Name: Dave Durfey

From: Stoney Creek, Canada

How long have you been collecting? 4 years

How many pins do you own? 100

Like the Star Wars Saga, our London 2012 pin trading story begins a long, long time ago. In 1994 we met, and became very good friends with, a wonderful family from London, England when they lived in Canada for a year. Since then they have been back to visit us numerous times. Although invited countless times, we had not been to see them due to an aversion to flying. As a last ditch effort to get us to come to England, our friends made us promise that we would come if London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. We agreed, figuring we would not have to go because at the time Paris was the front runner to win the bid.

To our surprise we were woken in the early morning hours on July 5, 2005 by our British friends asking if we had purchased our plane tickets yet because London had just been selected as host city for the 2012 Olympics. The planning began.

I had heard that pin trading was a big event among Olympic spectators. As luck would have it the 2010 Winter Games were in Canada and I emailed all of the Olympic partners, suppliers and supporters requesting pins. A number of them sent pins to me and I kept the duplicates to take to London. I tried the same thing with the London 2012 partners without success. Undeterred, I headed to London armed with my bag of 2010 Olympic pins.

When we arrived at our friend's house, there was a beautiful stitched welcoming banner hanging in the window. I knew instantly that we now had a place to display the pin collection I was hoping to get.

On the morning of our first visit to an Olympic venue, Hyde Park, I loaded a couple of lanyards with pins for trading. I could see, from the looks of my teenage sons and British friends, that they were thinking, "You're not really going to do this, it's going to be so embarrassing to be with you". Ignoring their lack of enthusiasm, I carried on, determined to win them over.

My first taste of pin trading was at the official Coca-Cola Pin Trading site in Hyde Park. There we met some "professional" pin traders, asked a million questions and learned some of the "do's and don'ts" of pin trading. The actual trading was a bit disappointing as they were not interested in trading their 2012 pins for my 2010 pins. However, I was able to trade for some really interesting pins from previous Olympic Games. I could feel that I was becoming hooked.

Back at the house that evening, to my amazement, everyone was most interested in seeing what pins I had gotten. A nightly tradition of inspecting the new pins and placing them on the banner was started. Everyone was starting to catch "pin trading fever".

I decided to change my pin trading strategy and try trading with "beginners" like myself rather than the "professionals". We (yes, the family was becoming eager pin trading participants) looked for people who had an interesting pin or two on a lanyard or jacket and asked if they would like to trade. This was the best decision we made as it was great to meet people from all over the world. There were numerous times that they said, "I've never traded before, this is neat". We'd spread "pin trading fever" to:

• DLR employees on the platform at Stratford station, and on a street corner in Lewisham
• An employee stocking shelves and another working in the information kiosk at the Cutty Sark Museum
• Games Maker volunteers in line at the Coca-Cola Beatbox pavilion
• A sales clerk at the London 2012 Shop in the Olympic Park
• A Team London Ambassador in Greenwich
• A volunteer from Vancouver, Canada working at the Information Centre in the Olympic Park
• Two volunteer ushers at Earl's Court

The best "trade" was not for a pin, but a promise. It was to a couple of very young boys from Scotland who were in London with their parents for the Olympics. We met them on the train and gave them a couple of Canada pins. Their faces lit up as these were the first pins they had gotten. They quickly had their parents put the pins on their Olympic baseball caps and in return they promised to cheer for the Canadian athletes.

Needless to say, pin trading was one of the highlights of our trip. Our banner, complete with over 60 pins, is now proudly displayed in our home. It is one of the first things our friends ask about when they come to visit, and I can see the "fever" continuing to spread. We can't wait until our next opportunity to attend an Olympic Games and enjoy pin trading once again!