PinPics: A Bit About How It Works

[TheTwins]

PinPics: A Bit About How It Works (and who does the work)

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As the oldest (and largest) Disney Pin database, PinPics has gone through a lot of changes over the years as technology advanced and the pin hobby grew.  PinPics was founded by Britt and Figgy, a great couple who had a vision for a site where users could catalog and trade their pins online. The website debuted on 7 Dec 1999 and has been growing ever since! The database has always been user-generated, growing with the help of thousands of members for more than twenty-five years. In that time, the site has only changed hands twice -- and the database has remained user-generated and free to use.

 

It's easy to think that the database just grows as pins are released and that information shows up as soon as great pin mail arrives in the mailbox. Well, that's not quite how it is, so we thought it would be nice to explain some things about the website and how the database works. Let's take a behind-the-scenes look . . .

 

As of March 2026, we have more than 156,000 pin listings active in the system and hundreds more added each week. It's a massive amount to handle, and it's not cheap. The server space to house all the data and backups requires its own team, then there's software development and maintenance. All that happens before it comes down to the site Admins and the volunteer team members working to create and maintain an experience we can all enjoy on the web; a happy, friendly, free Disney Pin community. 

 

The Team

Contrary to popular belief, we're really a very small team of workers (and nearly all volunteers). Whenever you send in comments, suggestions, submissions, questions, etc., they come to someone whose face is shown on the Meet the Team page. No faceless AI robots work for PinPics, which is why we ask that members remain courteous and friendly in all contacts. We're all real people here. People who love pins and want to create a happy place for all.

 

As with all small workforces, there are limits to what can be accomplished on a regular basis. Unfortunately, there are times when features (user submissions, in particular) have to be temporarily suspended. Things happen. Software updates and upgrades, Internet outages, illness, and even a death in the family have recently closed things down. We received a fair amount of complaints for these down times, and it was very discouraging to the team. Sometimes things happen, and the health and safety of our team is important to us.

 

Maintaining and growing a database of this size requires that the PinPics team puts in an absolutely crazy amount of hours. Our users and team members span the globe and use the site at all hours of the day and night. For the site Admins (who currently live and work on EST), this is a 24/7 commitment. A commitment to give you, the user, a free database and cheery community.

 

The Database

Member submissions are a key part of PinPics' growth. But a submission is only the beginning of the work. When you submit pins, photos, or suggestions to the database, each one is personally handled by a team member. We strive to get things done as quickly as possible. But that doesn't always mean immediate results, since we often wake up to hundreds of member submissions waiting to be approved. In an effort to minimize mistakes and errors, as well as create quality listings, all submissions are double-checked and facts verified. It makes a better user experience when things are formatted, allowing information to be easily accessed. We constantly strive to streamline this process without any loss of quality.

 

Pin listings have grown and changed over the years, as pin releases and software capabilities have grown and changed. The number of pins available for cataloguing has skyrocketed since the beginning of Pin Trading. Software now allows for better searching and sorting (via various fields and attributes). There are many more origins and attributes than there used to be, and we have the ability now to display things like back descriptions, dimensions, unique currency symbols, multiple original prices, and linked pins. But those additions don't happen automatically!

 

More than 100,000 listings were added back when there were no additional currency symbols, when the edition field didn't allow for LR and other options (causing pins to be displayed as Unknown Edition), when only Year on Back could be listed (causing pins to be displayed as Unknown Year), etc. While we daily receive discouraging messages stating that we've made a mistake, these are actually things which are years old, and we're working every day to update them.

 

We now request all photos be taken on white backgrounds and cropped to certain standards, as we continually work to update as many photos as possible. The PinPics team has supplied many tens of thousands of photos from their own collections, not to mention help from the many members over the past three years who've been submitting new and additional photos. The requirements for the new format can seem daunting sometimes, but there's a good reason! Back at the turn of the Millennium, most pins were scanned (on a glass-top scanner) and photos submitted with dimensions no larger than 250px (quite a change from the common 2400px photos submitted today). Until recently, each listing could only hold one photo, and there weren't formatting/background requirements to keep those photos consistent in size and/or quality. Not only do the new standards keep PinPics looking sleek and clean, but they're crucial for the modern image-recognition searches and camera-search technologies.

 

Searching has also undergone a tremendous number of technological updates since 1999, and it's something we're always working on. The site now has a feature which allows us to display readable titles to the public, while still having hidden searchable terms in the actual listing title. This means that many listings may come up when you type certain words into a search, but you won't see those words in the visible title. Before sending in a suggestion asking for words to be added to a title, try searching for the pin with those words. Most of the time, the pin will come up, because of those hidden terms.

 

Pins are added as we obtain photos and information about them. While the team does own a lot of pins, we don't own every pin released. So, if you have a pin that you know is missing from the database, then that's a great opportunity to support the community by submitting it for addition.

 

Membership and Subscriptions

The amazing thing about PinPics is that the database and Trade Assist feature have always been free, and the current owners are dedicated to keeping it that way (even with the enormous, ever-rising cost involved). Our PinPics CLASSIC membership is totally free, making joining the community quick and easy. This includes all-new features like Member Feedback, an online forum, and more!

 

Since Fall 2025, PinPics offers different paid subscription options which come with a variety of features that will enhance your pin trading/collecting/cataloging and take your hobby to a whole new level. These include things like Private Pin Notes, enhanced PDF options, our exclusive Scrapper/Fake Guide, and a mobile app which offers image-search technology in the database. By subscribing, you not only gain access to great new features, but you support PinPics' development and maintenance. And you make it possible for this community to flourish, as technology advances and the hobby grows.

 

 

Hopefully, this sheds some light on the workings of the site and answers some of the questions members ask regularly about how or why certain things are done. It's easy to confuse PinPics with a big company utilizing a large office space and large staff. But we're actually a very small group of dedicated individuals (be sure to check out Meet the Team) working from our home offices, donating a lot of time, energy and personal life to keep this site up-to-date and make it better with each passing day.

 

Thank you for using and supporting PinPics, as we work to keep this site a happy, friendly community for pin enthusiasts around the world.

 

The PinPics Admins

Molly, Joe, Sarah & Elizabeth