My kids are interested in trading, but we haven't done any of this before. I like the idea of my shy kids having to talk to CM to open them up. But the only pins I see available for sale at stores around us have rating messages saying they were hard to trade. So my question is do you just buy them when you get there? We were going to buy some on ebay but I don't want to worry about scappers and I don't want 50. LOL. Just a few to get them started. So would the Disney stores have more than what is showing online? There were very few available to purchase from the store. If I buy my kids the starter sets is that going to mean the CM have them already because EVERYONE is buying them so therefore hard to trade? I don't want my kids to be disappointed. Thanks for any help!
In my experience, the Disney Stores (brick-and-mortar stores) don't have a wide selection. I would look at
DisneyStore.com; they frequently have sales and free shipping promotions.
In terms of buying pins once you get there, I would look to buy one of the starter sets or sets rather than individual pins. The cheaper the set, the more often you'll see those pins on the CM lanyards. When they were doing a $20 starter set as the "purchase with purchase" option, those pins seemed to be on every lanyard. In most cases, there are enough starter sets that you should still be able to find enough CMs that don't have those pins on their lanyards.
Each park has one major pin shop, as well as DTD. Finding pins, and starter sets, is really easy in WDW.
Regarding scrappers/fakes/counterfeits, I will say that if you do trade with CMs, there is a high likelihood that you'll end up with scrappers/fakes/counterfeits. That's not to say you shouldn't trade, but it is something to keep in mind.
eBay has some good sellers that do often offer pin sets at a discount (I think they're either buying them at the clearance centers in Orlando, have the CM discount, or something like that). If you stick to sellers that are offering pin sets still on their backing and wrapped, you stand a much better chance of getting a legitimate set.
