What are you into right now?

[hopemax]

The last month or two have been a bit of a whirlwind between the D23 Expo and the annual WDW Disney Pin Celebration. I came home needing to detach from pins for a bit. Disney, as usual, had other plans by releasing a bazillion Muppet pins. Anyway, I am now in pin jail 🤣 which is giving me some time to reflect and refocus. Even before this mini break, I had reworked my Pin & Pop ISOs to remove a lot of my Movie / Character wants and replaced them with park pins. I am trying not to buy so much new (basically no PALM, Box Lunch or other Licensed pins for a bit) and look for deals on old pins that everyone has forgotten about because they are chasing D23 Expo pins and other newer releases.

I also built myself an Access database! This is something I've been wanting to do for awhile because Excel can't do everything I want, but there is a bit of a learning curve. Before pandemic, I had used OpenOffice to build a database using their version, but I added so many fields I wasn't motivated to actually add my pins. This one still has a lot of fields, but it makes sense for my brain and so doesn't feel too overwhelming. The overall goal is that I can add pins I both own or are ISO, and then I can make reports for like a specific Series and then PRINT! the results to have hard copies to take to events and such. The databases can be good for tracking this stuff online, but they fail at making hard copies.

So I am into "Park Pins, especially older pins," and Organization.

 

[GeraldineWH]

I'm currently focused on getting my pins out of boxes and bins and bags and putting them on pin boards/display. I'm now seeing which pins I love and which pins I can let go and put into my traders especially with characters/themes for which there are a ton of pins and that I am not trying to be a completist. I do have a few pin themes I collect that I am trying to be completist but that is very few and it isn't essential. Spending the time organizing, and trying to organize online trades has help me reduce my buying, which is good. I'm trying to focus my buying on pins that are either a great deal or that I can get direct from Disney online or in the parks, and sometimes boxlunch/monogram and use those to trade for pins that are trading/selling for 2x-3x purchase price rather than buying at 2-3x (or more) retail price. I've done a lot more online trading this year than ever and I'm now hoping to get a thermal mailing label printer to make mailing easier so I need to figure that out. If anyone reading this has a thermal mailing label printer with a small footprint that they they love or hate, let me know - perhaps I'll make a separate post about this. I'm reorganizing my trade books, always. Always in search of the best organization for me and never quite finding it. I had been organizing by value and recently switched to pin origin, but think I'm going back to value. It was easier for my brain to organize by origin but I think for in person trading events by value makes more sense.

 

[dznycrzyfmly]

Buying less due to a ton of factors and trying to organize what I already have bc I can't enjoy what I don't see. Plus, I'm trying to convince myself to purge collections for future pin events I've got lined up this year and for Pin City next year in April. Going after higher end pins as well through bulk trades.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Trying to push myself to go to outside trade events more often since Disney ruined park trading for guests at DLR. I didn't really realize how great it was to trade regularly and usually come home with at least one or two pins for my collection until I've gone all summer and gotten none. 🙁

I just hate the sharky vibe at local events that have me leaving with some pins but regretting some of the trades I made for them.

 

[Pidge]

Puzzles. With lots of cats 😻