Tell me about pin trading

[MamaOfTwoPrincesses]

We're planning our 3rd family trip since Jan 2007 for right after Thanksgiving 2010. The girls will be almost 9 and 5.5 when we go. We've never done the pin trading before, but I thought this might be a fun new activity for them, especially my older dd. So how does it work, how expensive is this hobby, and what do we need to get started? THANKS!

 

[mom2girlsx3]

We love pin trading! We go to ebay and purchase pins... be sure to check the seller's feedback so you don't get stuck with non-disney pins. I just bought some pins online this week for $1.10 each and free shipping. Then you're good to go! Your kids can trade with CM in the parks. If they see a pin they like they can ask to trade with the CM. It is great fun. Some pins have "hidden Mickeys" on them, and that's a fun find for the kids. Here's a link that gives more info and will help get you started... Happy trading!

http://eventservices.disney.go.com/pintrading/page?id=getStarted#start

 

[MamaOfTwoPrincesses]

Thank you very much for the tips!

 

[woodkins]

I just did pin trading for the first time for my 7 yr old dd. I bought her a lanyard and a starter set of pins for her to begin her trading with. At the parks any CM must trade with a child (meaning they cannot refuse a trade). You can also trade with other guest but they don't HAVE to trade, where as CM's do have to. We chose to only trade with cm's, it was just as easy and there are tons of trading opportunities. She loved trading and I also allowed her to buy one new pin a day to add to her collection. It was a great experience for her & I feel it was also a great way for her to learn social skills, manners, initiating conversations etc.

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

My daughter, 7 yo, loves pin trading. I buy bulk pins from eBay for cheap( around $2 a pin); and she usually picks out a "theme" for each day or trip to WDW (ex: Stitch pins one day, or ride themed pins another). CMs with Green lanyards only trade with children and are very sweet and patient with children. It is actually more inexpensive for us than all those stuffed animals we used to buy. It is fun and portable! Hope they enjoy it, we certainly do!

 

[shelbys mommy]

I was thinking of doing this also & was told that it was a waste of time and money.

 

[woodkins]

I was thinking of doing this also & was told that it was a waste of time and money.

If you are trying to pin trade in order to "invest" and have a "collection worth something" than I would say it is a waste of money.

I think anything that teaches my daughter communication and social skills, brings her joy and fun and is a great memento of her likes, interests and experiences is not a waste of time or money. We often pull out her pin lanyard and look at the pins and she can tell you why she picked it, who she traded it with, in what park etc. The fun and memories that are linked to those pins are PRICELESS!

 

[Tinkmom75]

My DS11 and nephew both had a blast with this. I also bought from a reputable person on ebay. I should have bought more. DS ended up spending quite a bit of his own money purchasing more pins. I think it is a memory he will cherish.

 

[greens_in_WA]

we had a great time in wdw last year with our 7 yo dd pin trading. She worked on getting several groups of pins that went together - sold as collections in the stores. We took an old bulletin board and covered it with some left over black fabric I had and put our pins on that for display. It is just something else to add to the excitement as your walking hither and yon for this ride, or that activity, etc. And the social skill building is a definite plus.

 

[pixiewings71]

We started pin trading a couple years ago, DD10 was so shy then, it really helped to bring her out of her shell as our rule was she had to ask the CM for a trade. We are all very much "into" pin trading, we don't do it for possible financial reasons, we do it because it's fun. We do buy pins on eBay but we are very careful with who we buy from, scrappers are VERY prevalent on eBay (scrappers are fakes) and many times the super cheap pins are scrappers and not "worth" anything, not even worth trading. If you have a minute pop into the Collector's Board, there's a thread there with eBay sellers that Diser's have had personal experiences with. It's a pretty big thread but all our eBay seller info is on page 1. You can get lanyards on eBay or you can wait until you're in the parks and let the kids pick one out. At DL they range in prices from $6-12 depending on the lanyard, if you wanted to buy a set you can get lanyards with pins at the parks, those also range in price.

 

[monkey30]

We were thinking about it, but I may have missed going on ebay as we leave in 5 days.... hmmmmm we will look into it. We do have some special ones from our first trip, we all recieved a landyard with 4 pins coming off a ride. It was neat!

 

[james'mommy]

We started pin trading 2 years ago. It's a really expensive hobby. I buy my pins in lots from ebay to cut down on the price. I only let my son buy 1 pin per trip. Everything else he must trade for from the lots I purchase. We also buy 1 pin per trip from the resort we are staying at.

 

[pixiewings71]

We were thinking about it, but I may have missed going on ebay as we leave in 5 days.... hmmmmm we will look into it. We do have some special ones from our first trip, we all recieved a landyard with 4 pins coming off a ride. It was neat!

Not necessarily, many of the sellers offer shipping to the resort. As I said in my OP Pinderellascastle shipped to my hotel for me.

 

[RachelsMommie]

Do you think a 5yo would have fun pin trading?

How many pins should I buy her to start if you think it would be a fun activity? I see a bunch of E-bayers selling for 1.50 a pin, but I'm not sure how many I would buy.

Thanks!
Kristi

 

[pixiewings71]

Kristi, use caution buying pins for that price, they may be scrappers. I do think your 5 y.o. would enjoy it, I would start with about 5 pins per day, give or take a few. I'm not sure how long you'll be there so it's hard to say exactly how many to get.

 

[rskbh00]

I am considering letting me daughters ages 6 and 9 do this on our upcoming trip in September. We will be there for 7-8 days so how many pins should I have to start them with? Will check out ebay also.

 

[PatsMom]

My 18 year old has been pin trading since she was 8, which is when the whole pin trading thing began! Hard to believe this is the 10th year she's been trading. She has a large collection now. We don't buy many on e-Bay - one in a while when she is running low on "traders" we'll buy a few.

At WDW they sell sets and "mystery pouch" pins that are not terribly expensive. With the mystery pouch you don't know what you are getting until you open it. She has her pins divided between "traders" and "keepers". Keepers are limited edition, annual passholder, DVC exclusives, etc. When you start buying that type of pin, it can get expensive pretty quickly.

Her lanyard is Alice in Wonderland themed. She has Cheshire Cats, Alice, the Mad Hatter, the caterpillar, etc. She doesn't trade pins from her lanyard. Those pins all have locking pin backs to prevent loss. She keeps traders in her pocket. She mostly trades with CM's and especially looks for pins in her theme. She'll trade for other interesting pins though and just keep them with her traders until she decides whether to re-trade or keep.

She has been approached by young kids who want to trade. She politely tells them that she doesn't trade the pins on her lanyard but she gets her traders out of her pocket and offers to trade any of those that the child wants. She doesn't care if she gets a lanyard starter pin (which are very common) because she can still re-trade with a CM.

Pin trading is addictive!

 

[ebtbmom]

Pin trading is probably my DS 11's favorite activity at Disney (not much of a ride guy). We ordered 45 pins from ebay at 1.10 each for our last trip to split between 3 people and it lasted them the duration (5 night trip). I was scared to buy on ebay for a cheap price, but the pins I got were great. As a matter of fact, they got several from a set and were able to trade and complete sets while at DL, so I know the pins were legit.