar Party Celebration event in August? If so, wouldn't there be more interest in Pixar character pins? As a pin collector/trader from California, I have more interest in trading for the four new Timeless Tales pins or the monthly Pixar Countdown pin series, both unique to WDW.
 
I have been sending so many trade requests out on pin pics it's ridiculous. I never get a response. And I have sent to the same two people several times. I don't even get a No, thank you. Makes me wonder why on earth I paid $195.00 for gold sponsorship.
 
Yeah, I'm a new member too and have sent tons of trade requests. I realize that my pins are not rare or expensive, but you'd think if someone has them on their want list, they actually want them. Having said that, I'm excited to have finally gotten a reply from docfish2u and we'll be completing a trade this week. He's been more than helpful in teaching me the ropes.
 
I think it's a pretty common thing to send out requests and not get any answers back. I try to respond to everything, but I also think some folks don't check Pinpics as often as we'd like. I know I'm not on it every day like I am here.
 
The other thing to consider with pinpics offers is that the "receiver" won't even know if you've made an offer unless they log in and check their mail. In the past, they used to send notifications to your e-mail address. I keep forgetting to log in to check to see if I have any offers. I just logged in (you made me think about it), and I have an offer I think I'll say yes to!!
 

Really? You know full well why you went with the gold membership and it has nothing to do with trade requests. :nono: You will not get more responses if you decide to sponsor or not and you know that! You and everybody else gets responses when you make offers that others want to make with you. I have been doing a lot of trading just like always. But I am usually not after high end pins. I am looking to feed my pin trading addiction.


I can only speak for myself, since most of the trading I do is trading for other pins I use as traders I have a lot of pins that are on my wants list. That does not mean they are high on my wants list, just that if the right offer comes along or if I am wanting to make a multi pin trade and wouldn't mind having a pin in my traders I will add it into the trade. If a pin is on my wants list I am using for a trader I try to trade similar quality pins. For instance if a pin has an upside down (more traders then people who want it) trade ratio, I try to trade for similar pins. If a pin has 14 people trading it and 100 people wanting it I am usually not going to trade it for an upside down pin. Also the odds of me trading an open edition pin for an LE pin straight across is very rare also.


I use pinpics to trade all of the time, but I have a huge amount of traders which makes it easier. If you do not have many pins to trade then you should expect to be patient. This is not a hobby that you will find grails all of the time. Sometimes you get lucky. A lot of people get into this hobby not realizing how expensive it is and how much patience you have to have with it.


This is partly true. I know I get a lot of emails still because I have signed up for that.

Remember people's live can be very busy. If nobody is replying to you, you have to ask yourself if the offers you are making are really fair to the other member. Do I always get replies, nope. Do I try to offer what I think is fair offers, I try to make them as fair as possible. Am I offering hidden mickey's for LE pins, no sir. Do I get a lot of those types of offers by people who have been trading long enough to know better, unfortunately I do.

One more thing to consider, it is something I have been running into lately, when you send out trade requests and I respond and then don't get a reply from you, I will quit replying to you. There are several people who I have replied to multiple times and gotten no response back. Even a "I am sorry but I have already traded that pin" would be nice. Those people just go into my trash bin.

Please always remember, pin trading is supposed to be fun. If you are not enjoying dealing with somebody then it is usually a good sign you don't want to deal with them. Everybody makes mistakes, it is what you do after the mistake that matters.
 
I did a bit of trading on PinPics around 2010, and feel that I got more responses on my trade requests then than nowadays. That might just be because my traders are still the same and people are less interested in my pins now. But, yes, I agree - a 'Thank you, but no thank you' would be nice.

I guess there might be a great number of inactive accounts on PinPics. I have an old account I was unable to regain access to, so I ended up creating a new one. Maybe PinPics should start deactivating the trade assistants or maybe even accounts that have been inactive for a long period of time?

I also have the "disadvantage" of being an international trader, so I guess many would be less inclined to set up a trade (especially that is not a multi trade) because of shipping and postage...

I have a question to more experienced traders regarding trade ratio. What makes a fair trade? People often say same edition size and equal trade ratio. But how do people treat trade ratios?

Example: Pin1 and pin2 have the same edition size (OE/LE). Pin1 has trade ratio w:12/t:4. Pin2 has trade ratio w:168/t:56. Both pins have three people wanting per pin available for trade. Would this be considered a fair or unfair trade? What do you think? Some might say that pin1 is a less known pin, while others may say it's unpopular. Pin2 might be considered a popular pin, but it is also easier to be obtained, since so many will trade it. I would love to hear your opinion!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Besides want/trade ratios and edition size, pins can also be assessed by their value, which is usually gleaned through eBay listings (though if someone knows of another way to find pin values, I'm all ears). The last couple of trades I've made have been by value, even though the edition sizes didn't always line up perfectly.

Also, when it comes to assessing the want/trade ratios of a pin, you have to take into account its age. If Pin 1 and Pin 2 both have been around for several years, you'll get a better sense of how popular or unpopular they might be, but with new releases it's not always immediately apparent what the demand is for that particular pin. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong -- I'm still new to this and figuring it out as I go!)

It's always helpful to send a message with any trade request and let the other person know how you prefer to trade (by value, want/trade ratio, some combo of the two, etc.). The smoother the communication between traders, the easier and more pleasant the trade will be -- even if you don't always get the response you want.
 

I think this is a huge part of it, not only with lack of responses, but with highly distorted trade ratios as well. Consider someone creating an account and putting a very popular pin on their wants list, then they lose interest in pins and never log in again. That "want" box is still checked, even though this person no longer wants the pin. Now multiply that by potentially hundreds, or even thousands of inactive or abandoned accounts.

Pinpics should not only disable trading for accounts that haven't been logged into after X amount of time, but also not count their wants and trades lists in the displayed trade ratios of pins. I think 6 months is a good time limit for this.
 
In the past, pinpics used to purge the list of members (at least with respect to the Wants and Trades). Every six months or so, the W and T would go crazy. Very wanted pins could go from 2 T and 235 W to 0 T and 15 W, and those numbers would slowly creep back up as more and more people logged in. Once you logged back in (after the purge), all of your W and T would be added to the official numbers.

I don't know if they still do this or not...
 
A large part of why my pinpics is marked as Not Trading is because I would forget to check my trades for awhile and I would feel bad keeping people hanging.
 
I find that trading occurs in spurts. I had 3-4 trades in early March, and now nothing. I also tend to check the wants of the people I request trades with. If they want more recent pins I figure they are logged on more often and more recently and are therefore still active. What I dislike is when someone conditionally accepts the trade and then you never here back from them.
 
When I was trading on pinpics I had pretty good luck getting responses for trading newer pins (like pins4twin said this is probably because those people used it often enough to put the new pins in their trades/wants lists), but like timeerkat I eventually turned off trade assist because I kept not checking my trades very often and felt bad about not responding to people.
 

Just an fyi, David (dogfish2u) is probably one of the nicest people you will ever meet during pin trading. He will go out of his way to make sure that your pin trading experience with him is nothing less then magical.
 
Tbird said:
Just an fyi, David (dogfish2u) is probably one of the nicest people you will ever meet during pin trading. He will go out of his way to make sure that your pin trading experience with him is nothing less then magical.
Click to expand...

I can second this! And don't give up on trading. Just keep an eye on things and use the many pin trading outlets out there on the internet!
 
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