Why You Should Invest in a Premium Pin Bag
A premium pin bag is the best way to keep your collectable pins safe, accessible and portable. Here's why you should invest in a high-quality bag.
What Is a Premium Pin Bag?
A premium pin bag is a must for every pin collector. It gives you the required protection, storage and portability for your pin collection. They are designed to help you easily display, show off and trade your pins with other pin traders.
Imagine being at a little league baseball tournament with a jumble of pins in a grocery bag. You get the picture, it just doesn’t work for pin trading.
A premium pin bag will offer the following features:
Accessibility
A good pin bag will allow multiple pages for pins to be laid out side by side and organized by type or size or some other distinguishing feature that allows you to access and show quickly.
Durability
A good pin bag will be constructed of strong material such as nylon and stitched well to endure the rigors of pin trading. The bag will be moved frequently, the zipper will be zipped and unzipped constantly, pins will be pinned and unpinned over and over again from the pin pages. So, it needs to be durable to handle all the wear and tare of a good pin trader.
Capacity
A good pin bag will have a large capacity to hold hundreds of pins. The premium bags will hold 200 plus large size trading pins.
Portability
A good pin bag needs to be portable. Trading implies moving around from event to event from person to person so it needs to be easily transported around. It should include a handle and a shoulder strap for flexibility in how it is moved.
Security
A good pin bag needs to be secure. Pins have moving parts (ie the clutch) and if the clutch falls off the pin falls out and the pin becomes lost. So, ensure your bag is fully enclosed with a zipper closure to contain the contents in your bag.
Protection
A good pin bag needs to protect your pins from damage. Soft material like foam or velvet and divider sheets will help keep the face of your pins protected from scratches.
Why a Premium Pin Bag?
You might want to have a pin bag for your collections for numerous reasons. The main reason why many people opt-in for upgrading to a premium storage pin bag is for protection, safety and aesthetics.
Avoid the Scratches
Pins can become scratched quickly, and they can also become tarnished or dirty over time as well. Storing them in a safe place can keep them from experiencing scratches, dings, and scrapes. Also the less hand touches on the pin the less you will need to polish your collection.
Avoid Frequent Cleaning
While it's appropriate to dip them in a soap and water solution, you can limit their exposure to harsh soaps by storing them properly. This could increase the look and life of what you expect them to have while saving you time when you want to trade them.
Promote Your Style
What's also great is that the style of the bag can match your personal style and not only your needs. Uniqueness comes at a premium. You will notice that pin bags come in a variety of styles from satchels and smaller cross-body style bags to backpacks and binders that also include straps. The pins don't all have to go into the inserts either.
Oftentimes, your favorite pins can go in the slots that are provided on the inside of the bag, and others that you want to display could go on the outside. This gives you room to be creative and showcase your pins, especially if you actively trade them.
Avoid Loss
In addition to safety, you can't deny that trading pins are tiny. Most of them will range between 1.5 and three inches. This can make them very easy to misplace. Having a designated place to store them will limit your chances of losing them.
They are only about 1.2 to two millimeters thick, making them easy to slip into the pin slots, and they still have plenty of room for more within only one bag. Whether you need a pin bag for aesthetic purposes or function, these bags give you the option of having both.
A History Lesson
Do you know how pin trading started? Keep in mind that there is a trading pin for everything from certain people and certain sports to Disney themes and Olympic Games.
Thinking About the Start of Disney
For Disney pins, they have been around about as long as their parks were; although, you did still need to be able to spot fake pins and keep yours from raising any red flags. Around 1999, if you didn't already know this, their unique and most sought-after trading pin was released as it accompanied the Millenium Celebration.
This pin was featured at the Walt Disney World Resort, and this followed the Odyssey of the Mind event, which sparked what would later be a popular activity for everyone, Disney Pin Trading.
What About the Start of Sports?
In terms of sports, pin trading goes as far back as 1896, when it first started in Athens at the first site for the Olympic Games. Let's appreciate how far pin trading has come to the point where we are now from how it began considering that in 1896, pins were usually made from cardboard material. The act of pin trading is like a sport all on its own.
This part of the game's done by the fans of competing teams, and it has become a staple of the Olympic Games. When pin trading first started, athletes used them to help identify who they were, what they competed in, and who they competed for. Fans do the same to show their support for their home country, their favorite athlete, the games in general, and what the game represents or what it means to them.
Material Makes a Difference
Today, pins have a metal base with an enamel top coat most of the time, although they're made from anything the manufacturer prefers to use. The two primary types offered today are offset printed pins and enamel pins.
Offset printed pins limit the distortion of imagery. This means that your design won't be altered, and different gradients get included to help with this.
Iron metal pins that have dye-struck material help to create enamel pins, and it's a great option to showcase great detail and features within the pin design. Compared to how pin trading started in terms of material, trading has become a bit more advanced.
The Advantages of a Trading Pin Bag
The list of advantages is long, and different features will appeal to different people. Overall, once you get a trading pin bag, there are a few key things you'll have to look forward to.
- Portability
- Designated storage
- Affordable storage
- Protection from damage
- Increased life span
- Less cleaning
- Unique and custom designs
- Multiple pages or pockets of space within one bag
When you think about it, there aren't too many disadvantages to having a pin bag, if you can think of any at all. If you want a simple solution to house and protect your pins from damage, a bag for them is the best option. If you are an avid trader and want to find something that caters more to aesthetics so that you have display options when you can trade with others, this is even more of a reason to use one.
Also, consider if you collect to sell. If you are a collector specializing in sourcing and restoring pins and you sell at markets, having something that can carry hundreds per bag will make your job that much easier.
The benefits, as we mentioned, can be tailored to the person and the reasons they need or want the bag. Not to mention, they also make the perfect gift for any Disney trading pin enthusiast or sports pin collector.
Your Trading Pin Collection Will Only Get Better
Trading pin bags have about three or six pages within them or even more, although this varies by the size and design of the bag. They are meant to provide proper lining, sealing, and storing of your pins, whether you are stationary or mobile. Your collection will only benefit from having its own space, as the dividers keep them from rubbing against each other.
This means that they're protected from the elements, from scratches that could be caused by outside sources, and from causing scratches to each other. With the protective cloth that act as the liners, your pins have cushioning, which keeps them from rattling against each other and provides a protective layer that supports them and holds them in place.
It's important to realize that while pin trading is fun, they are often collected and traded based solely on value and not only collection completion or additions. Some of the most valuable pins on the market are;
- 1927 press pin
- Lou Gehrig memorial pin
- 1912 press pin
- 1911 Philadelphia athletics press pin
While these are baseball trading pins, different types of pins can have significant value, whether in terms of monetary gain or sentimental value. Depending on their condition, release date, availability, and rareness, your pins could hold high value.
Adding to this, if you keep them in pristine condition, they could be worth even more!
If You Don't Have a Trading Pin Bag, what?
Quite a few things could go wrong if you are not storing your trading pins the right way.
Disney pins, for example, are often made from soft enamel. Although they have a metal base, it's not enough to protect them. The problem with this is that soft enamel isn't the most durable material.
Unlike hard enamel, this type is very prone to scratches. Therefore, while the design of them is beautiful and the texture's unmatched, they need to be stored properly to maintain their quality and aesthetic features.
Also, enamel can tarnish quickly as well. If you aren't keeping your pins in a room temperature area with no moisture, you might notice the deterioration in their features changing over time. It's suggested to always store in dry areas to avoid this, and using a pin bag is one of the most popular options.
Time to Get Your Own Pin Bag!
Having a bag for pin trading can make the difference between damaged pins and high-quality pins. So, to enhance the condition of your collection, consider using a trading pin bag, as you will get more out of your pins than you thought possible.
