pin sets value?

[Luv2Roam]

Let me know if my perception is wrong.
Purely imaginitive scenerio on my part:
BUT let's say you have an actual set (not grouping) of five pins. If you sold that as a set on an auction you would get most likely $25 - $50, depending on many variables of course.
But if you broke them up and sold them individually, they would make bid at $10 - maybe $12 each. And some may sell, some may not.
It seems that the SET should be worth more on a secondary market. (Intact, etc)
It also seems there is more incentive to unframe a framed set and sell them. That they sell higher being unframed,
Are my conceptions, MIS-concenceptions?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Your perceptions are correct. However, there is a simple explanation.

As an example, JudySue has been collecting the pins/buttons which have been given to the CMs at WDW on each October 1st since 1972. Obviously the older ones are rarer than the newer as there were fewer CMs in the earlier years than now. Also, other than the 1972, which was the first anniversary, most CMs did not save these for many years.

We had been working on collecting these for several years. The 2nd and 4th appeared (at least to us) as the most difficult to get. One of the best deals we got was about $150 for ten of them, several with one digit. Of course, some of these ten were duplicates.

Anyway, about a year and a half ago someone put up a complete set of one to 28 on eBay with a minimum bid of $1,200. As a complete set this was a good value. However, we did not want to spend that sort of money because we only want two of them. (Also, we had duplicates of #1 and several others.) When it did not sell, we contacted the lister and told him what we were interested in. We ended up paying $100 each for the #2 and #4. In the past we had lost some bids for $125 for them, so it was a good deal for us. The lister was probably able to get at least the $1,200 he wanted for the set by selling them individually.

In other words, if you find one (or more) person who needs (?!) the full set you will be able to get a decent price for it. However, when you are dealing with longer-term, more experienced, collectors you will get better prices for the individual pins as they are needed to fill in a set the person is working on. (BTW, do you have a Mail Pilot Film Strip Pin available, we are looking for one to complete the Film Strip collection.)