What Would Happen If... Eliminating LEs

[mybabykelly]

It's not quite that simple. There were other players, involved as well who started throwing insane amounts of money around at the same time. Some would claim they were just playing Robin Hood and helping out fellow pin traders, but the point remains that they PAID the price, playing a role in establishing the value of specific pins. And if that pin was worth THAT, then certainly this other pin must be worth THIS, and so on. Others who didn't know about "sales occurring for specific reasons" and simply thought that the prices must be fair market value, contributed with their own purchases, legitimizing them. And I think the money (along with the 2 day lines at the Soda Fountain) attracted the wrong type of attention so the players are of a different sort than your "friendly neighborhood pin trader" (although, pin collecting has always been shady). And now it's too late to put the genie back in the bottle.

The thing that bothers me most is that it seems so easy to solve. Release higher edition pins... even if for a trial basis. Or just oversaturate the market. It’s funny because I always thought this could be such a profitable cash cow for Disney since production costs seem relatively low and it is a booming hobby and the risk of a big loss is super low. Why doesn’t disney just take the profit for themselves instead of allowing scalpers to benefit most?

 

[starry_solo]

The thing that bothers me most is that it seems so easy to solve. Release higher edition pins... even if for a trial basis. Or just oversaturate the market. It’s funny because I always thought this could be such a profitable cash cow for Disney since production costs seem relatively low and it is a booming hobby and the risk of a big loss is super low. Why doesn’t disney just take the profit for themselves instead of allowing scalpers to benefit most?

They did. The DSF Valentine's Up Pins were released as OEs...two of the four of them at least.
Heck, the Star Wars pins from DSSH - R2 and Porg, OE

They recycle so many designs there are lots of OEs that have similar LEs

 

[Chusaurus]

I've seen so many older pin players come out of the woodwork in the past couple months. @hopemax, it's probably good you didn't come this year, because I know one eBay seller that didn't usually come to the annual pin event because no one welcomed them. They came this year to the chagrin of many. This is the person that I would say contributed the most to the last time things started overinflating, because they would buy pins off eBay for cheap, usually sniping from people who just wanted them for their collections, and then list them for 10x that cost. Now, there's so many new people or maybe because they're in the Instagram game, they came to the event this year. It was... Interesting.

But also, there were older traders who came this year who hadn't been since the Circus, who actually remembered older pin trading. Those people I found quickly and gravitated toward.

I know the game. I want Ariel pins. It honestly doesn't matter what the LE size, 100 to 10,000, resellers that trade (notice the difference between that and traders who resell), usually want double to triple the amount of trade value the pin last sold for on eBay. I could know Ariel values until my mind is full of them (which, it totally is). I just have to put my foot down and decide when to just give in and trade and when I just wait for that next eBay listing goes up and I snipe it near or double or even triple cost.

Don't let people determine how much you think a pin is worth. To @Spr175psu's point, I actually do think a heroine is only worth cost, so I'll only trade one pin for it. But a fellow collector managed to snag it for $250 the other day. Is that a great price relative to the current cost? Yes. Would I be willing to pay that price for it? No.

From what I'm hearing there's an issue that you think could be alleviated by higher edition sizes. I think the pre-order method could work for the doll market, but pins? It would tank the trader market, which would tank the reseller market, which would ultimately tank pins. Which, by all means go for it. I'll still be here trying to get the Nouveau. Maybe it'll go for 2010 prices again and I'll be able to actually afford it this time. Instead of trying to trade $4000 in trade value for a $2000 pin.