I'm sure everyone has a way they preserve and display their precious collection of lapel pins. Some of my homies just keep them in a rubbermaid container only to search for them like one of the clearance bins at WalMart. Other friends have binders with plastic protectors and keep them organized by genre, kinda like when I use to collect basketball cards and sorted them from Michael Jordan and everyone else. I even have one friend that has a heavy duty display case with a UV protective glass and a foam backing to make sure his pins don't damage or fade... but he's the type of guy that keeps everything in a box, buys 3 of everything (one to display, one to collect, and one as a back up just incase the display and/or collected one fucks up). As for myself, I do it the traditional way as most collectors do which I'll share with you what has worked for me if you're just beginning to collect pins.
Some Helpful Tips:
- Invest in a cork-board, the bigger the better cause there are so many pins to collect. Cork-boards are used because you can see all your glorious pins displayed in an organized chaos. The one I have is about 18'' x 24'' that I made my job buy for me cause I needed to do a "project." That project was to display my pins at my house. If you do not have one of these, you can pick them up at any office supply store, Target, or Amazon... cause we all know you can even order a real baby from Amazon.
- Get in the habit of placing back your pin after ever use. That way, you always know where they are and not scrambling to look for that dope pin you wanted to wear.
- Pick which backing you like. Now there are 3 types: Metal Clasp, Rubber & Locking. I personally don't see the difference between metal and rubber but have seen grown ass people get into heated debates about which one is better. As a person that likes to take surveys, I usually see rubber backings edge out metal clasps as a preference. But ultimately, the real winner are the locking pin ones. These can be a little pricey, but you really only need a 10 pack (unless you wear more than 10 at a time) from Amazon or place a bid on EBay to get them cheaper. Here's how each backing looks like:
Finally, what do you do if you have like a million locking, rubber, and/or metal clasp backings for your pins? Or what about the paper card backings you get with each awesome pin? You can use a mason jar or plastic cup to keep your backings and for your paper card backings, you can keep them in a small plastic bag or toss them in the trash. As for me, I do this to them:
In closing, by all means, these are just tips to help you get you started if you're new to the pin game. Bottom line is that you can display your beautiful pieces of art metal any way you like because this is America (fuck yeah). Till next time!
Miggs for Pindejo
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