FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If I can't tell exactly, I doubt that you can. Originally, my intent was to collect the non-commercial Olympic pins—NOC's, bid pins, sponsors, IOC and organizing committee pins, and the like. Increasingly, committees, sponsors and other official groups are offering their pins for sale to raise funds or cover costs, blurring the distinction between commercial and non-commercial, but I still collect essentially the same categories.
With regard to aquatics-related pins, I collect almost everything—Olympic and non-Olympic, although I am more interested in swimming and water polo than diving or synchronized swimming, mainly because these pins are for my ex-swimmer daughter, Diana, and she competed in the first two sports, but not in the latter two.
Sure—if I happen to like them for whatever reason. Since I made those rules, I guess it must be OK if I choose to break them.
Sorry, no. I have them for the same reason many other traders do. I meet many people who have acquired Olympic pins, but don't collect them. If I happen to have what they are looking for, it opens the door for trades that might not otherwise be possible.
No guarantees, but it could happen. Actually, I frequently trade for pins I don't collect if I think they will be useful to me later. And, I would generally prefer to have as wide a variety of pins as possible, so if I have a quantity of something it's much more likely—even if my pin is a little better than what I'm trading for (of course, ALL of my pins are a little better than what I'm trading for).
You should be aware that usually I trade bid and NOC pins for other bid or NOC pins and media pins for other media pins. This isn't a hard and fast rule (see the answer to question 2 regarding rule breaking), and it largely depends on how many traders of a given pin I have and what I might still be looking for in that category.
Could so many people be wrong? In spite of this, I still manage to complete a lot of trades every year. And, who knows, your experience could even be good--well, at least fair.