What makes a grail?

I am new to this forum, but the funny thing is I always considered some of my hard to find pins my "holy grail". So what makes a grail to you, is it the rarity, difficulty in finding it, the cost? I realize more often than not, these things coincide. Also, is it generally accepted that certain pins are holy grails, or is it more of an intrinsic value? Id love to hear the feedback, thanks!

My grails are the pins that I'd be way happy to get. I don't really look at LE soze, but I've noticed that the lower the LE number, the more detailed and beautiful the pins are. It's just any pin the makes me go "o.o need." xD and it's more fun trying to find a rare pin, rather than just other rack pins and such.

I think there does have to be some degree of difficulty in obtaining it for it to be a "grail", and not just that you want it really, really bad. A little chase, a little frustration.

Usually, this comes in the form of rarity (edition size, high demand that causes a high price, even a difficult to get-to source, like another country or certain store).

So, yeah- high desire, plus difficulty in acquisition, pretty much. I have a few grails that I've wanted for close to 7 years that I still haven't found.

My holy grail isn't all that difficult to find, even though I have no luck in finding it. For me, grails are the pins I want above any other pin. Right now its an open edition Ariel pin but it hasn't been sold in close to 10 years. So it really depends on the person.

For me its pins I really want, if they are easy to get hold off they dont make it to holy grail status before I manage to get hold of them. so to me its a pin I really want that I cant get hold of.

I guess it depends how hard it is to find. And what I'd be willing to do to get it. Such as would I chase a greased pig in my underwear. If I would, it's a grail.

bondandracing said:

So what makes a grail to you, is it the rarity, difficulty in finding it, the cost? I realize more often than not, these things coincide.

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Generally those things tend to coincide, and they make sense. A grail in and of itself is a pin that one wants extremely badly, above all other pins.

- If the pins was a rack or and open edition pin, it wouldn't be that hard to get, and if the person wanted it SOOO badly, they'd already have it
- As Disxar said as well, the lower the edition, generally the nicer and more detailed the pins are. I'm assuming that they are harder to make if they are more detailed, so ones that are very detailed tend to be lower in edition size.
- If you like the pin so much, for whatever reason, don't expect to be the only person in the world to like it. Clearly if you like it THAT much, you see something in it, and I wouldn't be shocked if someone else in the world sees that exact same thing. If other people see that interest as well, they also try to get it, making it cost more.
- Likewise, if you like it that much and someone else has it, they probably wouldn't want to trade it just as you wouldn't want to trade it if you had it. This makes it even harder to find.

If grails were easy to find, it would kind of lose half the fun. The fun lies in the chase after all xP

Being so new, I don't even know what my grail is yet. I have a few small sets I'm looking for just because I like them, but I don't think they're going to be that hard to find. I can really just buy them. Once I figure out what all is out there, I think I'll find something that catches my eye to chase after. For now, I'm enjoying the process. Though I did see this on Pinpics, and I'm not gonna lie - me likey.

For me, a grail is a pin that I know will be incredibly difficult to get, if not impossible, but that I want sooo bad i will do practically anything for.

My current "grails" are the Fantasia Centarettes, in perticular the Zebra striped ones.

This pins are le250. with a trade/want ratio of 2/77 and 3/62... recently they sold on ebay for about $89 each. I collect disney horses. These girls are essincial to my collection.

For me, my current grail is the very last pin I need to complete the collection of Mickey and Friends as the cast of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's Chip and Dale as Crewmembers [pinpics]69012[/pinpics]. For some reason there are always a lot of the Goofy and Mickey ones, but not of those. Once I get it, not only will that set be done, but my whole 20,000 Leagues collection will be finished to my satisfaction. I will literally only have space for one more pin on that board.

doodlebug86 said:

I guess it depends how hard it is to find. And what I'd be willing to do to get it. Such as would I chase a greased pig in my underwear. If I would, it's a grail.

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xD ! Yeah that about covers it.

doodlebug86 said:

I guess it depends how hard it is to find. And what I'd be willing to do to get it. Such as would I chase a greased pig in my underwear. If I would, it's a grail.

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Haha I think this is so true
I have around 20 grails, which are the pins that I want the most the most the most. And then I have 2 HOLY grails. One of which I know I'll never ever get (at this rate anyway) and another that is out of my budget. But I can dream

For me, there are a few grails out there. My wife just bought one for me (first time we'd ever seen it for sale or trade) for my b-day. The one I'm focused on right now might not be hard for some people to get, but for me it has been in my grasp and pulled away at PTNs and events. Each time I hear someone say I don't have anything they want for it (which i understand, I never take offense to) it just makes me want the pin more. Things like that add to a grail's "value." Keep looking around, someday you'll see a pin you never knew existed but can't live without. That's how I discovered a few of mine.

I have quite a few most wanted pins... not all of them are super rare, but quite a few are very expensive usually.

To me I think a "grail" is whatever pin you want the most. Back when I was pintrading and dinosaurs roamed the earth, there were certain pins referred to as "the grails", pins like Mickey for President, Donald Wet Paint, Ear Force One, Ghost Dangle. My personal grail is Minnie Monorail from the Mystery set. Its the worst trade I ever made. My first night trading outside the pin store was the release of that set. I bought one tin and the first pin I pulled out was the LE 200 Minnie and every shark there smelled blood... not knowing better and how rare it was. I traded it off for LE 400 Figment. Got addicted to finding another Minnie so ended up spending too much $ buying tins. Ended that night with 5 Figments but no Minnie. To this day there is a gaping hole in my monorail set.