Pin trading bag suggestions

[damiel]

My DS 12 is a pin collector. Right now he has 75+ pins and we are looking for a practical way to accomidate all of his pins on our trip next week. He wants to cary his large leather trading bag around the park. I really feel this will be a huge hassle. His other alternative is to wear two or three lanyards at a time. Last trip he wore three lanyards and they were always in the way - pins falling off, etc. He hates to being able to "show off" his special pins and he wants to have his trading pins available also. How do you carry, trade and store your pins while in the park? I would love some advice from more experienced traders - maybe he will listen to you, 'cause mom dosen't know anything about pin trading.

 

[agnes!]

It's probably too late for you, but DisneyShopping has two pin bags on sale - a Tink & a Jessica Rabbit (maybe your DS isn't a fan of the Disney girls). Normally they're around $35 but they're on sale right now for $24.99. The prices for pin bags in the parks are pretty outrageous.

I've also seen pin bags for sale on EBay but you might be running out of time on that as well.

agnes!

 

[pixiewings71]

DBF carries a pin bag around with him. We keep our better traders and sets we are trying to complete in that bag. He also keeps his Alice pin in there, he collects Alice in Wonderland. I have a few lanyards that I wear, there are traders and keepers on them.

ETA, there are smaller pin bags available if he just wants to carry traders around. My girls received a smaller bag each from DBF's Mom for Christmas, they are small enough to carry around the parks, I think she found them on eBay.

 

[Mickey527]

If he has special pins that he loves and doesn't plan on trading I would encourage him to leave them home. Even if he doesn't plan on trading them they can fall out of the bag, or as I hate to say may get legs and walk if someone else likes it. I had a few of my pins "walk": when I refused a trade I didn't think fair. The next thing I know they pins are gone.
I have some of my favorite pins hanging on cork boards that I bought in the stationary section of Walmart. I painted the cork to match the theme, most of them are black, but my Figment pins are on purple and my patriotic are on red,white and blue.
I hated wearing my lanyards especially when it got warm. If I had a shirt with a collar it was ok but with a t-shirt the lanyard rubbed and irritated.
I would also recommend he get some kind of small bag to carry his trader pins. I bought mine at WDW about 6 years ago. It is 4"X6" and has a strap but I usually put it on my fanny pack. If I am going to look bad with a fanny pack I might as well look really bad and have a pin bag attatched. I haven't seen plain ones in the stores but have seen princess ones. I am sure he doesn't want that.
You could also make your own with a small makeup bag that you put felt or foam pages in for his pins. just use a piece of foam for the pins then a sheet of felt for the divider to keep them from scratching each other. I had a makeup bag that I bought from Walmart when I started collecting pins way back in 2000 that was a perfect size and didn't look like a makeup bag, it looked like a small notebook.

 

[damiel]

Thanks for the ideas!

 

[bantha09]

I know this is of no real help to you now, but I made bandoleers out of black vinyl, check out pics on my mouseplanet profile, I am bantha09 there too.

 

[daber]

Definitely keep the ones you want in your collection at home. Nothing worse than losing something you won't be able to replace.

I wear a vest with my pins on it. People ask if it's heavy, and the answer is it depends how many pins are on it. The good part is that the weight is distributed rather than hanging from my neck. Also it accomodates the larger pins.