We were absolutely blown away by the take-up for the Doolan Pin this morning. All of the 121 original Pins were reserved within the space of about 20 or so minutes after launch. We will be sending an email this evening to all those who have already reserved theirs, so that they can then complete the payment form to finalise their purchase.
We know some of you are disappointed
We tried to give members a “heads-up” on our social media channels yesterday evening. However, we appreciate that not everyone will have seen this or the email in time to reserve their Pin.
We confined the initial run of Doolan Pins to make sure we were being responsible with the funds you all put in to the Foundation with your monthly membership subscriptions. These things are difficult to gauge when it’s the first one you’re making available for sale. When we commission each Pin, we need to pay for the design, manufacturing and delivery costs up-front. We wanted to be sure that we were going to sell all, or almost all, of the Pins we ordered, so as not to leave the Foundation with surplus stock and out of pocket.
With the benefit of hindsight, however, we should have done a larger run of Doolan Pins. As we’ve seen from your feedback, clearly the appetite for this one in particular is really high. We want as many of our members as possible to have an opportunity to be part of the Thistle Pins journey. We see these as developing a story in the history of our club, not just individual badges.
What we’re going to do about it
Therefore, we have decided, exceptionally, to commission a second batch of the Doolan Pin.
We will provide all members who have not yet reserved one with a 48 hour window within which to reserve one. They, like the other 121 who have already reserved a Pin, will then be given a further window of 7 days within which to complete the payment form.
These being high-quality and hand-made pins, they take a while to manufacture and deliver. Those purchasing from the second run will need to wait a bit longer before they can have theirs collected or delivered. So please bear with us while we get those made and delivered to us from the manufacturers.
Future Pins
This is still something we are experimenting with, and we will review the uptake and commissioning for future Pins. We want to strike the right balance between keeping these as cherished rare pieces of memorabilia and giving all members a fair chance to obtain them.
We are aware that some collector-minded members want to be sure of getting every Pin that we release. We will be consulting members to test their appetite for a subscription model for the Pins, and will develop these plans further if there is sufficient interest.
Thank you for your enthusiasm, your patience and your long-standing support.