This isn’t your usual article post. This article is going to pose that most challenging & moral conundrum as someone who collects pins, to trade or not to trade. Now I am acutely aware that this sounds an awful lot like an old game show that Noel Edmund used to do in the UK, called deal or no deal, but I think this is genuinely one of the things that I regularly think about.
I like to consider myself as someone who is active here on Pintrader.club regularly adding new pins that I had added to my collection. I also have pins that I get notifications for that other people are in search of. I excitedly go and look to what they have in their for trade selection. And through no fault of their own, and this is in no way a dig or a complaint just a fact, it is often the case there isn’t anything that they have that I would like. The question therefore is, should I trade or not?
There are a number of reasons why people collect Disney pins and I am sure there has already been an article on that. Personally, I collect pins that I like, have meaning, part of a collection of pins I already have and on the rare occasion as an investment. Now on that final point I am aware that some of my pins in my collection might have a large resale value - thinking of my nurses day pins. They regularly go for large amounts, but I don’t actually plan to sell them. Therefore, if I don’t see any pins that interest me, then surely I shouldn’t trade?
But then what if my pin, that is marked for trade, is the one that a person really needs to complete their collection? Should I just trade and what ever I receive put straight out for trade? There could be no benefit at all to me. In fact, the trade could be for a less desirable pin and so in the trading game wouldn’t help me at all. But should it? Shouldn’t it be in both parties interest?
Then again, I sit here writing this and I think about the one pin that I can see in their collection that I like, however, that pin is a limited edition and not worth the value of the one of mine that they have marked as wanted. Is it right or wrong to suggest that for a trade?
As you can see, the answer of trade or not to trade poses many challenging questions. If you’re reading this post hoping for answers, then am afraid you will be disappointed. I have no answers, only questions and my own personal thoughts. But what I do have is the ability to say to you - you are not alone in this.
Personally, I see no harm offering a trade to anyone in the full knowledge that they might not accept - and they don’t need to give a reason, we just need to accept that is ok.
After all pin trading should be fun and your collection, whether big or small, expensive or not, your collection is yours and you should be proud of it. Collections are unique as every single one of us.
