Pinhead

How did you start trading Olympic pins? I started in Athens in 2004 when I went with my siblings to trade and sell pins. So you come from a family of pin traders? Basically. My brother started in ‘96 in Atlanta and then Sydney and Salt Lake. With him it started off as bit of a coincidence. A friend of our mom's gave him a bunch of Kodak pins to trade, and then one day some woman was like, "I'll give you 250 dollars for one." How many pins did you bring? I have over a thousand pins. The suitcase I keep them in is around 38 pounds. Which ones are the most valuable? Any pin from the current Olympics is going to be worth more. The rare pins–sponsors, National Olympic Committees, anything not available commercially–are worth the most. So what’s a typical day at the Olympics like? In the pin trading business, it's a 15-hour day. You start trading from noon onwards. Around 8 or 9pm you want to get inside one of the main venues to trade more pins. By 10 or 11, you go to one of the exits and set up your pins outside. When the event gets out, you sell, sell, sell, until 2am. How much can you make? In Athens we made in the vicinity of 30,000 dollars. What’s the most expensive pin you've ever sold? My brother sold an illegal pin for 1,000 dollars. It was made in Atlanta by a restaurant and had onion rings instead of Olympic rings。

DETAILS To trade pins with Nick, email him at beijingpins2008@gmail.com.