Hello my fellow pinheads. 

The Olympin Club is most likely the best Olympic collecting club in the world.  They have over 650 members worldwide.  I have been a member since 1986.  The club has members that collect everything under the sun as it relates to the Olympic Games, from pins, to posters, to medals, to Torches. If you want to be in the loop with all things Olympic I would strongly urge you to go to their website at www.olympinclub.com .

I encourage all members of the Pin Traders Group on Yahoo to add the Olympin Club to your Facebook accounts.

Visit the following link to join:
http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=52360379 428

Happy hunting

Pinhunter

On Thursday February 12^th we passed a mile stone. Today we are less than a year from the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver winter Olympic Games. Yesterday the TORCH was unveiled as was the Torch Bearers’ Uniform. Both can be found on the Vancouver 2010 official website at www.vancouver2010.com

Congratulations go out to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee, all who will be in attendance or watching from home. Feb

Hope to see you all there!!

Happy hunting!!

Pinhunter

Hello my fellow pinheads,

It has recently been brought to my attention that there isn’t any information as to what is new and upcoming as far as corporate pins for the Vancouver 2010 one year to go celebration are concerned. I have it through reliable source that the companies that will be coming out with one year to go pins are as follows: RBC, Workopolis and Omega. I am sure that there are others and hopefully our pin brethren can shed some light and help us out in this matter.

I know that YVR is coming out with a new pin as well as Purolator, GE Canada and GE-USA, as will Canada Post.

If any of you can help and let us know as to what is out there please let us know. Hope to hear from you.  

Happy hunting!!!!

Pinhunter

Hello my fellow pinheads,

Today’s topic is how to keep track of all the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Pins that have been produced thus far. I think I have solution that would benefit everyone concerned. 

We have put together an excel spread sheet of what we know to be all the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Corporate, Government, Agency, Federation, Security and Media Pins produced and issued to date. We understand that there might be a gap in a few places in the list of pins that have been produced and what hasn’t been produced to date but rest assured that the spread sheet will have approximately 95% if not more of all the pins produced to date.

There are some pins that are not on the list that for reasons of promises made to corporations and promises made to fellow collectors that will be revealed in the upcoming weeks and months ahead. I hope you can appreciate we are bound by a code of ethics that cannot be broken.

Please use the information on the excel spread sheet as a means by which to track your haves and have not’s. The list is not intended to be a reference so that you contact official partners, suppliers, supports and licensees to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. If we hear from our sources that the list is being used to abuse any of the official partners, suppliers, supports we  will immediately remove the list from the website.

Please use the list responsibly!!!

The list can be accessed on the home page of www.pincollectorssite.com

Happy hunting!!!

Pinhunter@yahoo.com

Hello my fellow pinheads,

Kudos to Molson Brewery for doing the right thing. Molson has taken it upon themselves to help our Canadian Olympic Athletes for the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. They have a pin and yes it is spectacular. To be more to the point Molson has had 10,000 pins produced and approximately 6,000 of the beauties will be given to employees, valued customers (bar owners) and special friends of Molson. You are probably asking what of the remaining 4,000 pins? Well glad you asked but not as glad as our Canadian athletes who are feverishly training for the upcoming Vancouver games. Why are our athletes glad? Because Molson will soon be asking those whom want one of their Olympic pins to make a donation to the Canadian Olympic Committee, who will pass on the money generated by this fantastic endeavour, to our future heroes.

What a great idea and good on Molson for leading the way. Molson will soon be setting up a blog of some sort whereby you can make a nominal payment and get a beautiful and colourful Vancouver 2010 Olympic pin. You will soon be able to see this pin on www.pincollectorssite.com

Thanks Molson for being an industry leader and especially one with a social conscience.

Happy hunting

Pinhunter

Hello my fellow pinheads,

What are ambush, unauthorized, unaccredited, illegal, counterfeit, pins? Therein lays the question. Many die hard collectors stay away from most if not all these sorts of pins with a few exceptions, which we will delve into later into this article. But first, a brief description as to what each one of these pins mean.

Ambush Pin – An ambush pin is a pin that doesn’t necessarily have any Olympic designation or marking associated to any particular Olympic Games. It is like a NIKE pin that was produced for the Sydney games. It did not have any rings on it but because Nike had bought bill board space across Sydney people automatically assumed that it was Olympic related and thus ended up being a very good trader for those who had them.

Unauthorized Pin – An unauthorized pin is one that is produced without the express written consent of the IOC or the Olympic Organizing Committee for any games but are accepted as being a quasi legit pins. A perfect example of that would be a media pin or more to the point a pin produced by a newspaper for any games. The newspaper did not pay any rights to either the IOC or the Organizing Committee but produced a pin any way. They are generally accepted by most if not all collectors.

Unaccredited Pin – The same holds true for unaccredited pins as it does for unauthorized pins. They are virtually one and the same.

Illegal Pin – An illegal pin is a pin that was made without the consent of the I O C or the Organizing Committee for a particular games. They are just what the name implies, illegal and should be avoided.

Counterfeit Pins – A counterfeit pin is one which is produced for the sole purpose of deceiving the intended trading partner. They are pins that are replicas of the original pin and the person trading that pin away should make the trading partner before they proceed.  These pins look and feel very similar to the real thing but might be slightly different in colour, look, feel or back stamp. Everyone should be aware of these pins. Most counterfeit pins that emerge during the Olympics are media and NOC (National Olympic Committee) pins.

Fantasy Pins – A fantasy pin is one, which incorporates two or more different aspects of the games, i.e. two completely different companies in a truck or in a balloon or combined with mascots. An example of that would be a Coca Cola truck produced for the Beijing Olympic Games, which featured a Coca Cola truck with the 5 official Beijing mascots and a McDonald’s logo on the truck. Another example is Hard Rock Cafe pins that feature the logos from previous Olympic Games and the mascots matching mascots to those games. Even though they are not real and are not legit some collectors throw caution to the wind and trade or buy them anyway.

Some collectors get caught in the trading bug and throw caution to the wind and after an Olympics is over and they are home and colled out look at their collection and wonder why they ever traded for any of the above mentioned types of pins. I guess the only answer is they just had to have it and they could help themselves.

Try and trade with a level head and keep your witts about you. Thinhk of it as Adam and Eve. You either eat from forbidden fruit or you don't. let your conscience be your guide and good luck.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions in regards to the suspected legitimacy of a Vancouver 2010 Olympic pin please forward it to our attention and we will try to research it and get back to you with an answer within a very short period of time.

Happy hunting!!!!

Pinhunter

Hello my fellow pinheads,

I have been writing blogs about vancouver 2010 Olympic pins for my
website at www.pincollectorssite.com for a while. I was wondering if
anyone out there has any neat Olympic pin collecting stories that they
might want to share with the rest of the pin community. If so, we would
love to post them permanently on our website.

It can be a story about a specific trade or what pins mean to you, how
you got started, why feel so passionate about pins. if you send us your
story please remember to include your email address so that the people
who read it can have a means by which to get a hold of you.

That website, again is www.pincollectorssite.com

Please and thank you

Pinhunter

Hello Pinheads,

Some people have asked me what I know of any new pins that will be released over the next few weeks and months. I have it under good authority that CTV (Olympic Consortium) will be producing a series of pins not only for CTV but for Sportsnet, RDS and some of their radio affiliates.

The pins for the Olympic Consortium should be available internally within the next two months. But don’t bother trying to request any. The Olympic Consortium has been given strict orders not to hand out any more pins to collectors who request them. That begs the question, why produce pins if not for people who would truly cherish them? Your guess is as good as mine.

All I know that the only way to get the pins from here on in is to go to special events in communities where the Olympic Consortium partners will be present in conjunction with international sporting events and official Vancouver 2010 Olympic (VANOC) sponsored events.

If any of you here of a way to get any of the new O.C. pins please share with the pin collecting fraternity.

As I hear of any new pins that have been released or that will be released I will keep you all updated.

Cheers

Pinhunter

Hello fellow pinheads,

I recently read an article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper, by reporter Jeff Lee that reported that the first Coca Cola Torch Relay pin originally reported to have 2,000 produced, actually only had 500 produced. If you have one keep it. If you have an extra contact me at pinhunter@yahoo.com.

Happy hunting

Pinhunter

Hello Pinheads,

I heard through the grapevine that HBC (Hudson’s Bay Company) who are the official retailer for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games are changing their logo in the not too distant future. With that being said that will mean a with a new logo will come new pins.

I will keep you posted when I hear of any developments.

Cheers

Pinhunter