SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - With more than 2,000 pins in her possession, Janet Pacey proudly calls herself a pinhead.

Janet Pacey shows off her collection of pins accumulated entirely by trade. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo

"We're all bananas and we know it," she said. "To pin traders it's exciting, to regular people you seem wacko."

In 2000, Pacey, a graphic designer, was asked by CBC North to design its pin for the Arctic Winter Games. After that her pin collecting evolved into somewhat of an obsession.

Pacey is travelling to the 2010 Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie, Alta., this Friday to run the pin trading table - an unofficial sport at the Games. The goal is to collect sets of pins from all of the international teams in the competition.

"I know people who book their vacation time around the Games," said Pacey. "It's mayhem and madness trying to figure out what pin you have to get."

She said factors that make a pin of value to a trader is the date it was made, how many exist and what the cost was to manufacture them. A very important rule in pin trading is that you can only obtain one by trade; cash is of no value.

Pacey admitted that at one Arctic Winter Games she traded her $50 fleece jacket for a rare pin from Team Alaska.

"If you can't get it, it's all you think about," she said.

This year she is not only in charge of the trading table but has designed the pins for each event of the games.

"Every pin has its story," Pacey said.

At the games, traders like herself also keep an eye out for any interesting or bizarre pins which tend to appear.

Pacey has many of these in her collection, including a mysterious CBC bronze pin with "old fart" engraved on it and a variety of dirty polar bear pins with the creatures in explicit positions.

Part of her responsibilities in running the pin trading table is making sure people trade fairly and follow pin trading etiquette, which includes no touching the other person's pins unless they say it's all right, not interrupting a trade between two people, and never letting someone pressure you into making a trade that you are not happy with.

"It's a great way for kids to socialize," said Pacey, who even provides some future traders with their first pin to trade.

"The thrill of a trade becomes an addiction and by the end of the week I'm exhausted."