WILLIAMSPORT -- Pin trading is a popular tradition at the Little League World Series and a man from Wisconsin takes it to another level. He has more than 40,000 pins and some of them are on display in Williamsport.
Some are small, some are very large, and some are worth more than $1,000. But all of these pins have a special meaning to Butch Faber of Wisconsin.
"They said, 'This is your whole collection?' I said, 'No, this is about one-third of my collection. It would be difficult to bring my whole collection here,'" Faber said.
Faber has over 40,000 pins and brought about 10,000 of them to the Lycoming County Visitors Bureau for a display during the Little League World Series. Faber says he started trading pins in 1989 when he came to the World Series for a conference.
"And they're like, 'Do you have pins?' And I'm like, 'Yes, I've got a little state pin,'" Faber said.
Faber says collecting pins became his hobby and he's only missed one Little League World Series since 1989 and that's because he had heart surgery.
"It's neat seeing so many, right? All at one time, yes! And they're displayed so nicely," Lisa Michael said.
Lisa Michael and her family from Virginia have come to the Little League World Series for almost 20 years. They say they also have quite a pin collection and enjoy seeing this display.
"I think it's great that someone made a display to see what's actually out there. All the different types, different colors. It's a lot of beauty. It's more of an art than people give it credit," Jacob Michael said.
The new Lycoming County Visitors Bureau opened on West Fourth Street on July 5 and Faber was asked to display some of his pins. There is even a picture of his favorite pin at the front desk. If people find it on one of the boards, they win a pin of their own.
Employees at the Lycoming County Visitors Bureau say this will be a permanent display each year during the Little League World Series.