That depends on whether the person who gets the pin decides to trade it or not. (Though you are correct in my case, Max Schnell was for my collection, not for trade.)
I think I was unclear here. I'm saying that anyone purchasing a pin at cost no longer needs to trade for it, whether they intend to use it for their collection or flip it for another trade. Either way, it's one less "W" on the Pinpics rating.
Not necessarily. If I get the Max pin, someone else won't get one. Therefore, that person will add the "W".
This is only true if 150 people want the Max Schnell pin, which I don't know to be the case.
In your first point, you were upset that there would be one less trade... now you are upset that there would be one more trade?
Easy now, I'm not "upset".
Like I said, this was just an academic look at the economics at work, at least how I see them. As for the confusion here, I again fear I was perhaps unclear? My point is that when someone gets a pin mailed to them at cost, and they intend to trade it, they no longer contribute a "W" to the Pinpics Wants rating for that pin, and instead raise the "T" rating. Both are bad for a pin's perceived collectibility.
But, at least from my point of view, the people "grabbing them to trade" are the people that live in California... not the people on the forum asking them to pick up their favorite character. So getting that pin for them would not create another "T". In fact, it would take one away.
Actually, alot of the people I picked up pins for were getting multiples specifically to trade. I didn't question it at the time, because I was just interested in helping people out and saw no harm in it. I didn't really concern myself with what they wanted the pins for, and there was no way to police their intent anyways. Far be it from me to tell people what to do. It's only now that I've become more familiar with certain peoples' collections, that I've realized some of those people asking for two copies of a pin likely had no intent of keeping either of them.
Not to sound entitled or snarky, because I really do mean it when I say that it's your prerogative whether you want to help or not, but... you are standing in line anyway for yourself, right?
You don't sound entitled or snarky, you're totally cool. Hopefully I don't sound in any way reprehensible either. But no, I've stopped going to the DSF unless there's a pin I personally want; I happen to be in the area; or a friend / trade partner needs something. I went for every release back when the stuff had trade value (or at least, when I thought it did - I was definitely hanging on a bit longer than I should have, call it poor newbie judgment). Now, not so much. I literally used to go for releases I had zero interest in, just to get stuff for other people.
Sometimes I get the impression that certain people in the hobby think that you only have a right to pins if you live in California or Florida.
... Or Paris. Doooon't forget Paris.
Hopemax - I agree with almost everything you said, save for the perception that DSF pins are unattainable. That would be the first time I've ever heard anyone theorize that. It's interesting. I don't agree with it, but it's interesting and I'm glad you put it forth.
I do agree that DSF pins selling out more often would be great for their general demand, since like I said, "hot" pins get a cascade effect that makes them more and more desirable. However, I don't think it's possible for all but a few DSF pins to sell out again until, at the very least, the CM's flooding the market on release weekends are rooted out. Whatever the second or third step might be, I think the first step is eliminating that particular batch of resellers.
Though, to be objective, those guys (and girls) do a great job of getting freshly-released DSF pins out to people at very competitive prices. That's actually another reason I gave up on DSF runs: if someone can get a new pin for a $5 markup the weekend it's released anyways, there's kind of no need for at-cost pickups. Coupled with DSF phone orders two weeks after each LE release, the availability's really quite high. Overall, I'd definitely prefer a world where new releases don't garner instant markups. BUT!? Paris. So yeah.
The question about false demand is a really good one, too. It's kind of impossible to predict what would happen if things progress to a situation where that's a risk.
Erudolf - I agree that design standards are pretty low on some of the recent DSF stuff. The recent Pirates releases were pretty horrendous save the big full-cast pin, and the LE 150 surprise release stained glass (both of which were really beautiful pins). Some other releases have seen great design work though, such as the Autographed Picture series. Those pins were quite attractive, at least for my tastes.
As a sidenote, I'm not sure who you think is "picking on" French resellers. Hopefully not me? Like I said: they have a great racket going. They clearly played the game better than the rest of us. It's a bit of a bitter pill, but one can't argue with their results.
*sigh* yes...I have a problem...
Although, I'm not worried about whether I'll be able to trade them, I'm worried that I won't be able to part with any of them!
They ARE really, really nice. ;_; The variety and unique nature of each PODM pin makes it easy to get attached to them. I'm lucky there'll probably never be a Who Framed Roger Rabbit PODM, but I may still find myself in the poor house when there's inevitably a Little Mermaid, Lion King, or Beauty and the Beast PODM. I used to wish they were smaller so they'd take up less space. Now I'm just kind of glad they are the size they are, to deter me from filling my house with them.
Tabbi - That generous soul also gets slammed for supposedly "ruining the PODM market," partly by doing such a good job of finding good cells for people here. Kind of unbelievable.
-JD