New small business selling enamel pins - help and advice

[Enamelpins]

Hello, I’ve been playing around with a lot of designs for ages and have been planning for ages to set up a website selling enamel pin badges.

I absolutely love them and have a huge collection of my own Disney pins and am very keen to start making my own pins.

There seems to be quite a big online community of people who love pins but I don’t know how easy it is to break into the market.

Does anyone else do this or know anyone that does? Am I mad?

I'm not too sure what you mean by enamel pins (I'm old) but if it's anything Disney related I understand they are mega protective of their copyright stuff. If you are a small business I'd suggest to think very carefully before messing with such a large and powerful corporation.

@Theoldwrinkley no I wouldn’t make Disney pins but lots of people do - they’re called “fantasy” pins.

I mean little pins made out of enamel. I’m a collector of little pins but trying to gauge how many other people are.

I see adverts on Instagram for quite a few small companies who make enamel pins but all of them seem quite niche eg. Have a feminist theme or neuro-diversity and seem to sell for a fairly decent price (as in they seem a bit spendy) but clearly people are out there who are willing to pay for them.

Can you look at the online community and ask where/how they buy their pins?

It's not something I'd be a customer for, but if they are graphically strong or witty/interesting then could you have the odd market stall in a carefully selected craft fair? Or go to an independent shop(s) you admire and ask them if they will trial some?
Etsy?

I love pins!

But I don't want to spend more than about eight quid on one.
If it's any more I'm probably looking at buying a proper brooch for a significant amount. Nothing really in the middle.

It's a pain paying several quid postage for such a small item from some online retailers and that puts me off.

I like buying them as souvenirs from special places I visit.

Can we see an example of your work and perhaps people more business savvy than me can advise?)

You can get them made on Ali Express, they used to work out to under a pound each when we did them and we had to buy about 20 of each design. If you buy more they cost less per unit.
Another similar product you used to be able to get made are shoe charms - rubber badges for Crocs. The designs need to be very simple, they sell well in themed packs.

As a fellow pin lover and seller (mostly Disney and anime-themed), I can tell you it’s a saturated but welcoming market! People are always on the lookout for fresh designs.

The trick is to build community first and post your designs on Insta, maybe TikTok, and get feedback. Then drive people to your site. I finally saw results when I stopped winging SEO and followed advice from this guide