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Newbie Pin Collector
Lily_Cat
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
in Pinny Arcade
Hi everyone!
I'd like to start off by introducting myself as a newbie pin collector, so far all I have is the starter set from PA online. My names Lily and I'm an avid gamer/cosplayer! I found out about lin collecting recently and now find myself itching to start! I'm hopefully attending PAX south this weekend
I saw there are different sets at each PAX like starter sets, staff sets, and vendor sets? Other than purchasing online and at the merchant booths how do people collect them?! I obviously wony have anything to trade as a noob so how does that work? Will I have to buy extras and hope someone wants to trade?
Any info or tips to collect at the conference would be appreciated!!
I'd like to start off by introducting myself as a newbie pin collector, so far all I have is the starter set from PA online. My names Lily and I'm an avid gamer/cosplayer! I found out about lin collecting recently and now find myself itching to start! I'm hopefully attending PAX south this weekend
I saw there are different sets at each PAX like starter sets, staff sets, and vendor sets? Other than purchasing online and at the merchant booths how do people collect them?! I obviously wony have anything to trade as a noob so how does that work? Will I have to buy extras and hope someone wants to trade?
Any info or tips to collect at the conference would be appreciated!!
+1
Posts
Yeah, a lot of the pins are purchase. Some of them are free.
You can also trade with other people, but the trades in that case are to the discretion of each trader.
BTW, Welcome to Pin Trading. Get out while you still can
Buying extras, & grinding the freebies are the general methods. We also form pin groups of people that attend the different locations.
If you want to go hardcore, you'll need to be in line a few hours before the doors open to get the ltd ed event only pin. For the last 3 it was an anniversary shield, for South it's the Polygon symbol.
Check pinnypals.com for trading by mail, talk to pin traders at PAX and make some connections. Some of us have pretty decent "back catalogues" and will be looking to trade for South stuff.
Feel free to pm me if you have more specific questions, or want to set up some advance trades by mail
http://www.pinnypals.com/?tab=pals&username=Brimstone
Firstly, head over to https://pinnypals.com and make an account, here you can display ass the pins you have and want, making it easier to trade with people.
As a new collector, you probably dont have that many pins to start as you said. The first thing you need to do is get into a pin group. Pin groups are groups of 3 or 4, one member goes to their specified pax (prime, east, aus and south) and gets pins for each member. If you are serious about collecting, this is the best way to get many pins. You said you were going to south, this actually puts you in advantage, groups will want a south member since south is the newest pax.
There are probably many members who can explain and help you out much better than me, but this should be enough to get you started. In the meantime, welcome aboard and happy trading!
http://pinmash.info - Head-To-Head battle of pins! Choose the most desirable.
http://pinnywise.com - iOS pin collection tracking app.
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My Delicious Pins For Trade
Blind boxes are sold by Penny Arcade, they contain two random pins. (Right now they are sold out)
Some vendors give away pins, I believe at least one is doing that at south, Check the south thread to find out.
You probably also want to check out thepintrader website, just to get a basic idea of what pins are rare and what is common.
Also if you buy $100 worth of loot at the penny arcade stall you get a free pin as well.
Hope that helps.
My Pin Lanyard
As for 'free' pins. Usually at PAX you just line up to a particular 3rd party booth that has a pin, maybe play their demo and get a pin at the end. Unfortunately you seem to have joined up at an unlucky time, PAX South this year seems to have a lot of pins that are outright being sold, you can see the entire list here http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2015/01/16/pax-south-pins
Normally, there are several venders that offer free pins that you can play their demo to get. Unfortunately, at South there is really only Two 'free' pins and those are the Undead Labs ones. Most of the other pins will be (about) $15 give or take. The set that is specific to the event is going to be your best value to be able to get 'trade fodder'. Trade fodder is anything really...whether it be free pins or just pins from a set. Sinc the sets usually are $30 for four pins, and the vender pins usually run about $15 each...the merch booth sets are the best value per pin.
As it has been said the staff will trade for any pin, so your best bet is to 1. Play the Undead Lab demos as much as possible(whether that be looping the line or just doing it a few times a day) or buying the PAX South pins at the merch booth. If you are able to buy 3-5 sets of pins at the merch booth, then that should give you quite a bit of trade fodder. This will come into handy especially at theStaff Pin Trading event. Basically at that, all the staff will be trading pins. People can trade up to two pins with any staff...and since a lot of us have pins from previous paxes, you will easily be able to get a lot of those pins by trading at that event(Saturday 7-9pm i believe)
Lastly, if you can wake up, go and stand in line early AM and get two of the LE Polygon pin at the merch booth in the mornings. A lot of us will be lining up between 6 and 7 waiting to get that pin. It will be a pin that you will be able to trade for other Limited Edition pins either now, or in the future. Also, if you're in line that early we can help to point you in the right direction on things. ^_^
If you have any questions, as other people have said, feel free to IM. I'll answer anything that I can. Also, If needed I can meet up Thursday night or something and try to show you pins to keep an eye out for, and what is a good deal vs a bad deal for the future.
(As a note, I'm having a game on Friday evening, where if you win you get one of the 2013 Australia pins...which is one of the rarer pins that people always want. If you want to play, then check out that thread!)
Feel like such a noob askin so much but appreciate all the responses, sure do know how to make a girl feel welcome!
Also, come to the panel at 4pm on Friday, it should be a good place to get more info.
Trade me pins! - https://pinnypals.com/pals/TheAggroCraig
The whole point of lining up for the expo hall line early is to get to a particular booth quickly. For instance, some of the big games to line up for at PAX Prime last year included Sunset Overdrive, The Order 1886, Evolve, Heroes of the Storm, Smash bros, etc. Lining up early for the expo hall usually gives you a good chance at getting a good spot in line at whichever booth you want to hit first. An example would be me lining up at like 7 or 8 AM in the expo hall queue and getting into the expo hall at 10 AM to be like 8th in line at the Sunset Overdrive booth. This lowers the time you would have to wait in a line if you got there later. The Order line was usually capped at all times and wait times could be up to 2-3 hours. If you aren't hitting up a huge booth with a long wait at the start of the day then lining up for the expo hall isn't necessary. There are plenty of games to play that won't have long wait times.
As someone said above, the Merch booth is a separate line. If you have particular merchandise you want to purchase then lining up early is your best bet at obtaining let's say a limited edition pin. In essence it's a trade off. If you want particular merch you line up early. If you want to hit up a particular booth in the expo hall then lining up early can help to reduce wait time. This is especially true if a particular booth has swag you might want, i.e. a free pin for playing a demo, a free shirt, etc.
Another year of Prime gone by... commence the struggle!
https://www.pinnypals.com/pals/dchoy
If you have whatsapp PM myself or @PedroAsani your number and we can add you to the South group chat. We have a meet up planned on Thursday night you could come along to in order to get to know some faces for during the show.
If you can't make it Thursday night, keep an eye out for Me and Fayt all weekend, we're super easy to spot and always happy to help out ^^
I have very brightly coloured hair and he wears an epic pin scarf of epicness
Looking forward to seeing you there!
[X]PAXsouth 2015
[X]PAXaus 2015
[?]PAXeast 2016 ???
One of us. One of us.
Cheap Pins for trading used to be the Lookouts Set, but currently that is out of print. Any of the 4-Pin Sets in the store work for trades, and if you want to pick up rare stuff cheap the best bet is to hit the Staff trading tables on Saturday at 19:00 and play the games the Staff run. It's typically a version of Khoo Roulette, where the Staff have filled Blind boxes with some goodies and you play using a "fodder" Pin. Fodder Pins are usually Lookouts, Core Sets, Twisp and Catsby (anything in the store that isn't seasonal).
If you want to save money getting Pins, you have to trade time. Find the booth with Pins that is the biggest pain in the arse of the convention and farm it. Either go through the queue multiple times, or camp the spawn point (exit line) and trade for those Pins. Kemper is a popular choice, and the Adventure Time and Catbug were good for Prime 14.
Check out Pinnypals.com for potential trades, use Pinmash.info to see which are the coveted Pins, come find us on Thursday evening where there is a good chance to get me drunk and offer absurd trades.
Friday morning is for the queue to get the Limited Edition Pin. If you get as many as allowed, you have some good trading stock for even veteran collectors who are unable to get to South.
Nusquam Findi Factionis
My Digital Pin Lanyard
Nusquam Findi Factionis
My Digital Pin Lanyard
"Damn fine pins!"
Mmmmmmhm.
Pinny Pals Lanyard
Wow, S and L arent even remotely close enough to be considered a 'typo'...... clearly i was in a different headspace...
Pinny Pals Lanyard
To expand on this, you will be surprised at just how much opportunity you will have to trade. This will potentially sting a little as a new trader, because there will be times when you see cool trades in front of you, but you won't have anything "surplus" you feel like giving up for them.
If you need to be budget-conscious at the event, it would probably be wise to have some sort of plan about which pins you want to get this weekend, and which can wait till later (a future PAX, or online trades). Once you get in there and the pins start flowing there will be a very strong temptation to just keep buying and buying sets at the merch booth to trade, and the cost can add up very quickly. If you've got a healthy pin budget allotted, then --as mentioned above -- try and clump your merch purchases into $100 at a go, so you can get those bonus Merch 2.0 pins.
http://pinmash.info - Two pins enter, one pins leaves... then the other pin leaves with a lower Elo rating
Always looking to trade.
I WANT A BEANIE BABY VERSION OF THIS