The Super Bowl is the most anticipated sporting event on US television yielding well over 100 million viewers each year. Likewise, Super Bowl lapel pins are routinely the fastest pins to sell out due to their popularity and collectibility. The best selling products? The Super Bowl Medium, Oversized, and Danglers.
These items are some of the most popular lapel pin items on the market and also among of the most difficult pins to acquire an entire set for. Only 300 are made each year and most older designs can no longer be found in retail stores due to manufacturer changes.
Read more to hear our thoughts on the products and find out why you can't find these pins after they are sold out.
Review: Our Impressions on the designs
What sets the Dangler apart from other championship pins like the MLB World Series Pins - an awesome collection that we will explore in detail in a later post - is its unique, 2.5" hanging design. For this reason, the dangler is still one of our most recommended products to fans of the NFL.
The Dangler's design has evolved over the years, but still kept the trademark head-to-head helmet style. While the original white backgrounds gave the earlier Dangler pins a clean look, the addition of black and other dyes may better conceal blemishes, scratches, or discolorations that naturally occur in some aging pins.
Another routine design change in the last few years is the addition of shapes and landmarks relative to the host city (Super Bowl LV in Tampa featured palm trees and the Vegas skyline was highlighted for Super Bowl LVIII). These features give a trademark aesthetic beyond the typical head-to-head pins while showcasing the champions in a "dangler" sign beneath the body of the pin.
Alternative to the Dangler, one-piece pins have been available in two styles: the Oversized (3") and the Medium (1.5"). Both products show the final score of the game with the respective year's logo in the middle. The main difference is that the Oversized style feels more like a medallion and includes minor feature additions, while the Medium is perfect size to fit into a display case collection.
If you have grown accustomed to other lapel pin and sports jewelry souvenirs, the Oversized one-piece will feel large. At 3" in length, the pin is not unwieldy, but you can feel the weight on lighter fabrics - and for fans of adorning their baseball caps with lapel pins, the front of your cap will provide more rigidity for this bulky pin. However, if your intention is to display it on a shelf, then by all means the Oversized is the way to go. Up close or from an across the room, they will catch your attention.
Manufacturing: Changes in SUPER BOWL Lapel Pins
Originally, Super Bowl Dangler and Medium pins were sold at one of the premier sports memorabilia companies named Peter David, who handled their annual production and kept stock of pins from previous years until Super Bowl XLV. This made it easy to acquire designs from the years that collectors may have missed.
Following Peter David’s closure, manufacturing was continued by Wincraft and previous year's pins were were no longer continuously manufactured. This change ensured that the items stayed exclusive and collectible at the expense of older designs falling out of circulation. As collectors, getting them within a few months is critical or else we find ourselves paying top dollar from third-party sellers for the pins that are no longer sold in stores.
Currently, the same goes for the Oversized (3") One-Piece pins. Originally created by PSG, they will no longer be in production starting next year. Though availability could change in the future, we can expect to see a greater demand for the Medium and Dangler designs.
As for the Medium pins, Classic Pins manufactures their own and continues to limit production to 300 every year. Keeping to tradition and giving these limited edition pins their collectable value, supply for previous years is remains low.
But what about those of us who missed the previous Super Bowl collectibles? Limited manufacturing and licensing changes present a major obstacle to finding the exact item you're looking for... but also means that any such pieces you acquire have a higher value.
COLLECTING: Is it too late to start my collection?
There is always value to well-preserved memorabilia: making any time a great time to build a collection of value and interest.
In regards to Super Bowl lapel pin collections, incomplete sets of Super Bowl Danglers can be found on eBay and are sold for upwards of $150. Alternatively, completed collections reach over $1,000, more than doubling the investment cost.
With limited availability, next year's limited edition pieces are a valuable and excellent place to start. Besides getting a jump on those new releases, finding quality older items at a reasonable price can be tricky... but it's neither impossible nor unreasonable to add them to your collection as the opportunities arise.
So whether your team are crowned champs next year or if you are simply looking to create something memorable, why not start there?
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