In particular...
John Lewis - for hosting us in such a magnificent venue and laying out a wonderful display
Honav - for providing some frames of pins to view and giving us a taster of what's to come
BT, Cadbury and Lloyds TSB - for offering free pins to the collectors that registered and attended
Coca-Cola - for sharing some pin centre news and talking to collectors about potential new pins
Inside the Games and BBC London 2012 - for interviewing some of us for articles on pin collecting that we should see next week
and not forgetting all the collectors, old and new, who joined in. From the conversations I had, I think there were some pretty successful trades made today. I sincerely hope the people that joined us for the first time felt welcomed by the group and are encouraged to come back next time. Apologies to those who I didn't get a proper chance to talk to, the time just flew past.
More details and potential event dates to come over the next few days.
Posts
21 comments:
Good turn out today. Thanks to Paul for arranging BUT shame that yet again someone feels the need and can't wait even 5 mins until they put some (all) of their freebees up on EBAY. Maybe they could not afford the train fare home or maybe they are just a little bit greedy.
Unfourtunately this will happen. People will buy/sell/trade pins...that is the hobby. However, there should be some honor among thieves. He could have waited a few days.
This person knows who he is, as does everyone else and I suppose he expects these sponsors to be pleased and that they will gladly show up at the next meeting and hand him some more pins. Not likely.
Maybe at the next meeting someone can quietly mention to the sponsors who this person is.
What I hate about this whole thing is the boast that one of the pins is a really rare limited pin. And by selling it means that more than one was obtained today by our fellow trader. Did everyone get one ? no they did not. Greedy and disgusting in my book. And why does he know it is rare, because he got the low down from Pauls site. The same person who arranged todays meeting. Talk about rubbing it in.
The club should police this sort of behavior if it expects to continue getting the sponsors support and for the good of the club and all it's members in the longrun. This person is selfish and only looking at the shorterm gain for himself.
As the person who has listed these pins, i thought it might be nice to set a few facts straight so those making these comments can work in truths rather than assumptions.....
firstly, not one of the pins i listed was a 'freebie', every single pin was traded for and each with pins that i had paid hard cash for myself through ebay (the freebies such as the BT pin, the londonpins pin and three Lloyds pins have not been listed).
secondly, i suspect the people making the comments above have been in the hobby long enough to have seen this happen 100 times before, and if they haven't, wait till games time, this will be happening 100s of times daily
thirdly, the selling of these pins is not for financial gain, any money paid to me is certain to be spent buying other pins from other collectors/sellers, so its just my way of trading pins with other people around the world that i cant meet face to face. if i sell my pin to A for £20 and then buy a pin from B for £20 tomorrow with the funds i received, is that not the definition of 'trading' pins??? for the record, although it is not really anyone else's business, i have not withdrawn a penny from my paypal account in over 5 years. so although the parking at westfield is a little expensive, my pin selling wont fund that, nor will it be put towards 'train fare home' nor the private jet i have on order (!!!)
Do you imagine that your reply will make the sponsors happy to give you pins again? I think not!
i thought i had explained things pretty clearly but apparently not.
so i will reiterate for you.....none of the pins i have listed were 'given' to me by sponsors. i traded for them fair and square.
i'm finding it quite amazing how many people seem to be looking at ebay purely for the purpose of using it as a reference guide as clearly all those preaching to me have never bought or sold on there judged by their comments!
HOW EVER YOU WANT TO DRESS IT UP YOU ARE SELLLING FREEBIES THAT THE SPONSORS KINDLY GAVE TO SATURDAYS EVENT, It is Wrong and so are you. No jusification IT IS DISTASTFULLY WRONG
I wasn't at the pin meet but have been following the thread and, in my opinion, sponsors may not be so keen to support such an event which Paul has taken the trouble to organise for members, if they see that people are making money from free pins. So you are risking the goodwill of the sponsors that other collectors are very grateful for. You could at least wait a while before putting your spoils on ebay!
Thanks Paul for putting together such a great day! I'll be writing to the sponsors (hopefully they'll read my e-mails this time!) to express my appreciation, and big cheers to all the guys - Jim, James, Mike, Noel and others - for the trades and chat.
Best regards to all!
From your discussion I guess that you are talking about a couple of Lloyds pins especially about the "diving girl" pin. 99 pounds as a starting price looks pretty greedy to me too. If the seller on Ebay would be a real collector/trader he would have used this special pin to trade it for other rare pins. Just my two cents....
u say u haven't listed the LLoyds freebies but u have. u are selling six pins that were given away by LLoyds yesterday.
i really dont want to spend my whole sunday arguing the toss with you guys.
the freebies i was 'given' were the BT 200 days to go, the londonpins pin, three Lloyds 1 ytg pins and the silver bank of scotland pins. NONE of which are listed on ebay.
whatever i listed i either already had prior to the meet (ie the lloyds 1 ytg pins) or traded for at the meet, you can take that as the truth or otherwise, thats your prerogative, just as it is mine to do what i wish with property i have, in effect, bought
if sponsors read this and take it that their freebies are being sold, i would suggest that they are doing so based on various incorrect comments above rather than the actual facts of the matter.
and to them, i would say, i appreciate your generosity wholeheartedly (indeed i have already emailed two of you last night to thank you for supporting the meet), i assure you any pins you gave me free and gratis yesterday are not being sold. if i traded with you, you are free to do whatever you wish with the pins you received as your half of the deal and am sure you appreciate the same sentiment applies to my half of the deal
Cheers to Mike, Bill, Wookie, Pippin, Tom etc (and not forgetting Paul)...... Nice to see all of the old faces and a few new faces at Westfields yesterday. Shame that it has again been over shaddowed by PIN GATE. It is just a thought but maybe the fact that Coca Cola came along in force but with no pins may have been a indication of what happened last time. It is a real shame.
I traded well and my thanks to everyone who played swappies with me.
Thanks to Paul (and his Wife and Daughter) for spending so much time and effort in making a fun time for us all.
What a fibber. The Pins were listed not long after the pin meeting ended. They were listed via a Mob Phone, on the way home perhaps ? and the seller wants everybody to believe he is selling pins that he already had. I am no Perry Mason but the facts do not really add up. DO THEY ?. Ebay has a free insertion weekend - so was that is the main reason for the quick sale exercise. What was the seller thinking - Great Pins obtained Free and could be flogged off with none of those extra ebay costs. A real WIN WIN situation. And if the pin does not sell the seller has managed to hiked up the price of all of the pins. As my kids whould say "Great Work in the promotion of pin trading NOT "
Pin Gate, I like it :)
Shouldn't it be EBAYGATE though?
Chatting to Nik from LTSB yesterday, he was very sensitive about their pins being put on E-Bay, so I just hope that this hasn't ruined things for us with a very generous sponsor, especially after a similar incident with another collector a couple of meetings back. Although the circumstances this time are different, will the sponsors see it that way?
EMAILING THE SPONSORS THANKING THEM FOR THEIR SUPPORT. ARE YOU HAVING A LAUGH ! What did you say. Thank you Mister Sponsor for your kind free pins. It was not me that is selling them on EBAY honest. It was someone else. Please can I have some more free pins. I promise not to sell them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike. Just remember if we see a set of LTSB pins on Ebay presented in a silver frame we will be all out hunting Wookies. Only kidding. What a Lucky Wookie you were on Saturday. Talk about the Right Place at the Right Time. Good Luck to you, although I am still a little green with envy.
Best Wishes
Yes Noel, I was very lucky, I freely admit that. I have emailed Nik to thank him again.
There were 7 pins in that frame that I needed, and they are all now firmly in my collection bag.
The rest are on my trading pages and seeking new homes through trades.
I swear I never asked for the frame, just asked to see it. I can be quite outrageous when it comes to getting a pin (those who saw me badgering a security guard for his pin will remember this) but even I am not that cheeky :)
Wookie's aren't known for using "THE FORCE" Makes me wonder are you sure you aren't Part Wookie / part Jedi Master ? ..... I would have been happy with the Bean Bag Teddy from Inside the Games. T T N F
What are you lot like! I leave the forum and the blog for a morning and it all kicks off :-).
I think the main message from all of these comments is that everyone had a rewarding time at the meet. From the comments and the emails I've received, I think it's fair to say that the old timers enhanced their collections and the first timers picked up some good pins and made some new contacts. The 'old-lags' may be interested to know that those visiting for their first meet commented on how friendly everyone was.
I have no comment on the rights and wrongs of selling pins that were obtained at the meet. I'm happy that the sponsors knew that pins had been sold from previous meets and that they were aware that items may end up on eBay. Like everyone else, I obviously hope that sponsors will continue to support us and I guess we'll see if that happens when I approach them next time.
Once again thanks to everyone of supporting my website and our pin meet.
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