“Hello everyone. My name is Holland Hayes, and I’m a pin addict. Welcome to pin addicts anonymous!”
Disney pin collectors gathered at San Diego Comic-Con for the official Disney Pin Trading and Collecting: A Whole New Online World panel. Joining Holland was the rest of the Pinpics.com team: Lenny Schas (creator), Terri Trainor (lead programmer) and Sandi Bois (event director). Also joining the panel was Tony award winning actor Christian Hoff (Jersey Boys), who is investing in the revamp of the famous pin-trading site.
Pins are a $100 million dollar business for Disney and their popularity isn’t slowing down! The website pinpics.com was created in 1999, has over 80,000 users, and has over 120,000 pins logged on the site. 
Online you can set-up a profile, create a collection, trade pins, and learn about trading events. The panel announced an official revamp of the site, which will soon include live pin trading, and language translation so you can trade with people from all over the world. The site is in beta now, but will be ready in the near future.
Another exciting announcement is the development of 3D technology in pin-trading! The virtual world will be a completely customizable ‘convention floor’ where you can create your own booth, design an avatar that looks just like you, and wear pins on your lanyard. Check pinpics.com for updates, suggestions, and contact them if you would like to be a beta tester.
