21/5: Pin Meet 8 - A Short Report

On Saturday, a group of collectors met at the spiritual home of London 2012 pin collecting - The Railway Tavern, thanks to the generosity of Jan and the team at the pub who let us use the facilities free of charge.

Around 18 collectors managed to get there and even though numbers were slightly down on last time, you would never have guessed it by the amount of activity, conversation and trades that were going on. Based on the feedback I have received, I think it's safe to say that everyone thought it was worth attending and a number of people commented on the good trades that they had made.

We were joined once again by two of the team from Coca-Cola. We would like to thank them not only for turning up and talking with us, but also for offering everyone a Coca-Cola torch relay pin and for showing us all 12 of the new torch relay retail pins. The pins certainly caused a stir amongst the collectors there.

Thank you also to Honav for coming along and showing us some of the new retail pins that are coming soon. I personally liked a set of street signs and the map if the UK jigsaw set.

At this meet we were also joined by a film crew making a small film about subjects connected to the Olympics and also a photographer and representative from the marketing department of LOCOG. Both groups covered the entire afternoon and took the opportunity to talk to lots of collectors. Hopefully it will help to promote pin collecting during the Games.

Thank you to everyone who came along and made the day a success, I hope you will all be back for the next one - Saturday 16th June at 12pm in the Stadium Suite at John Lewis, Westfield Stratford City.

27/3: Pin Promotion/Trading at John Lewis - April

On Tuesday 10th April, Honav are organising a pin promotion event in the London 2012 shop in John Lewis, Oxford Street.
There will be a lucky dip on offer to everyone who buys two or more pins in a single transaction, with one dip per person.

John Lewis will set aside an area for pin trading, so there will be an opportunity for collectors to swap pins and for customers to get a look at pin trading in action.

A collector told me at the weekend that the London 2012 shop has been expanded, so it will be a good chance for you to take a look at one of the flagship London 2012 shops if you haven't been there for a while.

The day will start at 9.30am.

I plan to approach the sponsors to see if there is a chance for any free pins, especially as we are close to 100 days to go. If you plan to drop in through the day for some trading, then send me an email to info@londonpins.co.uk just in case there are any freebies and also so we can judge how many traders may turn up. I realise that as it's a weekday some people may not be able to get there.

11/12: Mascots Try for a Free Pin!

Honav hosted a small pin promotion in John Lewis, Oxford Street yesterday. There was the chance to win a free Snowman or Snowflake pin on the roll of the dice. Wenlock and Mandeville were on site as part of a general London 2012 promotion and decided to stop by to try their luck.

In the end, Mandeville proved to be more successful than Wenlock, but both mascots enjoyed themselves.

A number of people stopped by to ask about London 2012 pins as well as choose their favourite mascot sport or pictogram pins.

We also had the chance to meet an Olympic Gold medallist! A lady approached the pin displays and asked if there were any shooting pins. After showing her the Wenlock sports pin, we found out that she was Chiara Caneiro from Italy who won gold in Beijing at Women's skeet shooting.

3/11: More John Lewis Promotion Events

Following on from last weeks successful promotion in their store on Oxford Street, there are further events in 2 more John Lewis stores over the next week.

Saturday 5th November - Welwyn Garden City
Saturday 12th November - Liverpool

The format will be similar to the London event with the promotion of some of the pin ranges and the chance to win a pin by answering some quiz questions. Both events run from 11.30am until 2pm.

If you get a chance to visit either event, please fell free to leave a comment on this post to let us know how it went.

Just for the record, I'm not receiving any payment for promoting these events, not even a set of John Lewis pins :-), and I know they read this blog!

12/12: Promotional Event - Tuesday 14th December 2010

Here's some great news for all pin collectors. The London 2012 shop at Paddington station are holding a promotional event on Tuesday 14th December in the afternoon. I understand there will be pin give-aways and there is a rumour that a limited number of an internal pin may be on offer to collectors. Be sure to get the the shop on the upper level of 'The Lawn' at Paddington Station - just above Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

If you manage to get there, please tell them you heard about it from www.londonpins.co.uk.

Please be aware, I'm still waiting on confirmation of an actual time for this event, if I find out before Tuesday afternoon, then I will post whatever information I hear. All information is offered in good faith and I cannot confirm exactly what is on offer. All I can say is that I will be there and think it's worth it.

If anyone feels like bringing some pin trades with them, I'm sure there will be an opportunity for people to swap pins over a coffee.

See you there.

Update 13/12: I've had confirmation that the event will run from 7.30am until 7.30pm

Monday's 3 YTG Launch Event

As well as launching all the new pins on Monday, LOCOG arranged a small event at the Museum of London where they handed over the 3 YTG pin into the museum's Olympic archive.

The photo shows Professor Jack Lohman, Director of the Museum of London (left) accepting a frame of London 2012 pins (including the 3YTG pin) from Mr Jack Chen, CEO of Honav (third from left). The lady in the middle is Anna, LOCOG Licensing Manager. I'm afraid I didn't get the name of the lady on the right, but I believe she is from Honav UK.

The exciting part is that the frame contained the skyline set of pins. It looks like they will be available to buy in due course, maybe as a set. I'm reading between the lines here, so don't take this as gospel. The pins were on general display so there's no speculation on whether they exist now. Remember where you read the rumour first!!

Here's a close up of the pins. Sorry for the poor image, the reflections were hard to work with!

The buildings are

• Royal Naval College
• Tower Bridge
• St Paul's Cathedral
• Big Ben
• Houses of Parliament
• Westminster Abbey
• Buckingham Palace
• Marble Arch
• Albert Memorial
• Kensington Palace

No dates available on when they may be sale or where.

I had a chance to talk to some LOCOG and Honav people. I must say they were all very friendly and supportive and we're keenly aware of the importance of pin collecting. There was a leaflet available, issued by LOCOG, all about pin collecting. I will scan a copy and add to the website. I don't think there's any copyright issues over doing that as the leaflet is free.

There's no hard and fast plans but someone from Honav did mention pin collecting events that they invited 'hard-core' collectors too in the past and it definitely sounded like they would be considering possible events for London 2012. Again it's me interpreting what was said, so no promises.

I did ask if there were any more pins coming out soon (as if 29 on one day wasn't enough) and it seems like there's more to come in the next few weeks. Once again, no dates, but Anna did mention the weather set on her blog (we've had that on the website's rumour list for a week or so) and also teapots. If you consider those sets and the skyline set and look at the gaps in the numbering sequence, I think there's more to come, and I don't think we're going to have to wait until the 2YTG to see them!