TT A W Y A R O: T PHO a pin or start collecting during one at all. Some individual pins Balloon Fiesta is by purchasing today bring more than $300 each pins from the offi cial Balloon based on scarcity and demand. An Fiesta merchandise tents on the average pin will usually cost from fi eld and/or from vendors on fi ve to twenty dollars. Main Street. Buying two or three It’s a common sight to see provides extras that can be used vests, hats and jackets covered as “traders”. from top to bottom with people’s Most ballooning events complete collections, regardless produce “event” pins for the of value or maybe just one or event itself as well as events two of their favorites. Locals and within the event. The Balloon visitors alike always look forward Fiesta produces dozens of to local celebrity newscaster Steve offi cial pins for individual events, Stucker as he reports live from offi cials groups like Safety Y the fi eld covered head to (nearly) Offi cers and “Zebras,” and more! SEL toe with his favorite pins. Some The Balloon Fiesta’s website people will happily trade what they includes a collectors page KIM VE proudly display while others would O: (https://balloonfi esta.com/1- T never dream of parting with even pins-archive) showing hundreds PHO one of their many acquisitions. of offi cial pins produced over the The Balloon Fiesta holds “balloon event’s 50-year history; more are Above: Steve Stucker, festooned with pins! pin trading days” each year so being added all the time as new traders can get together and swap pins are produced and old ones pins, tell stories and catch up with surface. friends they may only see once a year at the event. Sure, a picture is worth a thousand words, but just Other forms of collectibles have become popular how much is a pin worth? As with anything, value is over the years including patches, posters and trading how much is a pin worth? As with anything, value is over the years including patches, posters and trading determined via supply and demand. Traders and cards. Trading cards provide a more aff ordable item collectors will search high and low for the “hot” for pilots and crews to give away to the growing pin each year at Balloon Fiesta. Those pins vary number of balloon fanatics each year. Since 1979, each year from the obvious (Darth Vader) to the AIBF has produced an offi cial poster for the event, unexpected (offi cial Pin Trading Day pins). Age is and they have become quite collectible in their own also a factor in value, as it is with most collectibles. right. As time goes by, who knows where people display The true value associated with a particular pin or or put them for safekeeping . The pin that you collectible should always be the great memories it could fi nd for $1 at seemingly every vendor’s booth in brings back every time you see it, wherever those might 1982 might run you $50 today, assuming you can fi nd be. OFFICIAL PROGRAM 253