21/4: Latest Pin Meet Report

We held our latest pin meet yesterday, and I'm pleased to say that despite the long gap since our last get-together, the enthusiasm (and attendance) was as strong as ever.

There were lots of regular faces but also a large number of new collectors that had caught the bug during the Games and decided to try out a pin meet.

From the feedback I received, it seems that there were a number of very successful trades made with all of us managing to fill gaps in our collections.

A lot of the conversations centred around pins that were not seen during the Games, prices on eBay and how to display collections as well as thoughts towards Sochi and Rio.

Someone from EDF came along and was trading a pin none of us had seen before. It combined the EDF logo with the tagline 'We helped London 2012 shine brighter'.  Whilst it did not contain the London 2012 logo it did use the typeface. There are no back markings on the pin.

Thoughts turned to the nect pin meet and the plans are still to gather in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (the permanent name for the redeveloped Olympic Park) on Saturday 27th July - the anniversary of the Opening Ceremony. Plans are in their early stages at the moment, but will depend on the access available on the day and the number of collectors who plan to attend the Sainsbury's Anniversary Games in the stadium that day. Keep reading the blog as I'll post more details when they are confirmed.

Finally, on a personal note, I'd like to thank everyone there yesterday who were part of my gift. I was really touched by the thoughts and sentiments expressed and appreciate your kind words. 

13/4: Next Pin Meet - Next Weekend

Don't forget - one week to go...

The next pin meet takes place next weekend on Saturday 20th April 2013 at the Railway Tavern in Stratford. We start around 2.30pm and will finish between 5 and 6pm. There will be freebies of P&G Team GB and Team Ireland pins for those that do not have them yet.

As always, everyone is welcome regardless of how much or how little you have to trade. I've had emails from some 'new faces' who hope to be there, so if you're not sure it's for you, then why not turn up, take a look and maybe trade a pin or two.

Hope to see you there.

24/3 - Week 3 Offer from Tragars Collectables

Gary from Tragars Collectables would like to offer readers some pin sets this week.

This time, he is offering Venue and Mascot - 2 pin sets in Presentation Boxes

• Archery
• Mountain Bike
• Beach Volleyball
• Volleyball
• Trampoline
• Judo
• Wrestling - Greco-Roman
• Road Cycling
• Table Tennis
• Badminton
• Weightlifting
• Fencing
• Handball
• Equestrian - Dressage
• Equestrian - Jumping
• Equestrian - Eventing

Each set is priced £15 including postage within the UK.

This offer is available from Monday 25th March until Easter Sunday 31st March.

Contact Gary at tragar@blueyonder.co.uk

21/3: Offer from Glamorous Living

The folks at Glamorous Living have a series of London 2012 Olympic Museum pins for sale and are offering them to readers of London Pins before they hit eBay.

The pins on offer are

0781	Games Logo - 1936 - Berlin
0782	Games Logo - 1948 - London
0783	Games Logo - 1952 - Helsinki
0784	Games Logo - 1956 - Stockholm
0785	Games Logo - 1956 - Melbourne
0787	Games Logo - 1964 - Tokyo
0789	Games Logo - 1972 - Munich
0790	Games Logo - 1976 - Montreal
0791	Games Logo - 1980 - Moscow
0793	Games Logo - 1988 - Seoul
0794	Games Logo - 1992 - Barcelona
0795	Games Logo - 1996 - Atlanta
0797	Games Logo - 2004 - Athens

0732	Games Poster - 1896 - Athens
0733	Games Poster - 1900 - Paris
0734	Games Poster - 1904 - St Louis
0735	Games Poster - 1908 - London
0736	Games Poster - 1912 - Stockholm
0737	Games Poster - 1920 - Antwerp
0738	Games Poster - 1924 - Paris
0739	Games Poster - 1928 - Amsterdam
0740	Games Poster - 1932 - Los Angeles
0742	Games Poster - 1948 - London
0743	Games Poster - 1952 - Helsinki
0746	Games Poster - 1960 - Rome
0747	Games Poster - 1964 - Tokyo
0749	Games Poster - 1972 - Munich
0750	Games Poster - 1976 - Montreal
0751	Games Poster - 1980 - Moscow
0752	Games Poster - 1984 - Los Angeles
0753	Games Poster - 1988 - Seoul
0754	Games Poster - 1992 - Barcelona
0755	Games Poster - 1996 - Atlanta
0756	Games Poster - 2000 - Sydney
0757	Games Poster - 2004 - Athens
0758	Games Poster - 2008 - Beijing

They have one of each pin and are available at £6 each including UK postage.

They also have a set of Countryside, West End, 100 Days to Go, Festivals and Markets. Contact them for prices.

Contact Glamorous Living at sales@glamorousliving.co.uk if you want to order any of these pins.

17/3: Another Offer from Tragars Collectables

Gary from Tragars Collectables would like to offer readers another pin set this week.

This time, he is offering the 11 pin venue logo set

The price is £40 including postage within the UK.

This is the boxed set not the individual pins on card. This offer is available from Monday 18th March until Sunday 24th March.

Contact Gary at tragar@blueyonder.co.uk

London Pins accepts no liability for this offer.

10/3: Offer from Tragars Collectables

Gary at Tragars Collectables would like to introduce an offer for readers of this blog...

Tragars Collectables will be having a weekly special set over the next few weeks.
This weeks offer is

Venue Collection Triathlon Sports Poses
£20.00 plus free UK postage

This set comprises pins 1896 - Cycling, 1897 - Running and 1898 - Swimming.

This price is valid for one week from Monday 11th March - Sunday 17th March

I have a limited number available at this price - first come, first served.

Payment via PayPal or Cheque/Postal Order made payable to Gary Tolley.
Please contact tragar@blueyonder.co.uk for information and to order

London Pins accepts no liability for this offer

7/3: Retail & Venue Pin Retailer

Over the last few weeks, we've seen another eBay retailer with some pins that were harder to find during the Games.

Tragars Collectables has been trading for nearly 10 years and for the last 6 months has sold a range of London 2012 pins on eBay. The owner, Gary, is happy to receive any emails for specific retail/venue pins that you may be looking for. The prices on eBay take account of eBay fees, so he hopes to be able to sell at a reduced price off eBay. He has a range of retail and venue pins and plans to add more sets over the next few weeks. He is unable to help out with sponsor/media/NOC pins. Why not contact him to see if he has the pins to fill any gaps in your collections.

He is offering readers of London Pins some special offers...

• A free pin badge (his choice) with every order
  OR
• A Free Venue & Mascot 3 pin set (Sailing) when you spend £50 on pins
  OR
• Free UK postage when you spend £50 on pins

You can contact him via email tragar@blueyonder.co.uk or take a look at his store on eBay - Tragars Collectables

As with my previous posts when I mention specific retailers, I take no responsibility for the products or service you receive from them, but can confirm I've made a successful purchase from Tragars. I approached Gary to see what he may be able to offer London Pins readers - hence this blog post.

27/2: Pin Collectors Survey Results

Back at the start of the year, I blogged about a survey for pin collectors.

I'm pleased to say that Anna has now come back to us, as she promised, with the results of the survey. In all 66 people responded and the survey is still open (see the original post to access it).

The results are very interesting (and amusing in places), and I think we can all recognise elements of ourselves in the replies!

Click on the icon below to access the report which is in PDF format. Most computers should be able to open the file, but if not you can download the free software from the Adobe website

23/2: New ODA Pins

Ok, so we thought the Games were over, the ODA wrapped up and all those internal pins had been seen. How wrong we were!

Thanks to a reader, 2 more ODA pins have been discovered. These ones were issued by the facilities management team and come in Olympic and Paralympic versions.

ODA0035

ODA0036

Each pin features a saw, plunger, a screwdriver and a hammer in a tool box along with a Games logo. These pins were issued in December 2012 and I have no details on how many of each were issued at present.

13/2: Pin Trading Lists Up to Date - Sponsor and Internal

At long last, the pin trading lists are as up to date as possible for sponsor and internal pins. All of the additions to the catalogue that have been made since the end of the Games are now reflected in the pin trading lists.

As you can imagine, it's a big update - the sponsor list increased from 269 to 618 pins and the internal list from 105 to 167 pins.

I've tried as far as possible to retain all your wants and offers entries, but as some of the pin references may have changed since before the Games and we found various varieties, I can't guarantee it. Please check your lists and update them as required. Apologies for the extra effort - hopefully it will be minimal.

Click here to access the lists, and if you aren't already signed up and would liek to be a part of it, drop me an email.

10/2: Partner Pin Updates

More updates to the sponsor pins section of the catalogue this morning.

This time the are updates for the following sponsors...

• Coca-Cola - addition of retail and joint McDonald's/Coca-Cola pins 
• GE - additional images and pins
• McDonald's - addition of joint McDonald's/Coca-Cola pins

with a couple of minor updates to

• BP - additional pin
• Deloitte - additional pin
• P&G - relabelling of all their not Honav pins to WWL- notation
• UPS - update to a backing card for UPS0027

Thanks to readers for a couple of these updates.

2/2: Partner Pin Update on Website

I have made another large update to the website this morning. This time, lots of the sponsor pins have been updated.

There are updates for the following sponsors...

• Acer
• Adidas
• BMW
• BP
• Coca-Cola
• CoSport (new page)
• Deloitte
• Dow
• GE
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (new page)
• McCann
• Omega (new page)
• Ottobock
• Panasonic
• P&G
• Samsung
• UPS
• Visa

Apart from Coca-Cola, all of the sponsor pages list all the pins I know about and all the images I have. If you have pins which you cannot find on ANY sponsor page, or have images of pins that I do not have, I'd be grateful if you could let me know please. The Dow country opening ceremony pins will be updated shortly - I have almost all the images, but haven't uploaded them yet.

Thank you to everyone who has offered information or images. I know it's taken a while for me to get the pages up to date, but hopefully when you take a look at them, you'll think it's been worth the wait!

For those that use it, the Pin Inventory list on the downloads page has also been updated.

Apart form any omissions or corrections on these pages, I'll be moving onto the media pages next.

I also plan to have the pin trading list up to date soon too.

27/1: EDF Pins - Wording Varieties and Issue Sizes

Thanks to a reader who pointed out that the EDF Union Flag pin (EDF0012) listed on the catalogue comes in two varieties.

Although both pins are EDF0012, the original (top) pin has the wording 'sustainability partner' whilst the subsequent print uses the wording 'official partner'. Notice too, that on the original pin, the logo has a silver border, whereas on the later pin it does not. The backs of the pins are identical other than the original pin seems to have a more defined texture.

Looking back at information from EDF, I noticed that between December 2011 and May 2012, some of the issue sizes increased - this pin being one of them. Originally the issue size was 1,500 but this was increased to 20,500 nearer the Games. Presumably EDF decided to use this for promotional purposes during the Games and had more produced, but with the new wording. 

This is not the only pin in their range that changed the wording and increased in number...

EDF0008	Olympic 1 YTG	1,000 > 1,500
EDF0012	Olympic Union Flag	1,500 > 20,500
EDF0013	Olympic 300 DTG	500 > 1,000
EDF0014	Paralympic 300DTG	1,000 > 1,700
EDF0017	Paralympic 200DTG	600 > 1,300
EDF0018	Paralympic 100 DTG	600 > 1,000
EDF0019	Olympic 200DTG	500 > 1,000
EDF0020	Olympic 100DTG	600 > 1,100
EDF0021	Olympic Games Time	600 > 1,100

I am assuming that all the smaller sizes were produced as 'sustainability partner pins' and all the increases were produced as 'official partner' pins. I also assume that the 'reprints' were to provide enough sock to issue the countdown boxed sets seen during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. I will update the catalogue to reflect the two varieties of each pin and the different issue sizes.

Not only have we seen variations in wording and issue sizes with he EDF countdown pins, but also in the small TM or (R) markings that appear alongside the logo on the pin. To date we have seen variations in pins EDF0014 and EDF0028 where they may use either the TM - Trademark symbol, the (R) - Registered design symbol or no symbol at all.

Thanks to Angela for pointing out the difference which prompted me to investigate further.

27/1: Regional Pins - Classification

As I mentioned earlier, the website has been updated today with the Regional pins. Whilst going through the catalogue today, it struck me, that we can now see a classification of the regional pins and I have therefore slightly amended the names. Hopefully the following explains.

The original issue in 2009 from the regions was 12 pins  - one for each of the Nations & Regions committees. However, not all 12 of the regions were actually prepared to pay for their pins to be issued, so only 8 were ever manufactured. London, Scotland, South West and West Midlands pins were never taken past the prototype stage.

Version 1 pin - No shards on the main panel

Each of these pins featured a coloured Olympic logo against a plain silver geometric shape and the name of the region in the same colour as the logo. The 'London' and Olympic rings in the logo are metal. On the catalogue I now refer to these as version 1 pins an they are numbered REG0001 - REG0012.

Then, closer to the Games in 2011 and 2012, more 'regional' pins were issued, but this time they were aligned to towns, cities or counties who were hosting events as well as the regions. It seems that some areas embraced pins and issued multiples with both Olympic and Paralympic varieties. Others were more modest with a single pin.

These pins have been classified as version 2 in the catalogue and start with pin REG001. These pins once again combine a logo with a silver geometric shape containing the host name, but this time, the silver shape contains coloured shards in the London 2012 branding in the colour of the logo. The 'London' and Olympic rings in the logo are printed.

All of the version 2 pins can be sub-divided into one of 5 designs as shown below...

Version 2 - Design 1

Version 2 - Design 2

Version2 - Design 3

Version 2 - Design 4

Version 2 - Design 5

From what I can tell, all the version 2 pins fall into one of these designs. It's worth noting that design 2 and 5 are very similar, the only difference I can see is that design 2 contains 2 small shards top left and one large shard on the right, whereas design 5 has all 3 shards at the top of the pin.

Check out the Regional page on the website and please let me know if you have any pins that are not listed - either new towns or different colours of existing pins.

27/1: Website Updates - Internal Pins

The website has had another sizeable update today - this time for internal pins.

The catalogue is now complete (as far as I have information) for the following pins

LOCOG
ODA
Regional
TeamGB / Paralympics GB

Click on the links above to view the pages.

If you have any pins, images or details that you cannot find on these pages, please let me know as I may have missed them.

There were a few updates too to some of the partner pages, most notably to the Dow page where I have now listed all 33 country Opening Ceremony pins. I still need good quality photos of the open pins if anyone has some to share.

As always, thanks to everyone who has helped provide information and especially to the reader who helped out with the internal and regional pins.

9/1: London 2012 Collectors Survey

Do you feel like answering some questions about your London 2012 collecting habits - particularly pin collecting?

I was approached just before Christmas by Dr Anna Woodham from the University of Birmingham...

My name is Anna, I'm a lecturer at the Ironbridge Institute, University of Birmingham where I teach and research around the subject of heritage and identity. I'm really interested in exploring the practice of collecting London2012 memorabilia, particularly how people talk about their collections and the stories and memories connected with them as a 'personal' rather than 'official' 2012 legacy.

Before working at the University of Birmingham I worked for the Government Olympic Executive legacy team and LOCOG for a short time and have a small collection of pin badges and other bits and pieces which I am very proud of. I came across your useful website several months ago and I was fascinated by the work you have done and the community that has built up around the collecting of pin badges. I was wondering if you, and perhaps also some other pin badge collectors, would like to take part in a small pilot study? This would involve answering some questions (probably via an online survey) about your collection, how and why you collect pin badges and what they mean to you. Ideally I would like this to develop into a larger project so I would use your answers/other people's answers to understand whether their is potential for some more detailed research questions.

The questions are quite broad and ask about what types of London 2012 memorabilia you collect, why you collect them and how you keep and display them. The survey is anonymous unless participants wish to leave their email address. I'm very happy to share the results of the survey with you and if anyone has any queries about the research I'm doing or how the survey answers will be used I am very happy to chat to people.

If you're interested in taking part, you can access the questionnaire by clicking here.

5/1: Pin Meet - April 2013

Happy New Year to everyone, and to kick the blog off this year, I'd like to announce another pin meet. 

Date: Saturday 20th April

Time: 2:30pm - 6:00pm

Venue: The Railway Tavern, Angel Lane, Stratford, E15 1DB

As usual, there's no cost to attend as the pub has kindly let us have the room for free.

The free pins from P&G will be handed out to those who attend.

I know it will have been a few months since the last one, but hopefully it will give everyone time to find a few new trades!

As always, everyone is welcome. Whether you're an old hand or a novice collector I'm sure you'll enjoy the afternoon.

There's no need to register for the freebies, but if you want to drop me a line to info@londonpins.co.uk it will help me to gauge how many people we may get.

23/12: Merry Christmas

I would like to wish all the readers and contributors to London Pins a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you to everyone who has helped keep the site and blog up to date with information, comments or best wishes. It's a cliche, but I really could not do it without your help.

It was great to meet so many people in the pin trading centres during the summer that had used the site to learn more about pins, it makes the effort worthwhile to know that people find the site useful.

I also should apologise that during the Games and in the time since they closed, the website has not been kept as up-to-date as I hoped. I'm afraid that my real-life and day-job have had to take more of my time now that the Games are over. But, please, stick with me and eventually we'll have a comprehensive listing of all the London 2012 pins.

If you managed to come to one of the pin meets in 2012, then thank you for your support. I hope you enjoyed the experience and found other collectors to trade with and made some good friends and contacts. Thank you too, to Jan and everyone at the Railway Tavern in Stratford - for some this was the spiritual home of pin trading in 2012!

Thank you to all the sponsors who supported us this year with pins, information and venues. I'll refrain from mentioning names within the companies, but thank you especially to Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB, EDF, BT, Cadbury and John Lewis.

Finally, a public thank you to my family for putting up with me and my collecting over the last few years. Thank you for your patience when I was updating the website instead of doing something around the house, for helping to photograph pin after pin on a Saturday and for carrying bags of pins to and from the Olympic Park each day!

Merry Christmas and keep reading in 2013, there's still lots to come.

Paul.

16/12: Website Updates

A few website updates have been uploaded this weekend. I've tried to work through some of the backlog of photos taken during the Games and also add pages for those sponsors who had not appeared so far.

You will now find pages for the following sponsors...

Acer
Jet Set
McCann World Group
Populous
Rapiscan

There are also some minor updates to the LOCOG Internal list as well as a page dedicated to Torch Relay (Retail and Sponsor) pins.

There are still lots of updates to come but I took some time today to add the new structure. The new pages have some details, but there are still images and details to come.

12/12: Free Pin Update

Firstly, an apology for the news blackout recently - as most of you know I have a day job, and it's been hectic recently. Pins have had to take a back seat for a while - sorry.

Anyway, a quick update on the freebies.

P&G came through with free pins as promised and have sent me some of their Team GB and Team Ireland pins. I know many of you will have emptied your local supermarkets earlier in the year to get these pins!

I can confirm that those who have already sent me an email will get the 2 Lloyds pins and the 2 P&G pins - there are enough to go around.

As we are now close to Christmas, I figured the postal service will be busy enough without sending pins into the chaos. Therefore I will contact all those that emailed me in the New Year and ask you to send an envelope then. I hope you agree it makes more sense.

Again, apologies for the delay, but, rest assured there are pins for you!