What collecting pins involves

Most of the hobby is looking. Independent artists sell pins in small batches called drops, often announced a week ahead on social media and sold out within days, so collectors follow a handful of shops and decide quickly. The rest is curation: picking a theme (frogs, a favorite show, national parks, one artist), arranging a board, and trading duplicates with other collectors in person or by mail. A session can be ten minutes of browsing a new release or half an hour rearranging the wall.

Fingers holding up a single enamel pin of a corgi wearing a space helmet — One pin, about an inch across

Four ways to collect

Independent artist pinsOriginal designs sold direct by illustrators through their own shops, crowdfunding campaigns and convention tables. This is the biggest part of the hobby and where most limited editions come from.

Start here

Find three artists whose style you like, follow their shops and buy one standard-grade pin from each. Three is enough to see how sizes, enamel types and finishes differ in the hand.

r/EnamelPins

Theme park pin tradingOfficial park pins are made to be swapped. Staff wear lanyards of pins and will trade one for one with any guest, which makes it the easiest way to trade with a stranger for the first time.

Start here

Before your next park visit, read the official trading rules and buy a few official pins you would be happy to trade away. On the day, ask a staff member wearing a pin lanyard to trade.

Walt Disney World: Pin Trading

Sports and event pinsThe Olympics, youth baseball tournaments and music venues all have long trading traditions. Pins are tied to a year and a place, so a collection doubles as a record of where you have been.

Start here

Pick one event or team you already follow and buy its current official pin. Take a few spares of the same pin to the next game or tournament to swap with other fans.

Olympin Collectors Club

Vintage and thrifted pinsOld advertising, travel, union and club pins turn up for a dollar or two in thrift stores and flea markets. Nothing is limited or hyped here, and the fun is in working out what a pin was for.

Start here

Check the jewelry tray and the jar by the register at two thrift stores or one flea market this weekend. Set a limit of $3 a pin and buy only pieces with a clear maker's mark on the back.

Open a direction to see its first step. Independent artist pins adds the Wall Display gear to the kit: a cork board, a banner and a shadow box. Theme park trading and sports and event pins both add the Pin Trading gear: a lanyard and a pin book. Vintage and thrifted pins uses the base kit as it is.

A framed cork board crowded with cartoon animal and food enamel pins

Your first two weeks

Tick these off as you go

How to read a pin before you buy

Hard or soft enamel

Hard enamel is polished flat so the color sits level with the metal lines, and it resists scratches. Soft enamel leaves the color recessed so you can feel the raised lines. It is cheaper and shows more texture, and it scratches more easily.

Grade

Makers sort each batch by flaws. Standard (or A grade) may have tiny marks you can only see up close. Seconds (or B grade) have visible specks, scratches or low enamel fill and sell at a discount. Every artist defines grades differently, so read the shop's grading page.

Edition size

"LE 100" means 100 were made and no more will be. An open edition can be restocked forever. Edition size drives resale price far more than age does.

Back stamp

The maker's name or logo pressed into the back is the best proof of where a pin came from. Official park and event pins also carry a copyright mark there.

Posts

Pins over about 1.5 inches should have two posts so they do not spin when worn.

Extras that raise the price

Glitter, glow enamel, screen-printed detail, and moving parts such as spinners and sliders all add cost and add places for a flaw to hide.

Rectangular enamel pins shaped like book covers, spaced out on a cork board — Gold metal lines around each color

Wearing, storing and cleaning

Two enamel pins on the collar and pocket flap of a light denim jacket — Pins on a denim jacket

Pin through a single layer of fabric where you can. Two thick layers leave too little post for the back to grip.
Keep pins from rubbing against each other. Metal edges scratch enamel and plating, so space them on a board and never store them loose in a bag or drawer.
Wipe fingerprints off with a soft dry cloth. Skip metal polish, which can wear through thin plating.
Display away from direct sun and steamy rooms. Heat and damp tarnish plating over time.
Save the backing cards. A limited pin with its original card sells and trades better than the same pin without one.

What trips beginners up

Rows of vintage Soviet enamel badges with aircraft and emblems laid out on black cloth — Vintage enamel badges

Expect small flaws.

Pins are filled and polished by hand, so a perfect one is rare. Judge a pin at arm's length in good light before asking for a replacement.

Expect to miss drops.

Popular releases can sell out in minutes. Another artist will have something you like next week, and paying triple to a reseller is rarely worth it.

Expect fakes in cheap bulk lots.

Bags of 25 or 50 park pins sold far below retail are often factory rejects and copies. Rough edges, off colors and blurry back stamps give them away, and trading them on is bad manners.

Stop buying everything you like.

A board of unrelated pins reads as clutter. Stick to your theme for the first three months.

Stop wearing your best pins on a backpack.

Wear the seconds and open editions. Keep limited pieces on the board.

Stop pushing pins straight into leather or thick denim.

The post bends and the hole is permanent. Use a seam, a lapel buttonhole or a fabric banner instead.

Two dozen enamel pins arranged on black cloth stretched in an embroidery hoop

Where to learn

Communities, databases, conventions

Collector communities are the fastest teacher: people post new arrivals daily, flag shops that copy other artists' work and answer grading questions. For official park pins, the free online databases let you look up a pin by character or year, which is the quickest check on a pin you are offered in a trade. In person, the artist alley at any comic or anime convention is the best place to handle hundreds of pins in an afternoon and meet the people who draw them.

Communities, pin databases and clubs

How the kit is put together

The pins themselves are the real spending, and they come from artists and event shops, so the kit below covers only what keeps them safe and on show. Locking backs come first because a lost pin costs more than the whole bag of backs. After that the kit splits by how you collect: a board, a banner and a glass-fronted frame if your pins live on a wall, or a lanyard and a zip-up pin book if you carry them to trade. The loupe at the end is for later, once you start buying secondhand.

Animal and insect enamel pins fixed around the band of a blue and white striped hat — Pins worn around a hat band

Fill the pin board

The first line is the pins themselves, which you buy from artists and event shops, not online here. For everything else, compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the board. Clicking a card selects it there. The locking backs, rubber backs and cleaning cloths start in the kit. The cork board, banner and shadow box join when you switch on Wall Display, and the lanyard and pin book join with Pin Trading. The loupe is optional and starts out of the kit.

Your first enamel pins

essential · The collection

Two or three pins bought direct from their makers teach you what good enamel, plating and grading look like, and give you something to arrange on day one.

Not sold on Amazon · buy from the artist or the event

Not sold on Amazon. Buy standard-grade pins from the artist's own online shop or convention table, or official pins from the park or event itself. Expect $8 to $15 a pin, plus shipping.

Locking pin backs

essential · Wearing

The stock clutch works loose on anything that moves or hangs: a jacket, a bag, a lanyard, a banner. A locking back grips the post until you release it.

budget

50 PCs Metal Pin Backs, Locking Pin Keepers Clasp Replacement

4.7(7K)

$4.99

Enamel Pin Collecting

What collecting pins involves

Four ways to collect

Your first two weeks

How to read a pin before you buy

Wearing, storing and cleaning

What trips beginners up

Where to learn

How the kit is put together

Fill the pin board

Your first enamel pins

Locking pin backs

Rubber pin backs

Microfiber cleaning cloths

Cork board

Pin display banner

Pin display shadow box

Pin trading lanyard

Pin trading book

10x jeweler's loupe