Tuesday 23 October 2012

23/10: Next Pin Meet - November 24th - UPDATED TIME

STOP PRESS: The time of the meet has been brought forward to 12.30pm due to a function in the pub conservatory later that day. However, if we want to continue after 4pm, we can move into the bar (space permitting).

It's only 5 minutes since we had the last pin meet, and already the next one is in the calendar!!

I asked for feedback at the last pin meet (both on the day and via the blog), as to when we should aim to get together again. A few people thought early next year would be good and would give everyone a chance to find new traders. However, the overwhelming majority thought we should ride the wave of enthusiasm and have a mete this side of Christmas.

So, I've approached the Railway Tavern again, and they have kindly offered us the venue on Saturday 24th November 2012 starting at 2.30pm. Thank you Jan and the team.

I'm not going to bother maintaining a sign-up list any more, as the chances of us getting freebies is zero, but if you want to drop me an email to info@londonpins.co.uk to confirm you'll be there, it will help me gauge numbers and enthusiasm - it' up to you.

So in summary...
  • Date: Saturday 24th November 2012
  • Time: 12.30pm - 4.00pm
  • Venue: The Railway Tavern, 131 Angel Lane, Stratford, E15 1DB
  • Cost: Free (but please support the pub by having a drink or two)

I hope that lots of you will be able to make it and that the new faces that came last time will want to come back for some more.

Sunday 14 October 2012

14/10: 11th Unofficial London 2012 Pin Collectors Meet

Yesterday we held our 11th pin meet and it was the first time we have gathered since the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was great to see so people there, over 50 this time, as well as so many new faces. Around 70% of the people who came were new to one of these meets.


There were lots of trades carried out and many people were able to fill gaps in their collections. Many people were very focussed on certain themes and I spoke to collectors looking for NOC, media and sponsor pins as well as those trying to find some of the elusive retail designs that did not appear during the Games.


Lots of people I spoke to caught the collecting bug whilst attending an Olympic or Paralympic event and wanted to know more about the hobby. Hopefully they found the group welcoming and will want to come back to future meets.

We would like to thank Jan and the staff at the Railway Tavern for hosting us once again. They let us move the furniture around to make it more open for everyone and looked after us brilliantly - thank you.

Opinion was divided on when to hold the next get-together with some thinking that we should keep interest going by meeting in late November, whereas others though that early next year was a better time to allow people to find some more pins to trade. I'd welcome opinions from readers either by a comment below or by email.

One thing we did agree on is that we should hold a '1 Year' trading event in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park when the first phase opens next year on Saturday 27th July. People felt that a picnic/pin trade event would be a good idea. So if you are interested, keep the date free in your diary. You can read more about the park and the timescale for opening here.

Thanks again to everyone who came along and enjoyed the day - hopefully you'll be able to make it to the next one.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

9/10: Retail Pins Added to Catalogue

It's taken a while, but I have finally updated the retail part of the catalogue as far as possible with all the pins that came out during the Games.


The latest update contains...

Venue Sports Pins - mascot, venue and pictogram boxed sets
Venue logo pins
Sports pose pins
'Venues at Night'
National flags (pictures to follow)
Aminco retail

I have listed all the pins in the ranges and provided images of as many pins as possible (I'm still trying to track a few down and photographs them.

The grid has been updated with all the new images, but be aware there will be pins listed in the catalogue that do not show in the grid as I do not have images at the moment.

This latest update contains 290 images and almost 500 listing updates hence the time it has taken to complete it.

Thank you for bearing with me and I'll try to fill in the gaps in the images as soon as I can.

I will now be moving on to the internal, partner and media pins. Updates as soon as possible.

Monday 1 October 2012

1/10: More Venue Pins at Glamorous Living

It seems that more of the elusive venue collection pins have appeared at Glamorous Living today. Thanks to a reader, news that some Gymnastics sports poses pins are now on sale.


The 5 pins in question were not widely available during the Games but have now appeared on the Glamorous Living website.

I would imagine that there will not be many of these sets available as the pins were limited to 2,012 each and potentially SOME were sold during the Olympics.