If you follow many pins accounts on social media (follow us on Instagram) you will likely have seen people running or talking about opps. I wanted to quickly share some information about what pin opps are and why they are fun to take part in!
What is a pin opp?
A pin opp is a competition where you pay a relatively small amount of money for a chance at winning a pin, ordinarily worth a lot more than you've paid.
The Opp in Pin Opp stands for Opportunity, because it is an opportunity to get a pin for very cheap! A quick way of thinking about them is it is like a raffle.
A pin worth £50 might be yours for as little as £2. But the rub is there are maybe 24 other people taking part and trying to win.
How pin opps work
The person running the opp will pick appropriate prizes and set the cost of entry and the number of spots there are to be.
People ask for spots, and once people have filled the spots, everyone has to pay.
Once everyone has paid, the seller will randomly pick the winner from all the entries.
If there are 25 spots available and you have one spot, you have a 4% chance of winning. Some opps will allow people to buy multiple spots, the more spots you have the higher the chance you have of winning.
A screenshot from an opp ran by DisneyPinTraderUK
In the above picture we see a very common way of running opps, this one was by our friend DisneyPinTraderUK. A picture of the pin or pins you could win, followed by the rules of the opp.
Are pin opps worth it?
If you win, they are very worth it! 😅 Of course, you aren't guaranteed anything and odds are most of the time you play you will lose.
What is in it for the seller?
You might be wondering why the seller would go through so much hassle of organising an opp when they could sell the pins people so clearly want. There are a few reasons.
They are fun! People love getting together and chatting before the opp takes place and wishing everyone luck
The seller might make more money. A pin might sell for £30, but you could make £50 if you sell 25 spots at £2 each
The pin might never sell otherwise. There are plenty of pins worth high values that I wouldn't buy outright, but would chance a small amount of money to maybe win.
Do you take part in opps?
Let us know in the comments below. I'm especially keen to hear about your winnings! I'm writing this post after just winning this beauty!
