Bob

This Saturday May 15th in the Salt Building which is part of the Olympic Village..(Big Red colored building near Columbia street off W. 2nd ave.) the Pacific Pin Club will be set up for pin trading. The event runs from 10 am till 5 pm. The Open house celebration and the festivities marks the City of Vancouver receiving back the Olympic village from VANOC.

Be very careful when buying on eBay! There are many trustworthy sellers, but there are some crooks. Personally I avoid anyone selling from China. Some are selling fakes and stolen pins.

Good riddens!

Gastown Photo has a sign in the window advertising the presale of the Team Canada Hockey Jersey Framed Photo & Pin Set. The set features: Official Team Canada replica jersey players of all 23 players surrounding a licensed image of the men's hockey team at centre ice with their gold medals, and is completed by a plate saluting the Olympic Champions. The set is limited to 350. Artiss Aminco recently completed a liquidation deal with Hudson House Trading of Vancouver. With the exception of the Team Canada Framed Set described above, any & all future pin orders are to be placed through Hudson House Trading - the final channel of distribution. The cost of the Team Canada Hockey Jersye Framed Photo & Pin set is $370.

Is there anyway of seeing photos or a list of the pins?

Unless NBC has changed their policy, they will not accept orders for 2010 Olympic lapel pins from Canada. Even after setting up a profile and account, clicking on the pin link will just takes me back to the same page. The site will not allow Canadians even to view their 2010 pins.

As of Saturday, April 10th Hudson House still had 3 racks of 2010 pins. Gastown Photo has a limited number of pins left.

Sorry, I waited too long to get that beautiful Samsung 2-0-1-0 set ... that is a definite keeper. I also have the complete GE sports set ... but will not part with it either! My advice ... be patient!!! I recently added some pins to my collection that I have been trying to get for 4-5 years!

The 2-0-1-0 set is not from Panasonic, it is from Samsung. And yes I have and it is stunning! One of my favorites of the 2010 Olympics.

The Gold Medal Hockey pin #1602 sold out the day it went on sale. However, Hudson House may be getting some more in May.

The following information comes from a friend who has one ... Description ... The pin is a white goalie mask with Canadian maple leaf, and there are 2 blue ribbons with gold medals draped over top of the helmet. To the left is the 2010 logo. The cost ... $9.99 at Hudson House, $10.99 at Gastown Photo.

Artiss Aminco has released a new 2010 Olympic pin ... the Gold Medal pin. It is available at Hudson House Trading and Gastown Photo.

Many of the different shades of color are just the result of the manufacturing process. For example, you will find Quatchi in many shades of brown. There are 3 different Royal Mint pins that were handed out during the Olympics at the display. There is also an internal Royal Mint pin that was never handed out or for sale. The one pin in which there are 2 legitimate different colors is the Umbrella #1157. It was originally released in a light blue - almost a light grey. Artiss Aminco, the manufacturer, did not like it so changed it to a dark blue which is the more common version.

I am missing retail Olympic pin #1250 - Round Logo Colour. Anyone have one for trade?

Try Gastown Photo or Hudson House Trading for any retail pins you are missing. Hudson House still has 3 rotary racks of pins.

For those living in Greater Vancouver and want to continue trading to complete their collections, you are invited to the Pacific Pin Club Pin Show this coming weekend. It runs from 10am-5pm on Saturday and 10am-4pm on Sunday at the Capital Hill Community Centre in North Burnaby. The address is 361 South Howard … 5500 block of Hastings. We expect a large turnout so come early! There will be some pin traders that are still here from out of town and we hope that a few sponsors will also show.

Today the Royal Mint was handing out the all metal CANADA Olympic pin.

If you plan on visiting the Royal Mint Olympic/Paralympic medal exhibit at the Central Branch of the VPL on the weekend get there early ... very early or you will not get in. If you arrive by the time the exhibit opens (10am Saturday & Noon Sunday) you may not get in. Suggestion ... get they by 8am! Today was a weekday and I just barely got in. I arrived at 12:30pm just as they cut off the line! It was close to a 5 hours wati to get in! The first people got in line at 6am! Expect it to be far worse on the weekend with most people off work and this being the last 2 days!

Personally I am disappointed in the scheduled coverage of the Paralympics by CTV/TSN/Sportsnet. They are treating the Paralympians as second class athletes! Taped delay of the Opening Ceremonies and only live coverage of sledge hockey. Most other events are only being given taped highlight packages. Shame on CTV and its affiliates! These fine athletes deserve much more.

A friend told me that they were giving the Cold-FX sliding goalie pin away in front of the main post office last week! Just have to be in the right place at the right time!

Even when you get in the Superstore expect to standing in very long lines to pay even though they have more than a dozen check-outs!!! Try getting there early (before 10am) or late (after 10pm ... they are open until midnight every night).

These protesters are always talking about their democratic right to protest, yet they never show any respect for the rights of others. They don't care that they may spoil a person's life time dream to carry the torch. In truth they don't believe in democracy only their own selfish ends. Most are just a bunch of thoughtless, ecotistic, erogant losers who have never and may never contribute anything positive to society. They are too busy crying about how hard off they are, expecting to live off those of us that are working and contributing to society. Does this mean I don't care about all homeless people. Absolutely not. There are many people who legitimately need our help to get back on their feet. I support charities like Covenant House and the Greater Vancouver Foodbank. There are many young people who are trying their best make something of themselves. I do want to help these people if only in a small way.

I was told that Coca Cola told iCoke, which is separate from the parent company, to stop the program.

The Olympic Superstore at the Bay downtown Vancouver continues to sell thousands of the red mittens. While I have been volunteering at the Pin Trading Centre the past 2 weeks I have seen people continually passing by with red mittens ... often not just 1 or 2 but armfulls! The store is continually unloading boxes of mittens. But they have warned people this may be the last shipment before the Olympics so don't put off buying them!

The hockey player is actually 1920. Not quite sure why the pins for 1998 and 1920, but the Vancouver 2010 pin is nice. PetroCanada must be overstocked with these glasses and needs to dump them!