Pin Portfolio started as one of those little side project ideas that would not leave me alone. I kept thinking about how much friction there is in cataloging a pin collection, especially when you are staring at a board full of pins and trying to remember what everything is worth. So I put together the first rough version of the site with one simple goal: make it easy to upload a photo and get something useful back.
The first pass was surprisingly fun to use. You could upload a photo, let AI take a shot at identifying the pin, and then pull sold eBay listings to get a quick sense of value. It was not polished, but the loop worked. Snap a picture, see a likely match, get pricing data, add it to your collection.
That was enough to convince me there was something real here. It felt like the start of a tool I would genuinely want for my own collection, and that is usually the best sign to keep going. Pin Portfolio was officially alive.