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Question: Organizing pins for trading and storage

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Question: Organizing pins for trading and storage
C

Cnyr

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Hi,

So I recently bought a standard large Disney pin case/bag so I could have more storage space for my pins, as well as to be able to transport my pins to trade. I need some advice on how best to organize my pins. Will be great to hear how others do it.

Before this, I simply displayed my pins on some cork boards at home. I would group pins together based on characters. Within the same character group, I would be happy to trade some of the pins; several, I might be very selective about trading them; and a small number I would absolutely not trade. When I go to trade, I would just bring along a small number of pins that I knew I would be ok trading.

Now that I have a pin case, my main question is: will it be ok to place pins within the pin case that I am picky about trading or simply don't want to trade at all? I was thinking I could still group by characters, but pins placed more towards the bottom of the page would be the ones I would trade. Is this atypical? Most of the traders I meet (at the Epcot tables) seem up for trading everything in their books. I just don't want to set people up for disappointment because they get to see all these other pins that I don't plan on parting with.

To be clear, I don't plan to open my case up at the tables for people to browse through. But if I see a trader there with interesting pins, I imagine I'll let the other trader look at what I have to see if there's potential for a trade.

Basically, I am trying find a way to accommodate two things: 1) my preference to keep characters from the same movie together (I really enjoy my pins best when I do this) and 2) be able to conveniently trade and not set people up for disappointment.

I estimate I have maybe 350 pins. I think a good number can fit in this case. I just need to figure out how to organize it all.

Ok, this was a long post - if you got here, thanks for reading till the end! I appreciate any advice/thoughts you have.

Thanks!


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It sounds to me that you should only bring the pins that you can part with, that aren't in anyway hard for you to trade away.

I personally prefer to have two pin bags, one with pins that are super easy to trade away. Another with only villain pins that are a bit harder to trade away, but I'm always willing to trade them away for a Lion King pin.

I hope this helps, and have fun trading! :D

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In my opinion, it's best to leave out pins that you know you are not going to trade from a trading book. Not only to avoid having to constantly tell people they're not for trade, but it also makes for less weight to carry around, and takes away the chance of the pins getting mixed in with trading pins or lost (or, in rare cases, stolen). I would suggest either leaving them at home or, if you want to display them for other people to see, wear them on a lanyard (with locking backs!).

As for how to organize the pins you do want to trade, it's really just a matter of personal preference. I tend to like grouping mine by type (PTDs, other DSF, WDI, LE, LR, OE, etc.) and then by character/movie within the pin type. That way if I am trying to trade for a PTD, I can just flip right to my PTDs. But I know a lot of people organize their pins by character/movie regardless of origin or pin type. Maybe in your case you can have a page or two dedicated to easily tradeable pins, them a few pages of harder to trade pins, and within those pages sort by character.
 
I may be odd, but I tend to organize my traders in bags by LE size. So, all of my DA100s are together, then all the LE250 (DA PINS, DS.com, etc), and so on. For me it makes sense, since most people want to trade pretty even with LE sizes...
 
Thanks for sharing how each of you do it! I love all the suggestions (I kind of love to organize). I think I will categorize by type like timeerkat, and within the LE pins, I'll somewhat arrange them by edition size like unibear does.

And I'll probably keep my difficult to part with pins in a separate small bag or something, like Avatarang does.

This is all so useful. Thanks!

Btw, is there an easier way to get pins to poke thru these Disney pin case flaps? I spend up to a minute per pin (esp those with 2 pinbacks). And I've already stabbed my fingers a couple times (ouch!!)


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You're not a true pin collector until those lovely pieces of metal draw blood... Welcome to the clan!
 
You could cut out some cardboard/cork to the size of the flaps and put it inside the pockets, so you can just pin your pins onto them without having to put the pin backs on them. Hope that makes sense :) I hurt myself too in the beginning, but then a pin friend on Instagram gave me this tip & I must say that it does make it much easier!

As for displaying your pins I would indeed not take any pins you don't want to trade with you to the park. I think it could only make trading harder, rather than easier.
 
Piglet - that's sounds like a great idea. I am going to buy some cork from Michaels and do it.

I took my pin case to Epcot today and made a few trades. Definitely way more potential for trades now that I have a whole bag of pins. Very happy with my case. All the organization tips have really helped.


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