Buying High Quality Sporting Goods

Baseball is not just America's pastime; it is one of the greatest sports if you enjoy collecting. In addition to collecting baseball cards, you can also collect baseball pins. There are three different types of baseball trading pins that you can collect. 

Soft Enamel 

Soft enamel baseball trading pins are often considered to be the highest quality trading pins that you can purchase. Soft enamel baseball trading pins are created through a multiple-step process. First, the iron metal base is impressed with a hot die that is used to create the recessed areas on the pin and create the design for the pin. Then, the design is filled in and painted with soft enamel paint Once the pin is painted, the pin is fired. This hardens the paint and makes the pin shine. 

Soft enamel pins are generally affordable to purchase when new, although the trade value for older pins can be more expensive. These are the types of trading pins that you will see most often at baseball tournaments.  

The fun thing with soft enamel pins is that different types of metal and paint colors can be used to create really unique pins.  

Offsets 

Offset pins are created by imprinting the image of the pin onto a white iron sheet metal. The image is stamped out of the metal. The pins come in a variety of different thicknesses. On top of the pin is a layer of clear epoxy. This layer helps protect the printed surface of the in from damage.  

These pins are usually more affordable to create, making them easier to collect. Additionally, the designs have more variety as they don't need to be separated by hard lines line soft enamel pins do.  

Photo-Etched 

Photo-etching is a new way to create a pin. With photo-etching, the image is transferred directly onto the brass or copper base of the pin. The image on the pin is coated with a light-sensitive material, and then the image is hardened. After the image is hardened, it is cleaned and then the etched areas are filled again with color before the pin is hardened again with an oven firing process. Finally, an epoxy coating is added to the outside of the pin.

This involved process creates a very high-quality pin that doesn't damage easily and can be full of color and variety.  

You can collect all three of the baseball pins outlined above, or you can focus on one baseball pin. Once you start collecting, you can work with others to trade your pins and to build up your collection.