For the Love of the Game: Trading and Collecting Custom Baseball Pins

There’s no denying it: Americans love to collect things. The treasures we label as keepsakes add unique flourishes to our personalities and meaningful meaning to our lives.

For parents and Little League baseball players, this phenomenon is just as important. However, it is not about baseball cards, gloves, bats, caps, jerseys or autographs. This particular group is passionate about collecting and trading custom baseball pins.

For parents, these little decorative keepsakes are much more than the sum of their parts. For teams and their individual players they represent a symbol of unity, pride and collective hard work. These pins directly reflect passion, determination, relentlessness, devotion and the universal message of good sportsmanship.

Trading pins are as unique as the teams they reflect. They can vary in size (2 inches to 4 inches wide), color, and presentation. Many pins highlight a team name, hometown, age group, gender, team colors, team mascot, and the list goes on.

Just as British soccer fans proudly display their club’s colors through scarves and flags, parents of minor league baseball players use trading pins to show their support. Players, on the other hand, trade and collect pins for regular-season games, tournaments, and the Little League World Series, not just as a show of good faith, but as a kind of unspoken love of the game and universal friendship.

When it comes to collecting and trading these pins for their personal collections, gamers are only interested in those with the wackiest and most inventive designs. Whether it’s a bat-shaped pin with the team name engraved on it, or a glove/hat combo with the team’s mascot in the background, gamers love trading the “cool” pins almost as much as they love playing the game.

With each incoming season, pin manufacturing companies are bombarded with massive orders. This level of demand means that prices and service may suffer. But if you look closely, you’ll find some companies that offer exceptional value. Everything from free design services to multiple colors at no extra charge, expedited production, and free delivery is available to savvy shoppers.

Although these trading pins are highly sought after by avid enthusiasts, when the dust settles, these pictorial little pieces of the American pastime make attractive accessories for jackets, hats, tags, sweatshirts, and even earlobes. They are small metallic acts of creative expression for those who look forward to spring with dizzying anticipation and serious ambition.

Players dream of becoming the next Alex Rodriguez, Cliff Lee or Johnny Damon and winning a World Series. Parents, on the other hand, stand holding these pins in an affectionate grip, watching their dreams grow before their eyes.