Baseball Trading Pins: How to Make a Trade-Worthy Design

A Quick Look at the History of Baseball Trading Pins

The first baseball trading pins were created by a small bakery in New York in the 1920s. The owners offered four-packs of pinback buttons featuring different players, and it didn't take long for kids to start trading pins among themselves to get a hold of their favorite baseball stars. 

Today, custom baseball trading pins are still exchanged in a similar way. Trading is governed by a number of unspoken rules and etiquette, just like the game of baseball, but creating a trade-worthy pin for your team doesn’t have to be difficult. If you’ve ever wondered where to start or how to create a beautiful and memorable design for your team, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a quick rundown of how to make a custom lapel pin for your team’s next tournament that will be the envy of all pin traders. 

How to Design Your Own Trading Pins

When it comes to designing a set of baseball trading pins or softball trading pins, a few of the most important things to focus on are size, shape and style. These things may seem obvious, but each plays a vital role in the tradability of your custom lapel pins and should be given the proper amount of consideration.

Size is the first thing to consider when making the most trade-worthy design. One of the first unspoken rules to know about pin trading is that an average size pin will be easier to trade.  While the perceived value of a pin is dependent on all sorts of things like artwork, design and custom options like glitter, spinners and danglers, trades almost always fall into certain size ranges. You may have a beautiful 1.5” pin, but it will be hard to persuade someone with a much larger 3” pin that your design is equal in value for a trade.

The average size for baseball trading pins is around 1.75”. Since more pins are made in this size than any other, sticking close to 1.75” will ensure your pin is the perfect size to entice most pin traders.

The next thing to consider is the shape of your custom trading pins. Our Signature Pins team has the ability to craft any sort of shape you can image, so try to think outside of the box and come up with something unique. 

The most popular design cues for softball and baseball trading pins are things like crossed baseball bats, the diamond shape of the field and team logos. There are easy ways to make beautiful designs that incorporate these ideas, which is why they have become so popular, but to attract more pin traders it helps to offer something outside the norm.

Trading pins shaped like a team’s home state are a fun idea for out-of-state tournaments where teams come from all over the country to face off in bracket baseball play. Anyone looking to complete a set of lapel pins shaped like the 50 states will be interested to see what you have to offer.

Pins shaped like actual players out on the field shake things up as well. Every ballplayer has a favorite position, and finding a trading pin shaped like a player in their favorite position will definitely catch their eye. Trading pins can be shaped like pitchers, catchers, batters and players in every other position across the diamond. 

The last thing to consider when creating a set of custom trading pins for your team is style. Adding custom options like danglers, glitter and spinners will help you create and eye-catching design that is sure to make your pin the talk of the tournament, bringing in all kinds of hopeful traders. These types of trading pins are often perceived to have a higher value than trading pins without similar custom options, so they might even give you a little leverage in any potential trade. 

Offering the same design in a different style is another great way to increase the tradability of your team’s pins by adding a little variety. A majority of the softball and baseball pins we help create are soft enamel pins, but some of our customers ask for a set of companion die struck pins with their order. Since die struck trading pins are less common, their rarity may entice more potential traders. Companion pins are usually a die struck version of a team’s soft enamel pin, but it’s also possible to change the color scheme of a soft enamel design, giving the same artwork a different sense of personality. 

Taking Your Design to the Diamond

Baseball requires a lot of mental stamina, but when it comes to custom baseball trading pins, designing them doesn't have to be a mental struggle. The process of coming up with the perfect design is fun and engaging. Our Signature Pins team offers free artwork and free revisions, making it easy to try out different custom options, color schemes and shapes until the design is just right. Just remember, if your goal is to create the most trade-worthy design for your team, pay close attention to these three things: 

Size

• Stick to the average size of 1.75”. Pins of a similar size are often perceived to have a similar value, so an average sized pin will open the door to the widest range of trading opportunities. 

 

Shape

• Our Signature Pins team is happy to make any custom shaped pin you can think of. Consider ways to create a design that is different than the norm of baseball diamond shaped pins, or crossed bat logos. State shaped pins and player shaped pins are just a few examples of how to increase the tradability of your design.

Style

• Custom options like glitter, spinners, and danglers increase the perceived value of your pins and will attract more opportunities to trade. Also, consider offering the same pin design with different color schemes or in bare metal, die-struck, option.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is to ensure that you and your team are proud of the pin design we help you create. All you need to get started on your own custom trading pins is a little inspiration and a few ideas. Give us a call or fill out a free quote today, and see what makes us the best custom pin maker available online.