Pin Trading Off to Slow Start for Vancouver

(ATR) Pin trading hasn’t reached its usual fever pitch at the Vancouver Olympics. But there’s still time.

“It’s the slowest start ever,” veteran pin trader Pete Wade of Cincinnati tells Around the Rings.

Wade can’t pinpoint the reasons why, but wondered if the two large athletes’ villages that are two and half hours apart or VANOC’s discouragement of pin trading by volunteers and Village staff has had an effect.

Activity at the Vancouver Olympic Village is sporadic.

“It’s one of the deader Villages,” Bob Kalmuk of Los Angeles tells ATR. He agrees that the separate villages decrease the interaction.

“The international zone doesn’t have as much going on as some Games,” Kalmuk said. “The foot traffic isn’t as good, but I can’t complain. I’m getting some good stuff, just not constant.”

Because of relationships with NOCs, Kalmuk gets day passes to spend time at the Village. He figures he trades for 35-40 pins a day and collected more than 800 pins from Jan. 28 through the midpoint of the Games.

Other traders set up along the sidewalk outside the Main Press Centre and the International Broadcast Centre. They can gather such large crowds that a separate pathway has been set up for accredited media to get through.

A Canadian trader who goes by the name “Radar” because he doesn’t want people to drop by his house unexpectedly. He says VANOC has stopped issuing tickets for selling pins. He says organizers realized that people have to have pins to trade pins, and retail pins cost $9.01 in stores. They can get cheaper and sometimes better pins from traders.

“They were giving tickets, $25 for the first offense, $250 for the second offense, and then on the next offense, their stock would be confiscated,” he says.

Now Radar says vendors only get hustled away if they are selling in front of a business.

No Signs Saying “NO PINS”

Volunteers and staff inside the MPC are not pin hounds like their counterparts in Beijing. Offices haven’t had to put “NO PINS” signs on the doors as they did in Beijing, when volunteers constantly poked their heads inside to plead for pins.

Some journalists working in the IBC wouldn’t trade with them anyway. They go outside to sell their high-demand pins, sometimes for hundreds of dollars.

Japanese media pins are again among the most popular. “I’ve been out here in the rain and cold and begging for them,” Radar says. “I got two today.”

Radar and other traders also warn of dealers down the block who traffic in fake pins that are not authorized by VANOC.

“One kid got shellacked,” Radar says. “Every pin was counterfeit.”

Kalmuk says athletes like to trade for older pins as well as Vancouver pins.

They also enjoy collecting pins from their own sports and mascot pins. Got a mascot doing a sport? Jackpot!

NOC Pins in High Demand

The Great Britain pin is one of the most popular NOCs because it is a gold snowflake design, a departure from its usual white shield.

The “Big Swiss” is always a hot pin. Members of the delegation receive only one. Traders heard they were advised not to sell them for under $450. One Swiss athlete was offered $75, but said a friendsold one for $120. They settled on $100.

The hunt is on for the Ghana pin of “Kwame the Snow Leopard,” the country’s skier.

“India, Armenia and Tajikistan seem to be on everyone’s list,” Wade says. “Some that are usually very common are hard to find here: Korea, Chinese Taipei, Ukraine. Maybe that’ll change.”

The U.S. has a small square pin, and a more elaborate one for each sport with a snowflake off to the side.

Apparently, Russian officials liked their Opening Ceremony pin so much that they didn’t give them to the athletes. Now they’re selling them to dealers.

Long-time trader Andrew Kollo of Keswick, Canada, says the Kenya pins, particularly the one with the rhino, is a hot commodity. “Their team got yanked,” he says. “They produced a pin and the IOC member has them. I have the undated and dated ones.”

On one day’s visit to the Village, Kollo says, “I picked up six Estonians, seven Croatias, a bunch of Slovenias and a whole bunch of Chinese.”

Bud Kling of Pacific Palisades, Calif., says there are more generic, or undated, pins than usual. “Highofficials from two committees said VANOC wanted them to pay for royalty rights,” he says. “Most of the NOCs ignored that and just did what they wanted.

Some athletes take photos of the pin traders. One simply handed Kalmuk a pin, but he insisted on trading. “What do you want to give me?” asked the athlete. “How about a nice USA pin?” Kalmuk said.

He has attended figure skating, and a victory ceremony, but doesn’t see too many events. “I get too caught up in this whole thing,” he says.

Trading Around Town

Pin trading is also taking place at official Coca-Cola trading areas, and other parts of town.

Bill Cash of Calgary, who is attending his 12th Olympics, is often set up on Granville Street.

“On a good day, I’ll get probably 200-250 pins,” he says.

The most popular sponsor pin so far is the Cold-FX sliding hockey player. “They hit a home run,” Radar says.

A rare pin in Vancouver is one that won't be for sale. It's a so-called bridge pin, one depicting the logo of Vancouver and the logo of the London Olympics. It's produced by Honav, the company which holds the pin license for London 2012 and is only available for purchase in the U.K.

Richard Murray of Los Angeles is looking for the mother of all trades. Among the pins on his vest is a 1924 Paris participant badge. He’d trade it for an IOC Session badge or a participation medal.

Some pins that change hands go directly onto eBay.

An eBay search of “Vancouver 2010 pin” yields 4,400 items.

What will they be worth a year from now? “Nothing,” Radar says.

Well, just memories.

Ice hockey player Katrin Nabholz says the Swiss don’t really collect pins. “There are other things which are more important to me,” she says.

But she gladly traded one of the smaller Swiss pins, a shield with the Canadian flag at the top, for the Around the Rings Skating Moose. “Yeah, that’s cool!” she says. “My first trade. That’s a cute one. I like it.”

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Written by Karen Rosen.