Which pin was your very first grail?

I was debating spending more money than I had on a grail pin when I got to thinking about my very first grail. This was the very first pin that made me go, "If I had that pin I wouldn't need any more pins." () I sat for a minute admiring my first grail and then passed on the pin I couldn't afford and I was strangely happy about it.

So, I want know:

First, Which pin was your very first grail. The very first pin that was your very most wanted pin of all.

Second, Did you ever obtain that very first grail? Is there a story to share?


Mine was:

Yes, I own him. I bought him a few years ago. (There's no way I could afford him now.) I first saw him when I was discovering PinPics for the very first time. I was in search of Russell pins when I came across Little Carl and fell in love. He still makes me happy and is one of my very, very, very favorite pins. Little Carl is never leaving my collection.

Now it's your turn!

That is such an adorable pin! Congratulations on adding him to your collection.

My very first grail was the Rapunzel PTD, for a long time it remained my only grail, it stayed atop of my wants for the majority of my time on Pinpics. I had 2 Rapunzel pins before this, once upon a time, I traded one and sold one as I desperately needed money. The one I sold was that Rapunzel tangling Flynn up in the chair from DSF, didn't sell it for that much at the time but I needed the money to afford an engagement ring. Unfortunately, a little while later that relationship fell apart and I was left heartbroken and without my favourite pin. XD I always regretted getting rid of my only Rapunzel pins and never thought I would get one again. When I uncovered the PTD on Pinpics, I honestly thought it was the most awesome pin ever invented. At that time, Rapunzel was my favourite princess and the fact that she was drinking a strawberry milkshake (aka one of my favourite beverages) = pin perfection!! My pin collection is rather small, I remember sending out requests which constituted for a large portion of my entire collection. I never thought I would ever own it, so imagine my surprise when someone accepted a 1/1 trade request only a few months ago. Oddly enough, it was for the pin that I acquired when I originally traded my 1st Rapunzel pin away...weird how that came full circle... It is now the crown jewel of my collection.


Great idea for a thread by the way, reliving this particular story has made me relive the joy of acquiring this pin all over again.

So since my pin collecting comes from a time a long, long time ago in a Disney Galaxy far far away where there was no Soda Fountain, and there was no Disney Auctions so Grails looked a lot different (edition sizes, characters and words on pins). I can't pick just one so here are the pins I most coveted



I posted threads here when I finally got the first 2, only in the last few years. I actually have 2 Wet Paint pins. The third one, was given to my Mom as a gift by one of her old Disney Store employees. It's not mine, but I know where it is Alas, the 4th one still remains elusive.

The process of acquiring those pins taught me that my pin heart burns strongest for the old stuff. I am working to collect Frozen before some things jump, or are tainted with counterfeits and scrap. But even when I get a low LE pin from there, it does not bring me as much joy as finally acquiring one of the pins from yesteryear.

On my first grail list were amongst others these two :
1.86403 - Cheshire Cat PTD

Since I never have brilliant traders I never thought I'd get this pin , I was fortunate to be zapped it by the awesome docfish2u

2.50881 - Big Headed Villains

I'd always admired this pin but it always seemed to sell for £100+ which put it far out of my reach so when I managed to win an auction at £55 I was ecstatic (Admittedly the pin posts are damaged but it's going to be mounted so this doesn't bother me at all)

My first grail I suppose, before I knew that grails were a thing, was the Surprise Release LE150 King Candy from DSF, only because it was (and still is) the most expensive pin for my collection, and it hurt my bank account quite a bit to finally get it, but thankfully it was one of the few times a pin from DSF was in perfect condition - so I'm NEVER LETTING GO!



Now my ultimate grail is the LE100 Stitch VS Kaa pin from DS. Not only am I having massive trouble finding it, but for whatever reason I just fell completely in love with it's design. I feel horrible that I once saw it on eBay for $80, and I passed thinking "Oh, I'll get the next one as I am a bit strapped for cash today." but I have not seen it since, and nobody seems to be actively trading it for me, sigh!



Notable mentions include the one Kaa pin I have NEVER seen (from Tokyo) and an undamaged version of this James and the Giant Peach pin.

Aw this topic is fun. My first grail was this pin of Ariel & Eric on The Little Mermaid ride from a Disneyland mystery set. I had no idea about grails or all the different types of pins (WDI, DSF etc) at the time. I just saw it sold out on the Disney store website and knew I had to track it down. I never saw anyone selling it on eBay so it led to me to check out this forum and PinPics and just all sorts of pin information.
I've been down the rabbit hole ever since!

I thankfully acquired the pin some time last year. It's still one of my favorites, if not -the- favorite, of the pins that I own. My BF and I first went to Disneyland together two years ago during the Halloween party dressed in these costumes. It was also the first I'd gotten to ride the new Little Mermaid ride, so the pin reminds me of that day very strongly. Definitely a keeper!

sweetalissum said:

Aw this topic is fun. My first grail was this pin of Ariel & Eric on The Little Mermaid ride from a Disneyland mystery set. I had no idea about grails or all the different types of pins (WDI, DSF etc) at the time. I just saw it sold out on the Disney store website and knew I had to track it down. I never saw anyone selling it on eBay so it led to me to check out this forum and PinPics and just all sorts of pin information.
I've been down the rabbit hole ever since!

I thankfully acquired the pin some time last year. It's still one of my favorites, if not -the- favorite, of the pins that I own. My BF and I first went to Disneyland together two years ago during the Halloween party dressed in these costumes. It was also the first I'd gotten to ride the new Little Mermaid ride, so the pin reminds me of that day very strongly. Definitely a keeper!

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Cool story. I can definitely see why this very nice pin would be special to you!

Love the stories and great pins! Keep 'em coming!

So I think I have 2 "first" grail pins. The White Rabbit in Sorcerers Hat and the Alice DSF Sundae PTD have both been on the top of my wants list for a long time. At the very beginning of pin collecting I set myself a price limit I did not want to go over and the Alice PTD was above the price range, but way less then she is now. This was before i ever heard of DSF, knew what a PTD or grail was. I silently cry/laugh now when I think about what she cost then vs now. She was a total bargain!

Alright, so maybe that was not a happy grail story, however I still hope that one day I'll prevail. Either I'll find a good deal or magically have acquired someone else's grail who has it and it'll be mine. After all, the hunt is half the fun.

When I first started pin trading/collecting in 2005, I was mostly looking for Alice in Wonderland pins- I've always loved the movie and the story, and I love the characters! My very first grail was Pin 36545 Disney Auctions (P.I.N.S.) - Stitch as Cheshire Cat. I remember combing eBay for it over and over again, and how it was always so expensive. It would come up for auction at a low starting price and I would always bid, even though I knew I would be outbid. A year or two after I had began my search, I bid on a brand new, still in original package pin and inexplicably won it for a comparatively low price (I think it was between $40-$50)!
I comb through my Alice collection every so often, and sometimes let go of pins that I've had for a long time. But this one is a permanent member!

Love reading these stories! It's wonderful to see that so many of you have managed to acquire your first grails. My fingers will remain crossed for you curiousdinah, I hope some luck comes your way in the hunt for those grails!

Nearly a decade ago when I decided to get serious about collecting Wonderland pins as part of my overall Wonderland collection (after having just collected a few pins here and there over the years), I looked through the nearly 600 Wonderland pins in PinPics at the time (and lol I now have three times that many!), added all of them to my wants, but knew from the start which one was my ultimate holy grail:

This was funny on a lot of levels because a) White Rabbit is not even close to being my favorite character (Cheshire Cat is!) and because b) it wasn't even really a Wonderland pin so much - it was a play on a Dali art piece and c) I'm not really a Dali fan!

But from the beginning I knew that DA LE100 pins were the height of pin quality (always have been and always will be) and there was just something about that pin that so tickled me. Most likely because it reminded me of Doctor Who with all those images of time being twisted.

This pin owned ME from the second I saw it and I was willing to do anything to have it.

Unfortunately, for several years no one was trading it. Finally, one day, one turned up on ebay! I bid as much as I possibly could afford... and was outbid. So sad.

Months later, a second one turned up on ebay! I bid as much as I possibly could afford... and was outbid. By the same guy who bought the first one. (This was back when ebay showed bidder id's.)

Not long after, a third one turned up on ebay! I was determined it would be mine! I bid more than I should have... and was outbid. By the same guy who bought the first two.

I was devastated. This guy with crazy money outbid me three times and had three of these pins and I couldn't get one. I was so upset at losing out at a chance at my grail for a third time that a wonderful, dear, darling woman took pity on me and said she would trade me my grail and took hers out of her own collection so I could finally have my beautiful, beautiful pin. She let me give her a very fair trade for the pin - basically, she wanted me to felt I'd "earned" it instead of was just being given something - and that exquisite pin was mine. And still means the world to me because of how it was acquired - an act of generous kindness - and because to this day I still think there isn't a more beautiful pin in the world.

I've since had a few most very very very wanted pins (at this point that's down to any of the half a dozen pins I'm missing to be a completist!) - but I only ever had one ultimate holy grail.

Wow, Jabber! Great story!

Dang, one person bought 3 of the same pin like that when they were so far apart? I wonder if they were trying to keep them for resale later, or knew they would make good traders? Seems odd!

Glad you finally got it though!

Ninpin said:

Dang, one person bought 3 of the same pin like that when they were so far apart? I wonder if they were trying to keep them for resale later, or knew they would make good traders? Seems odd!

Glad you finally got it though!

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I like to think that's really why that pin is called... "Persistence".

But yeah, this was when that pin was selling for several hundred dollars because it was so rare and hadn't shown up in ages for trade or sale. And I was outbid by the same guy three times at several hundred dollars each time. I think there are just some people who like to hoard multiples of pins. Me - I'm just thrilled to get one of each of the ones I need.

My first grails:



They were open edition pins, but by the time I started collecting, they were already retired, and not very easy to find. I lucked out and managed to add them all to my collection within a few months. @averysfairytale helped me a lot by zapping me a few of them!

They are still amongst my favorite pins ever.

Edit: After some digging, I was able to find one of my first grail signatures! (Maybe my first ever?) Proud to say I actually own all these pins now!!!! Actually really impressed with myself right now.

P.S. Great thread idea!

I don't really have a grail sort of pin, since I'm trying very hard to limit myself to new releases as much as I can, though there are a few I would be over the moon to have. Stitch at the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ from the Soda Fountain is one of them. So awesome, so unique, so much jealousy of those who have it! And so much limited edition. Booo.

Also, perhaps the tall window Elsa stained glass pin. That one is quite pretty, spectacular really, but I didn't even know about the Soda Fountain when it came out and I was definitely on the "I don't like that movie" train so I'd have never even considered it if I knew about. I still don't care for the movie, but the princess designs are lovely, hence a small E&A collection.

Not so much a grail but I wish I had gotten it was this year's Father's Day pin with Ariel and Triton. I'm a diver and it spoke to me, even though my dad's long since been passed.

So I have two answers...

The first pin I saw that I HAD TO HAVE is the Timon and Stitch hula pin.



Timon is my favorite character of all time, and I love his hula scene (as evidenced by my avatar). Hula really fits Stitch's character, too, so I feel that it's one of the more successful integrations of pins featuring Stitch in other movies. I got it in a pretty boring way - someone had it for sale for a pretty low price so I bought it. It's now a permanent fixture on my Lion King showoff lanyard.

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The pin I worked the longest/hardest for was the Rafiki PTD.



I found out about PTDs roughly a year and a half ago. I managed to get all of the Lion King PTDs here and there, but this one eluded me. I saw it up for trade here and there, but always for high-end PTDs only, and it came up for sale a few times but always for higher than I was willing and able to spend at that time.

Finally, about a year into my search, the Avengers release at DSF happened. I don't collect Avengers but I knew they'd be pretty good traders, so I went to the release and managed to get a low enough number to get the full set (minus the Vision surprise pin). After about a week of posting them up for trade, I found someone who was willing to trade Rafiki for them, ending my year-long search.

AH I love these stories!

This elusive little pin has been dogging me since 2007, I am absolutely in love with the expressions, the design, and the fantasy of it.

I saw this pin on Ebay before I started collecting or had any idea what pin trading was. It was missing its post though so I didn't get it. That year my high school band went down to Disney World to preform and I got to talk to some traders at the Epcot tables about the pin. No one had it and I wouldn't have had anything to trade them with anyway but it inspired me to buy some other Belle pins during the trip. I didn't really pay attention to pins again until my next trip to Disney in 2009. When once again I talked to pin traders about pins, but this time I traded with Cast members because I was determined to bring my friend back a Jasmine pin. I bought more Belle, Ariel, and Donald pins and had a blast. (All of my friends got pins for Christmas that year) This pin came back up on eBay again in 2010 with the bell missing. I never seem to find this pin for sale unless it's damaged.

Fast forward to now and I know a lot more about pin trading but I think I'm still just as far from getting it. I'm not sure what I'd do with myself once I find it. XD

Jabberwocky - I love your story! It's so nice when pin traders are there for each other and make amazing things happen.

sweetalissum said:

Jabberwocky - I love your story! It's so nice when pin traders are there for each other and make amazing things happen.

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The wonderful thing is - that same woman was the person who sent me my very first zap ever not long after I first joined the online pin community - it was an LE250 White Rabbit pin and I was blown away at the idea that someone would just *give* someone else a pin they wanted!

She left the pin community many, many years ago, but I have never ever forgotten her, her zap or that she got me my grail. Both are very, very special pins to me.

Jabberwocky said:

The wonderful thing is - that same woman was the person who sent me my very first zap ever not long after I first joined the online pin community - it was an LE250 White Rabbit pin and I was blown away at the idea that someone would just *give* someone else a pin they wanted!

She left the pin community many, many years ago, but I have never ever forgotten her, her zap or that she got me my grail. Both are very, very special pins to me.

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Your story is so adorable! She sounds like an amazing person, I'm not surprised you haven't forgotten her! I'm sure she was just as happy knowing how happy those pins have made you.

I love reading all your stories! This is such a brilliant topic.

WDI Halloween 2012 Lilo and stitch 93519

Coby said:

Your story is so adorable! She sounds like an amazing person, I'm not surprised you haven't forgotten her! I'm sure she was just as happy knowing how happy those pins have made you.

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People may come and go in this or any community but a kind act lasts forever.

The wonderful thing about pins is that they are not just little pieces of painted metal. They're actually each little individual time capsules containing a moment, a story, a feeling. And every time I look at my pins it's like opening those time capsules to say "ah yes, I remember it well..."