27/9: New Forum Message Board

I have added a new style of message board to the website. Hopefully you will all agree it's better than what was there before. The old one was a basic system offered by the website hosts, the new one is a separate and more professional system which I can link in to the website.

I'm afraid I wasn't able to copy the old posts across, but I hope you'll agree it was worth it.

I've set up some categories I think will be useful with a section for pin-trading.

You don't have to register to read or post, but I think you'll find it more convenient if you do as it saves having to enter confirmation numbers all the time.

Please let me know if you think there should be some more sections or categories.

You can access the message board via the same website link, or directly at www.london2012pins.freeforumhost.com.

22/9: News from the Museum of London - New stock coming

I've had an update from the Museum of London. The good news is that they will soon be stocking the weather and teapots pins at £6.99 each I understand. No exact word on when, but I'd say it's close. They hope to get as many in their online store as possible, but don't forget if they're not online, you can still order by phone and in person in the shop.

They will also be trying to stock the white logo pin and Heroes Parade pins - supply permitting.

The even better news is that they plan to sell the London Skyline set (around £125) in the shop and online. No dates, but again I think it's very close. Apparently very nice packaging and a 'high-end collectors piece'.

They will also have a new set which we haven't heard about before. There are 7 pins on a 'West End' theme. All priced at £6.99, I think they'll come out with the weather and teapots (supply permitting).

Images (not photos) of the pins

My sincere thanks to the Museum of London for this information.

18/9: New LOCOG and Sponsor Pins & Other News

I was lucky enough to talk to a couple of representatives from Honav UK yesterday and got some news and photos. I'll update the inventory soon, but here goes...

Back in June, LOCOG held a 'World Press Briefing' for the heads of the media organisations that will be covering the Games. They handed out a pin shown below

I understand that there will be further briefings in the next few years and the future pins will have different colour logos and different media types (e.g. replace the notebook with a camera - my guess, not a fact!). This issue was limited to 300 pins (like the Partner Workshop pin).

Next, the white logo pin - number 6 will be offered for sale to those people lucky enough to be going to the Olympic Park tour as part of the London Open House weekend. But, the more important news is that the pin will be going on retail sale shortly after. I'm guessing the existing retail outlets will be carrying it. No word on price, but I assume it will be around the £7 mark like the other logo pins.

The skyline set is coming soon. The 10 gold pins will probably be issued as a set. It looks like they were almost ready to be issued previously, but something delayed the launch. No exact word on when, but I'm thinking it will be this year. I'm hoping for a tie in with the 1000 day pin, but that's a guess. These pins will be numbers 20-29 as per my rumours page.

There are going to be 2 new internal pins for LOCOG staff only soon - one of the logo and one of the Paralympics logo both in silver. No word on issue size, but not available retail.

Finally, 2 new sponsor pins, both from Tier 2 partners.

The first from Adecco and then another from Deloitte.

The rest of the details I got were updates to issue limits, information about the pin backs and backing cards and the story behind the pink vs. purple pins. We also had a chat about the fake pins that are appearing for sale online. I'll be putting a few short articles together for the website soon.

Honav UK were very helpful and offered lots of information, hopefully this is only the first of many updates I'll be able to bring you in the future. I think there's a lot more to come this year, so as soon as I have something new, I'll post it.

I'll aim to get this new stuff onto the inventory over the next couple of days.

By they way, if you have any questions or issues you'd like to put to Honav UK, feel free to add a comment, use the forum on my website or drop me an email. I'm happy to package up a set of questions and see if I can get some answers.

14/9: Vote for a Pin Design

LOCOG have announced that they'll be issuing pins based on landmarks from the 33 London Boroughs. They have asked for readers to vote for their favourite landmark within a borough.

Take a look at the London 2012 site. Click here to view the article.

You have until Sunday 18th October to vote and the results will be announced at the end of October - maybe on the 1000 day to go anniversary?

1/9: LOCOG and ODA Pins

There are two new sets of pins which can be considered as 'internal'. They have been made by Honav UK for LOCOG and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). I'll be updating the inventory with details and pictures this week. I'd like to thank a couple of readers - Adam Down and Robert Varoujian for supplying me with information over the last week or so. I'm pulling the details together and will probably add an 'Internal' section to the inventory.

In all there are 4 pins.

Two were limited to 300 each and handed out to participants in a Partnership Workshop held by LOCOG back in February. One pin has the pink logo and one the Paralympic logo. These are the rarest pins issued to date (beating the previous Deloitte issue of 500)

The other two pins are unlimited and issued by the ODA with a builder's hat in yellow and either a blue logo or Paralympic logo. Approximatley 6,000 of these have been made so far.

Inventory updates and photos to follow

1/9: Inventory Update - Weather and Teapots

I've finally updated the inventory with the weather and teapot pins issued last week. Sorry it's taken so long this time, I was on holiday and then had issues with the post, but I finally got them today so managed to catalogue, photograph and post this evening.

I've listed the available date as 20 August as I think this is the first time they were available for purchase. If anyone disagrees, please post a comment.

I've had problems identifying or describing the teapot styles, so if anyone can point me towards a teapot classification website (!) let me know. I want to improve on "Teapot 1".

I notice this is the first time we've seen the white logo used as part of a pin (other than as Pin 6) and also the first time we've seen the Paralympic logo in white. I think the white works really well in these designs and allows us to see the Olympic rings and Paralympic logo.

Also, we've seen a new retailer get the pins first. For the first time the pins have been solely available on eBay rather than one of the shops used previously. Is this perhaps a move to ready us for an online shop later this year. It'll be interesting to see when the pins appear in the Museum of London. I've always maintained that I'm not here to promote any particular seller and have used Runners Need, Crest and the Museum of London before al with no problem. For any of you who would normally use a shop to purchase and do not use eBay, I can honestly say I had an easy and trouble free purchase from hux777 on eBay. The communications were good, delivery was quick and the pins were perfect. This isn't an official endorsement, but my personal experience was good and I will use them again. I'm adding an entry to the Links page of the website as in my mind they've been established by LOCOG as a retailer and you can see their store by clicking this link

10/8: White Pin No6 - Sold on eBay for £258

In case you missed it, a white logo pin, (No. 6) sold on eBay today for £250 (in a pair with the 3YTG). Looks like this is the highest price for a London 2012 pins so far.

Shortly after another was listed (by a different seller id) starting at £230 and finishing on Saturday. Will this be a new record??

3YTG Sold Out

According to a twitter feed on the London 2012 website today, all 3000 3YTG pins have sold out. Certainly Runners Need sold out after about 2 days but at the time of writing the Museum of London shop still show the pin as available.

There's also a news item on the Museum of London website homepage about the launch of the pins last week.

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!

New Pins Launched Today

London 2012 launched a number of new pins today along with the 3 YTG pin at the Museum of London.

In addition to the countdown pin, there were pins on the themes of London Markets, Music, Flowers, Punk and Guards.

I'm updating the website tonight and tomorrow, so please be patient while I get the pictures and inventory listings up there. I'll get it done as quickly as possible. I'll get the pictures done first, then the inventory.

Once the inventory is up to date, I'll update the blog with some information I found out today about sponsor pins and potential pin collecting events.

Also - the gold skyline set was there, and it looks like it will be available soon. I'll update the website (and the blog) with more details once the new pins are added.

Keep checking back all this week, they'll be more...

3YTG Pin - Photo and Details

The 3 Year To Go Pin will be launched on Monday 27th July as expected and will be limited to 3,000 pieces (the 4YTG was limited to 5,000). The style of the pin follows on from last year's with a large '3' and a smaller 2012 logo, this time in orange whereas last year's was pink.

Not all of the 3,000 pieces will be available to the public as some will be given to British atheletes and officials.

As previously stated, the pin will be available from Runners Need and Crest of London from Monday.

New EDF Pins

Some news from EDF. One reader sent me 2 photographs of EDF pins. One of the pins has been 'doing the rounds' on eBay and to be honest I was sceptical of its authenticity. The other appears genuine. Both pins have engraving on the back, but one is of better quality than the other.

Both pins were received from EDF in the UK.

EDF have confirmed that both pins are genuine (although I still feel that one of the photographs is of a copy, but that's only my opinion).
Take a look at the partner pins section of the inventory for details and pictures.

More 3 Year To Go Pin News

Following on from my previous post about the 3YTG pin, I've spoken to Runners Need and here's what I found out.

They WILL be selling the 3YTG pin at the RRP of £6.50. It's a limited edition (not able to state the edition size) but they will have a small allocation of pins. They will be available in store (Canary Wharf and Kings Cross shops only) and by mail order. They'll be displayed online, but not available to order online.
The pins should be available from Monday 27th July.
Their website is www.runnersneed.co.uk and you can contact the mail order department on 020 7278 9486.
The guys at Runners Need have been very helpful in supplying this information, so please support them by buying your pins there. If you want to mention your heard about them through the London2012Pins website, that would be good too!

3 Year To Go Pin News

I contacted the 'Open Weekend' team in LOCOG today to ask about Open Weekend pins and 3 YTG pins (I can't claim credit for the idea, it came from a reader).

I found out that there are no Open Weekend pins going to be available (there weren't for last year's so no surprise there). They did say that there would be a 3 YTG pin available from Monday 27th July (the actual 3YTG date). They said that the pins would be available from Runners Need or Crest of London.

I then phoned Runners Need and they confirmed that they had heard of a 3 YTG pin (the person thought just one design), and that they thought they would be selling it, possible via their website.

I guess in that case we'll be looking at anything between £5.99 and £9.99. So keep a lookout on the Runners Need and Crest of London sites (both available from the links page on the www.london2012pins.com website.

Inventory Updates

I've updated the commemorative pins inventory with details about the pin back pattern, the information box detail and the backing card for each pin.

I've also added the 6 mini-pins to the 'unofficial' pages.

LOCOG Pins in 2007?

As you know I've emailed London 2012 a few times via their website asking for information. Over the last 2 days, I have had replies to my emails (looks like they got bunched up and answered by different people over the course of 2 days).

Anyway, the replies give the standard response that an online store will be open soon and that pins are available from Crest of London and Runners Needs.

BUT...

2 of the replies mention something along the lines of... ' the pins were made for staff only and to mark the brand launch on 4 June 2007'

Now I thought the first logo pins (in fact any non-bid pins) were not available until the Handover Party last August. So if that's the case, what are the pins made for LOCOG staff back in 2007?

Am I wrong? Were pins available before August 2008? Have I missed something?

What do you think?

Pin 6 Confirmed

I can confirm that the suggestion that pin 6 and the white logo pin are the same is true. A member of LOCOG has confirmed that the pin exists and is number 6 but - and here's the best news - whilst it is not on sale now, it may be on retail sale sometime between now and 2012.

Obviously things can change, but for now it looks like it may be available one day.

Skyline Set

I've been given new information which confirms that there is a set of gold pins that make up a London Skyline. I'm trying to get some more details and as soon as I have something I'll update with numbers and descriptions.

EDIT - 1/7/09

The inventory has now been updated with all the potential pin information I have.

The skyline set looks like a collection of 10 pins showing key London buildings (some used as Games venues) against a geometric shape and with a Games or Paralympic Games logo.

Range of Gold Pins?

So what could that line of gold in the bottom half of the frame be?

I was wondering about this, until I saw a new pin on eBay today. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show the image from eBay, so I won't post a picture. Suffice to say it's gold in the shape of Big Ben with a large and bright 2012 Paralympic logo. No other colours.

I 'think' I can see such a shape in the line of gold somewhere in line between pins 1 and 2 in the top row. I think I can see a Buckingham Palace and St Paul's too, but I may have just had too much sugar today!

What do you think - do we have a range of London Skyline pins out there?

Is this pin number 6?

One sharp eyed reader spotted a photograph on the Honav website. In it, Jack Chen (CEO of Honav) is presenting a frame of pins to Jacques Rogge. The first 5 pins in the frame look to be pins 1 to 5 (the 4 coloured logo pins and the Paralympics pin). The 6th pin however - could it be the mysterious white pin. Given it's position in the frame, is it pin 6?

(Click on the image to enlarge)

This appears to be photographic confirmation that pin 6 is the white pin and it's for IOC members only.

Any thoughts?

As for the bottom half of the frame and that line of gold - read on?