The Ultimate Guide to Cleaning and Storing Your Custom Trading Pins

Trading pins can tarnish over time, so they need to be cleaned on occasion. Read our guide to learn how to clean and store your custom trading pins.

Custom trading pins aren't just pieces of metal, they are small representations of your hometown, your favorite team, or even your culture. While they make for great collector's items, they can be even more fun to trade when you feel the time is right.

The value of authentic team logos, mascots, and signature phrases at major league baseball games has also increased among collectors. One thing that people often overlook is the power of cleaning your pin before trading. This could increase the value a bit and keep it looking new for long periods.

Cleaning your baseball trading pins may seem like a menial task, but it can have a massive impact on how they look, feel, and even smell over time.

With that, keep reading for some of the top tips for cleaning and storing your custom baseball trading pins.

What Are Trading Pins Made From and What’s Best to Clean Them?

So, what are custom trading pins? They are small tokens that represent something, in many cases, they represent sports teams. Trading pins are normally made from metal or enamel.

You can even get soft enamel options which have become popular due to their sense of texture and lightweight. Different materials react to cleaning solutions and the force of cleaning agents or scrubbers differently.

If you don't take the time to assess what you are cleaning and how you could cause a bit of damage to your trading pins. Metal trading pins are normally colored metal or even anodized metal. This makes them stand out when compared to other materials.

They tend to be the most expensive and therefore might need the most care in terms of value and their lifespan, at least aesthetically. Enamel is usually made when you fuse powdered glass onto a substrate using fire.

One great thing with enamel options is that the colors within the pin won't fade over time. They are known for being long-lasting. They also look more expensive in some cases which is another reason to keep these pins clean.

Which Options Are Best?

So, you might be wondering what cleaning solutions or techniques you can use with each material. For enamel options, the paint makes them appear brighter and helps them to stand out. These pins need to be cleaned gently with a soft cloth to avoid scratching the paint.

Keep in mind that while they might not fade with time, it's still possible to cause damage by your own hand. Using silver polish with a clean cloth often works best for metal pins. As for enamel pins you want to make sure that you don't machine polish them.

This means that yes, you can polish them with a polishing solution but this should be done by hand. You also shouldn't use any form of household or chemical cleaner on an enamel pin.

Top Ways to Clean Custom Trading Pins

Aside from using silver polish or other polishing solutions, there are other methods you can use. Let's take a look at some of the top ways to clean a pin.

Use a Duster or Buff the Pins

Remember that cleaning your metal pins doesn't always have to involve some type of liquid. Actually, you shouldn't introduce your enamel pins to water at all. The same goes for your metal pins as well. Leaving them exposed to water for too long or in general could cause them to rust.

While water isn't the best method, simple dusting or wiping the pins down periodically is even better. This method is also very easy to do and keep up with, without damaging the material of the pin.

Use Distilled Vinegar and Water

If you have heavier amounts of tarnishing on your pins, you can mix a bit of water and vinegar together to create the perfect cleaning solution. You will want to have a ratio of at least 2:1 or 1:1 to get the best results. After you remove the backing of your pin, you can go ahead and submerge the pin in the solution.

It's important to remember that cleaning vinegar is at least 20% stronger than white distilled vinegar, so you don't want to use that in place of the water and vinegar combination. After letting it sit for a few minutes you just need to rinse the pin. It's best to use a toothbrush or something with soft bristles or a smooth surface to clean in the cracks of the pin.

Get Better With Your Storage

The way you store your custom trading pins will determine how fast they get dirty. A pro tip would be to have a cover or a wrap of jewelry-grade cloth to cover or drape the pin in. Or you could have separate holding slots for each coin.

If you want to clean your enamel pins and protect them from the elements, you will also want to keep your enamel pins out of direct sunlight and high temperatures of direct heat.

Another pro tip, to help care for your custom pins is to store them with silica gel packets. These beads will help to prevent rust and could decrease tarnishing in general. This is the best option if you want to avoid tarnish and rust.

Expand Your Collection

Now that you know a bit more about how to clean your custom trading pins and how to keep them clean, now may be the time to begin thinking about what your next season trading pins will look like for your baseball team! Our experienced team has been helping team design custom team trading pins since 2003 and we can help you design yours too!

Variety and uniqueness are two words that every pin collector enjoys hearing so check out some of our limited edition options and have a look at our order processes today.