Web sites

[webprinter]

My daughter and I are just getting into trading pins. Are there any web sites to help us determine what the current price is for pins so that if we purchase some, we don't pay too much? Also to help determine if a pin is worth more than other pins? Thank you. Debby

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Do a search in eBay for closed items.

 

[webprinter]

We tried ebay, but they didn't have any on there that we own. Is the price on the pinpics site the original price, or what they are worth now? We noticed that some of them didn't have prices. I would imagine that most of ours aren't worth anything since we are newbies but you never know. We ran into a CM at WDW that said one of our pins was worth a lot because a mistake had been made on it. When I looked it up on pinpics, it wasn't worth much more than what we paid and looked like it was supposed to. I am assuming the CM didn't know what he was talking about. But, it was a cheap pin and we can trade it for something we want more. Debby

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

The prices shown on Pinpics are the original retail prices. I don't believe that detail was added until the number of pins listed was into the thousands, so a lot of older pins don't have an original price listed because it's probably not known. Pinpics is primarily for trading purposes and has never gotten into the secondary market values of pins.

Tomart publishes a magazine for Disneyana collectors that will list current prices for pins. Most larger newsstands and bookstores like Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Books-A-Million should carry it. Thing is, the market for pins has always been very fluid; what may be selling for $20.00 on eBay at Tomart's press time may be selling for it's $8.50 rack price a week after it hits the stands.

One bit of info from Pinpics a lot of people use is the ratio between members trading and members wanting. Simple supply and demand -- if a lot of members are trading and very few wanting, it's pretty common or not in high demand; if a lot of members are wanting but very few are trading, it's in high demand. Other factors can influence the value of a pin, such as edition size, retired, age.

What was the error pin the CM mentioned? Some errors can be really subtle, like #338 (the infamous "Mickey in drag").

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

One of the best ways not to pay to much is to watch for a few weeks on ebay. Some people on ebay start their pins much too high, IMHO. You will begin to see a pattern after watching awhile. If you bid on the first one you see, you will sometimes end up paying too much. The same pin could be on the next page for less! (Raising my hand cause I have done this)

For me as well as alot of pin collectors and traders, it is not about the monatary value as much as it is about how much we like the pin. I have pins I just love that some people would give away.

The pins you say you could not find on ebay .. are they recent pins? What is on the back? Most current pins on on there somewhere. Could you find them on pinpics?

As far as error pins go, some people make a point of collecting error pins and consider them more valuable. Some people don't want them. In any sort of collecting, it is all in the demand at the monent.

Have fun trading! If you have any questions, ask. Feel free to PM me.

 

[webprinter]

Thanks everyone for your help. There is a lot to learn about pin trading and you are right, I have some that I have, simply because I like them or they have sentimental value, (like the Wonderful world of color pin that I have because we used to watch it every week as kids). I appreciate everyone's input and have been doing as much reading as I can find. I will look up that book, but it is interesting to know that pins can change value so quickly. I just assumed that they would go up and up, not down.

Obi-wan-pinobi, it was the MGM Motor Parade Monsters Inc. #8560. Apparently according to the cast member, something was cut out that wasn't supposed to be on a limited number of them and then it was corrected. When researching Pinpics, the only pin they show, looks just like the one I have, so I don't think it is a mistake pin.

Cool Disney Cat, the pins I was unable to find on ebay are just older pins I think. They were rack pins or freebies from somewhere that I traded for because I liked the way they looked. None of my pins have numbers or anything special on the back of them. I will keep watching ebay and maybe they will show up.