About this whole thing that staff cannot put any item they want in inventory, I can only relay what I observed when I was in Phinney's trade room this weekend. I was up like second or third in the line from trading with her, and she made an announcement to the room that she would be back quickly, that she had to get more pins. Hmm, I interpret that to mean she is clicking/loading/inputting any number of pins she needs from a master item list. I doubt she has to buy her Grand Californian pins with an allowance-like credit limit.
As far as why Phinney doesn't accept just anything in trade for the hotel pin, could it be that she is just applying the same rule of supply and demand that we, the players, have set for items in vmk? I would not generally accept a trade that was not fair, i.e., a pair of jeans for a crown. The whole concept of rare and/or expensive, or plentiful and/or cheap is standard in vmk. I can see why she only accepts a trade of equal credit value.
The problem lies in the lack of foresight/preparation/organization of this pin trading event. They easily could post trade rules in pictures on the walls, in photo albums, in the room description -- or have volunteer CL's repeat the rules as general statements to the room. The rules for the spin the generator event are clearly posted -- why can't the rules for swap monster be posted too? Would save a lot of kids a lot of tears.
Or even better yet, maybe every vmk staff member should have a sign on their desk with the message "What would Walt do?"
