While most trading pins are typically flat with a glossy finish, there are many types of trading pin accessory. Common features include blinking lights, hanging charms or "danglers", spinners, and bobble heads.[7]
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games has a long tradition of pin trading,[3] sometimes called the "unofficial sport" of the Games,[8][9] which is open to all.[3] Each year, between 5,000 and 6,000 new designs of pin are created for the games,[10] usually by nations, teams, brand sponsors,[11] media organizations,[10] and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) itself.[12] They are seen as a "currency of friendship",[13] creating a barter economy,[12] and allow athletes to bond despite speaking different languages.[8] Those who engage in the hobby are often nicknamed "pinheads".[14][15]
Pins are often worn by athletes on their lanyards or accreditation badges to indicate a willingness to trade. Their value can range from very little to thousands of dollars, depending on their age, material, special features, and frequency.[9] Smaller delegations, particularly those from Africa,[16] may only bring a few hundred pins, causing them to be more valuable.[9] Pins from countries that have recently changed their names are also subject to higher demand,[16] as are pins from cancelled Olympic Games and those created for politicians.[10]
Rules of etiquette for trading have been established by the International Association of Olympic Collectors (AICO),[15][17] and a US based[17] collectors' club for the hobby, Olympin, is recognized by the IOC and had 500 members as of 2022,[18] featuring a compendium of pins on its website.[15]
History
The use of pin badges at the Olympics began during the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, during which three designs of pin were produced;[12] small cardboard disks were worn by judges, athletes and officials, in blue, pink and red respectively.[14] Winning athletes were presented with cloth pins which featured competing countries' national emblems.[11][19]
The public first became involved in trading pins at te 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal,[9][16] and this grew at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.[9] Olympin was formed following the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1982.[19] The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, according to many pin traders at the time, was a pivotal event for pin trading,[3] as it marked the beginning of sponsors' use of pins to promote their brands.[9] London Pins estimated that at those Games, there were "17,000,000 pins in over 1,300 designs".[14] The first official pin trading center was established at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, sponsored by Coca-Cola,[9] which began manufacturing its own pins to trade that year.[20]
Around 500,000 people visited Olympic pin trading sites at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.[20] For the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, a local company produced and sold 18 million pins, over three times the population of its host country of Norway, with the organization committee obtaining US$18,000,000 in royalties.[10] 1.5 million people visited trading sites at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta,[20] following which four pin traders including Sid Marantz purchased a warehouse in Colorado which had been home to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and held 750,000 unsold pins. They kept around 120,000 and sold the rest to other collectors.[16]
Pin trading was less prevalent at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi due to fewer regulars attending the Games.[24] Williams obtained a North Korea pin at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro which she stated she "would never, ever, ever trade".[25] Gymnast Aly Raisman stated that she tried "to trade pins with the cute boys if [she could] find them, to be honest."[26]
In 2020, as a result of the announcement that no outside spectators would be allowed into Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which took place in 2021, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, pin trading was halted. Around 250 pin traders had prepared for the Games, and organizers had already made 600 different officially licensed pins to be sold in 12 souvenir stores around Tokyo. Pin-related promotions were planned featuring pins representing Japan's 47 prefectures. It was speculated by traders that pins from these Olympics would be worth very little due to supply dwarfing demand.[16] In an attempt to continue the tradition digitally, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were sold in place of the pins, with mascot-inspired designs and digitally animated posters from previous Olympics,[10] as well as NFT versions of pins from past Games dating back to the Athens games in 1896. The NFTs were sold in packs ranging in price from $9-$499 per pack, a peer-to-peer marketplace was planned to facilitate trading and buying, and the NFTs were also planned to be available to earn through playing Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - The Official Video Game.[27] The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing also prevented contact between attendees, stifling any trading.[8]
The current logo with Disneyland Paris branding; variants of the logo use other individual resorts, depending on the region, or Disney Parks as a whole.
Disney fans often engage in the collection, display and trading of pins which are often themed to Disney characters, attractions, ticketed events, parks, hotels and other elements at Disney parks.[6] Limited edition pins are frequently released at special events, movie premieres, pin trading events or to commemorate the opening day of new attractions.[6]
Disney fans often assign subcultural capital to those who have obtained these pins in person, and use them to represent their fan identities.[6] They are framed by Disney as a way to interact within the physical spaces of the parks.[6]
In all Disney resorts, guests as well as merchandise cast members wear pins on lanyards around their necks or on specially designed pin trading bags.[6] Each lanyard contains around a dozen unique pins, and cast members must trade with guests if they are presented with an acceptable pin. The cast members may not decline a particular trade based on preference or rarity of the pin but may decline if the pin is not acceptable or pin trading rules are not being observed. Cast members may have differently colored lanyards that determine what age group can trade for those pins. For example, a green lanyard worn by a cast member means that children twelve years of age and younger only can trade for pins on the lanyard in Walt Disney World Florida. Other than this restriction, people of all ages can enjoy this activity.[30]
Disney discourages guests from partaking in the common practice of acquiring a large number of rare pins to sell on sites such as eBay for significantly inflated prices. Long-term fans largely also oppose this practice, with calls to reduce the number of the same item that can be sold from ten.[6]
Disney has published a list of rules for pin trading, its 'Trading Pin Etiquette'.[6] Among these tips include:
For a pin to be tradeable it must be a cloisonné, semi-cloisonné or hard-enamel metal Disney pin or acceptable operating participant pin which represents a specific Disney event, place or location, character or icon.[6]
Guests may only trade one pin of the same style at a time with a cast member, hand to hand.[6]
