I’m not sure what’s big with youth soccer clubs these days, but when Dunny and I were young whippers coming up, club trading pins were the business.  Tournaments were the perfect opportunity to trade for some pins from clubs that were out of the area. Getting the right pins involved some haggling and bartering and there were some negotiation techniques that were learned on soccer fields in between games.

I remember playing against teams that had highly sought after pins. Cisco from Arizona was high on everybody’s list of what pins were most coveted. Like a sneakerhead searching out that elusive pair of Jordans, some of these clubs had pins that held our attention just as much as anything else on earth. One of Dunny’s club teams, the Upland Celtic actually had a pin that everyone tried to get their hands on. And if you were lucky enough to be in possession of some of these elusive pins, your power grew exponentially when you stepped up to negotiating table.  In the culture of youth American soccer players of the early 90′s, these pins were our currency amongst our peers.

I found these pins when I was at my parents house over the weekend and we were cleaning out their garage. I had been looking for these for a minute now, and was starting to get nervous that these gems of my childhood might be gone forever. Funny thing is, I found a lot of stuff from my playing days as a kid. But nothing was as important to me as these pins.

On a side note, here is the bag that the pins were safely tucked away in. Yes that is a fanny pack, and I must have blocked it from my memory that I used to roll around with my treasured pins in a fanny pack.

Writing this post makes me want to trade a pin. Anyone out there wanna make a deal?