World Series Souviner Swap and Pin Trading Questions

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This is the first year that our team will be making the trip to a world series. My first question involves the souvenir exchange with our first opposing team. What kinds of things should go into our goodie/exchange bag? My second question involves trading pins. How many should we order and what is a reasonable amount to spend on them? I figured we only have a month before we leave so I'd better get to planning these things. Any relevant suggestions would be much appreciated. We will be attending the NSA ?A? World Series in Spartansburg, SC. Thanks!!

 

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Teams or even the whole organization usually order pins together to save on costs. And depending on the bells or whistles you get (size of the pin is a big factor), the pins can cost as much as $3.00 per. Here are some threads from the past few years on the trading pins and gift bag issues:

http://www.thesoftballzone.com/vb3/general-softball/37117-trading-pins-nationals.html
http://www.thesoftballzone.com/vb3/general-softball/37080-how-many-pins-take-nationals.html
http://www.thesoftballzone.com/vb3/general-softball/37169-goody-bags-nationals.html
http://www.thesoftballzone.com/vb3/general-softball/28017-trading-pins-2010-a.html
http://www.thesoftballzone.com/vb3/general-softball/17382-trading-pins.html
http://www.thesoftballzone.com/vb3/general-softball/2055-nsa-ws-trading-pins.html


One vendor name that came up more than once was Pinsource at pinsource.com

Hopefully people will post names of vendors they have used recently and been satisfied with here on your thread.

 

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The user "Akroncarpro" on here ordered ours last summer for Midwest. Find him. I know he did tons of research, so he should be able to help you.

 

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Pins will run you $2.00 - $3.00 a piece. I bought 12 last year, but that didn't seem like enough. This year I am doing 24 at $1.95/piece. The more you buy for the team, the cheaper per piece. I would suggest getting the design done asap.

One thing to not forget... something for the girls to keep the pins on. A nice towel, Lanyard, or even a pin trading book. My daughter likes the Lanyard so she can where her pins that she gets around her neck.

As for the goodie bags, cheap drawstring bags work nicely. In ours we do water bottles, chap sticks, small bottles of sunscreen, sports headbands, granola bars, and then things that represent where you are from. We are in NEO, so we have done small jars of smuckers jam, Nestle water, gojo hand sanitizer, Akron Zips, Racers or Indians key chains etc.

 

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Ditto to posts by cgs and mili28. I learned Smuckers is from Ohio.

Pins:
- Sport Pins International does well.
- Sorry to say, don't leave pins laying around or they might disappear.

Goodies:
- Regional-brand snacks, treats and/or food.
- Burn CDs with songs chosen by every player.
- Get suggestions/feedback from your girls on what they'd like to receive.

 

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To toss my hat into the ring. Last year we did this down in Tennessee. We bought stuff that represented our area and Ohio (in our case Cedar Point, Lake Erie, Cleveland stuff). Since we traded bags with a team from Bloomington Indiana we had some Ohio State Buckeye stuff also. A few snacks, personal items and such. Nothing down right cheap but didnt break the bank either. Alot of solid ideas posted above!
Most cases a coach (or you) will seek out another team from another team to trade with in advance. Last year they located us. We traded at the opening ceremonies.

Trading pins you better order now! Some places it takes a month to do get them done. Have a design in place and get them ordered. Also you will have several girls from many teams that will come up to your team asking to swap pins all week. You will trade with the team you trade bags with, but also expect many more teams to ask (and vice versa).