• Guest, Help The DPF Community Thrive - Join Our Donation Drive Today!

    We're launching a special DPF Donation Drive to ensure our beloved forum continues to flourish. Your support is vital in helping us cover essential server costs and keep our community running smoothly — This is more than just a donation; it's an investment in the future of our community.

    Join us in this crucial drive and let's ensure our forum remains a vibrant and dynamic place for everyone.

    Please visit the DPF Donation Drive Thread for details and instructions on how you can make your donation today!

Pin trading VS Pin Collecting

Status
Not open for further replies.
Pin trading VS Pin Collecting

fluffystitch

Active DPF Member
Rating - 93.9%
31   2   0
Messages
2,067
Location
SOCAL
Aloha everyone,

So I'm at a crossroad. I'm running out of traders, but at the same time pins that I collect are being released. In my experience, some pins I have bought specifically for trade have gotten me pins I've really wanted; at the same time, I have purchased certain pins for trade that are still in my book months later.
I'm debating whether or not to take a break from building traders and just focus on collecting or trade up for the pins I really want.


  • Are any of you just a pin trader, just a pin collector, or a hybrid of both?
  • Any advice on your experiences with both worlds?
  • Which is the smarter decision long term in your opinion?

Of course I had to turn to my DPF family for such advice. Thanks and much love.

-Jonathan
 
I am a total hybrid pinner. :) I mostly collect now.

I have some traders, and in the past traders were great for getting some of the older retired or LE pins I needed for my collections. However, I have gotten many of the older pins i wanted, and the majority of the old pins left that i need are not easily traded for... so I plan to slowly purchase them over time. I also buy and sell the new releases. This pays for my collecting habit, as well as giving me a few new traders for my book.

Lately i am finding that I am more into the learning aspect of the pin community. I am reading, watching, looking and learning about how pins are made, what is good VS bad, and all sorts of other details. I like to know as much as possible about any hobby I am into.

Advice:: Pick up some good traders for those older pins you want to collect. Be open to trades for pins that are not on your wants list... Utilize pinpics! The trade/want ratios and options such as "What can I trade to get this pin" or "what can I get for this pin" are great tools. You can look at things other people have and ask to trade those, in order to find other pins you want. I love these features, they really help for 3 or 4 way trades to get to the pins you need.
 
Last edited:
I would have to say I am a hybrid. I love both aspects. I love building my collection when new pins come out, but I also love building my collection through trading. I love the thrill of the hunt. It makes me appreciate a pin so much more knowing that I worked hard to get it rather than just buying it online. The thrill of the hunt is what I fell in love with about pin trading when I started. Like everybody else. I loved my HM pins and thought that hunting and completing the sets was so much fun. Then I found the Big boy pins and the love started all over again. PODM's were my new drug of choice. Going throughout the park, looking for that scene that just made my jaw drop and say "this is it!!" But now that is over. So I am back on the hunt looking to complete my main series - 2002 Star Wars character/ship pins of which I am now 4 from completing!!!!
 
I am a total hybrid pinner. :) I mostly collect now.

I have some traders, and in the past traders were great for getting some of the older retired or LE pins I needed for my collections. However, I have gotten many of the older pins i wanted, and the majority of the old pins left that i need are not easily traded for... so I plan to slowly purchase them over time. I also buy and sell the new releases. This pays for my collecting habit, as well as giving me a few new traders for my book.

Lately i am finding that I am more into the learning aspect of the pin community. I am reading, watching, looking and learning about how pins are made, what is good VS bad, and all sorts of other details. I like to know as much as possible about any hobby I am into.

Advice:: Pick up some good traders for those older pins you want to collect. Be open to trades for pins that are not on your wants list... Utilize pinpics! The trade/want ratios and options such as "What can I trade to get this pin" or "what can I get for this pin" are great tools. You can look at things other people have and ask to trade those, in order to find other pins you want. I love these features, they really help for 3 or 4 way trades to get to the pins you need.

Great advice pixie!
 
I'm a pin collector and trader :) Pin Trading is a great chance for me to get pins from America, but I have more pins in my collection as in my wants :) So I think I'm more a Pin collector :)
 
I'm leaning towards collecting more recently, as postage is so expensive to the US- it's cheaper for me to just buy the pin from wherever usually :lol: In the Summer when I'm at DLR I hope to get back into trading a little more though! :) I need to build up my traders pronto though, and I've been sruggling for th past year :P
 
Im both...but i find u cant collect pins for ur colletion u want..
With out having good trades...its a gamble buying pins to trade..and then they dont trade..

But for me i try to have traders for most people.. ( i get girly pins..and manly pins lol)

I have tried to just collect and i end up aginst the wall with no more good traders..
And me not wanting to trade my collections...

U must find the perfect blend that works for you :)
 
Im both...but i find u cant collect pins for ur colletion u want..
With out having good trades...its a gamble buying pins to trade..and then they dont trade..

But for me i try to have traders for most people.. ( i get girly pins..and manly pins lol)

I have tried to just collect and i end up aginst the wall with no more good traders..
And me not wanting to trade my collections...

U must find the perfect blend that works for you :)
 
I'm a hybrid of both, although I do collect more than I trade(I don't live anywhere near the parks, so trading and getting new pins isn't easy). However, when I do make it to the park, I usually go on a trading spree :lol:.

Unfortunately, as I'm still pretty new to pin trading and collecting, I don't really have any advice to give...
 
I am primarily a collector because I get really attached to the pins that I have and don't like to see them leave. Plus, most of my pins have been gifts or bought while on vacation at WDW so they all have a little extra meaning. However, there are a few older pins that I really really want and if the only way to get them was to trade I would be willing to part with some pins. I consider most of my collection to be tradable for the right "price", but what that price is I have yet to find out. I'd much rather just buy pins, though.
 
For me, they go hand in hand. I have a set collection and all I aim for is the pins that fit my collection. The problem is $$$ and I can't really go out and buy every pin I want so I usually have to trade. That doesn't mean I trade directly for a pin in my collection. Sometimes, I trade for pins that I know could land me a pin in my collection or even pins that are popular amongst the community that will give me a better chance at landing my collection. I guess that's what makes it so much fin for me. It's always easy to hit up ebay and drop $300 on your grail but when you can turn $12.50 into a $300, that's what makes it exciting. Of coarse, you have to be patient and let some pins bake and know when pins are falling and trade them before it's too late. It's like a huge stock market where you are constantly trying to move up while values constantly fluctuate.

I love the feeling when I can trade a pin I got a while ago from DSF at $12 bucks and it's worth grew to $100 for another pin that's worth $100 and then THAT pin grows in worth to $200 and so on until you have a pin that's grown in value enough to get you your grail. But just like you win, you also loose but the ride is what makes it fun. It's a gamble but I love it.
 
I have recently switched to becoming just a pin collector as trading is too difficult nowadays to get pins you want. I've resorted to selling my traders and buying the pins I collect, and so far this has been awesome to finally get the pins I really want. Some people argue trading is the hobby, but for me, I get pure satisfaction whenever I get a pin I really need regardless if I purchased it so I'm okay with my ways. I've thinned out my traders to a measly 10 pins and at the same time, have made more than enough in pin sales to purchase a lot of the pins on my wants.

If you're into the trading ways, stick it out. If you just want your pins (like me) then you have to rationalize whether it's a better choice to just purchase what you want and be happy about it.
 
I'm definitely a collector. Trading hasn't worked so well for me, but it's my own fault. I fall in love too easily with certain pins. I just got a great framed pin set (Belle at the fountain with the sheep!) to trade or sell for my grail but now that I have it in hand I don't think I can part with it - so there goes that... Anyway, it seems that I just end up buying the pins I love and trading my smaller pins for other smaller pins that I like more than what I've got.
 
Definitely a Collector here too .... I mostly only trade to get pins for my collection. I do have about 100 traders available but havent had too much luck in getting my wants with them.
 
A little of both, but lately purchases have been for my collection unless buying traders for lanyard fodder. Trading had been frustrating, as I had purchased nice pins (LE, jumbo, etc.) and still could not succeed in trading for wants for my collection. Since I stopped purchasing "better" traders I have had some good luck trading... but that was for different trader pins, and those traders were predestined to end up on my lanyard for Marathon Weekend in January.

I enjoy trading, but to fill my wants, I have resorted to purchasing.
 
Last edited:
Trading is so hit or miss, that it's more collecting for me, as well. Although, in some rare months it seems like everyone wants my old and unwanted pins and I make a bunch of trades. I'd like to trade more, but the matches don't seem to work out. I'm fine with just buying though. It is less hassle at times. Click and viola, packages full of pretties start showing up.
 
I'm a collector... I'd love to be able to trade off my few traders, but beside accomplishing one trade in-park one time, I've never been able to. I ended up zapping someone with three or four of my traders, knowing that they would have just sat in my drawer otherwise. Not that I really expected what I have to go, since it's mostly an oddball mish-mash of things I've happened to accumulate. I did consider buying some extra traders at Disneyland Paris, but my record at trading is so poor that I was afraid of just being stuck with more pins I didn't particularly want. The only way to get what I want has been to buy them outright.
 
I'm a pin collector. I only like what I like and trade for things I want or specific traders I know will get me my pins... But I have my boyfriend who is straight up a pin trader and he keeps our book constant with different traders. So together as a unit were a hybrid. Haha
 
I'm a collector. I do some trading but its usually when I give up on a collection or end up not liking some of the pins I have in my collection. I've recently narrowed down which Snow White pins I collect so the pins that didn't fit into my collection became traders. Most of them I ended up selling to buy new pins. My collections seem to change a lot but I'm pretty happy with my main 5 collections (which seems like a lot to me). I'm trying to start a Princess and the Frog collection and I realized its easier to buy most of the pins. Some I wont get for awhile just because I cannot afford them at the moment but I will one day be a completist for the film :)
 
I'm definitely a collector. Trading hasn't worked so well for me, but it's my own fault. I fall in love too easily with certain pins. I just got a great framed pin set (Belle at the fountain with the sheep!) to trade or sell for my grail but now that I have it in hand I don't think I can part with it - so there goes that... Anyway, it seems that I just end up buying the pins I love and trading my smaller pins for other smaller pins that I like more than what I've got.

OMG.. I just added the winged burro from your siggy to my wants list!!! #37440 is AWESOME!
 
It seems a lot of the collectors find it frustrating calculating the tradability of some great face value pins. I like trading I believe it's the spirit of the hobby but I do side with a lot of you by not wanting to deal with that type of unpredictability. Great responses guys!
 
Trading has been very difficult to do lately as very few people are willing to trade. It's become all about value and money rather than about pins and trading. I used to be a hybrid but these days I'm more of a collector.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top