Pin trading is dead for us in the UK :(

sweetalissum said:

On a side note, KTM, I hope you've seen the amazingly lovely new Valentines pins coming from Tokyo Disney!

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Yes, I certainly have! They're so pretty, aren't they?! I'm hoping someone will have one for trade soon.

I would say that your argument is valid Damien to a certain extent. Those who are close to DSF and WDI get all the low edition pins all the time. Even though the market there is flooded with low edition pins their value always is around double or more the price to get it on the secondary market.

That being said, those of us in sunny Florida, let alone the rest of the US, don't get the same opportunities as those in California. If I see a pin that is of comparable value, edition size, and one that I would like, I will of course trade regardless of the location with references. The problem with the majority of DSUK pins is that they're not very good designs. I've seen a few that are just gorgeous and I love and cherish, but other than that I usually won't trade for one if I don't really want it.

There's also not enough pin releases with good designs in Florida, so my pin LE500, with a bad design, will depreciate in value after its initial release. People are looking more and more to Ebay to compare trades; personally I look at it all unless it's my trade for trade pin bag. California just has more pin releases so there's more diamonds among trash.

This brings me full circle back to California. The traders there can go from the nicest people you ever met to scammers that want to get your more valuable pin as well as anywhere. But a pin's worth is what it's worth to you at the end of the day. You have an LE300, but it doesn't trade very easily and someone comes by and offers you a vastly more tradeable LE750 pin that has about the same value on Ebay or is on your wants list. It's your decision whether or not that's an even trade; personally I also look into the worth of the pin to the person I'm trading with. At the end of the day a pin is what you make it and if you want to hold on to that LE1000 pin for a grail, maybe someday you'll get it, but most likely not. Heck, I held on to an LE 250 pin for ten years before I found the perfect trader and the perfect pin to trade it.