Adult pin traders?

[Mamato2cutekiddos]

Is it a faux-pas for adults to pin trade?

When we were there in 2012 we stumbled upon pin trading. My 3yo (at the time) fell in love with it. Truth be told, so did I! But they were her pins and some of them I had to bite my tongue and walk away as I watched her trade them for... well, not what I would have traded them for haha.

Is there any sort of unspoken rule that Mom and Dad can't trade, and that it's only reserved for kids? Basically, would I look like a giant jerk if I tried to trade with Cast Members?

 

[Ashley Saunders]

Adults can trade with any cast member with a black lanyard. It is not frowned upon at all. The cast members with green lanyards are exclusively for children. I am 23 and I will be at Disney in 21 days and I have already gotten the pins I want to trade together. Have fun with it! Also look on ebay for pins that are very cheap. Pins at Disney can run around $8-$10. I just purchased a set of 5 pins (much like the starter pack for lanyards) for $5. That gives me the opportunity to trade for the 5 pins I want for $ dollars versus paying around $50 for those pins. I hope you can enjoy this tradition with your daughter!

 

[Capang]

On our last trip I began collecting and plan on trading on the next trip. Be careful with online sellers as many sell cheap scrappers. I saw many adults trading.

 

[remyrat]

I hope adults trade more, I admit I feel a little silly trading since I'm adult lol

 

[Nancyg56]

My DSIL trades every visit and has an extensive collection. There are trading events that are periodically scheduled and they are so much fun. One of my fondest memories was at POR for one of those events. There was an entire room set aside for a pin trading event so we planned our arrival sinner around that. My 6 YO DGD had been trading pins on previous visits so she had her book filled with precious pins, and was ready to trade. Oh my goodness! SHe had no idea that some pins were more "valuable" than others, becase she had only traded with CM's prior to that evening. She took her carefully packed books of pins from table to table, studying the pins displayed, and thn carefully chose one of her pins to trade. Every time she would eye one of the rare pins for trade, my DSIL would begin to steer her towards the more common ones offered, and every time those wonderful adults woudl shoo him away and let her make her choice.

One of the nicest aspects of trading that night was watching her try very hard to choose a pin she thought the other person would like, and even though she had ot mastered how this works with people other than CM's, she was on her way to learning how to play fairly wth others.

Try trading, there are so many adults who have a blast with this relatively inexpensive (oh who am I kidding! O=If you get hooked it's all over! LOL) hobby.

 

[LoodlesNoodles]

Not a faux pas at all!

We traded comfortably with CM plenty of times last year. Since then I've done lots of research of scrappers and fakes so I'll be more careful this year but definitely still plan to trade!

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I've seen more adults than kids participating in pin trading.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I'm an adult, way adult-I'm a grandmother, and I trade regularly. I only trade with CMs, and just for fun. Since I travel solo alot, it's a great ice breaker to talk with CMs.

 

[whitney37354]

DH usually trades off pin boards instead of with CM's. DD does both.

 

[DisneyMandC]

DH and I had an entire evening at MK on our honeymoon that was basically us just running from CM to CM pin trading! We loved it and had a great time. I agree on the statements about buying pins off Amazon or Ebay. Just make sure it's a quality seller though. I don't doubt that the pins we we received were the real deal, and we traded many of them and often saw CMs with some of the same pins we had bought. But there are definitely some out there that aren't real.

 

[Drusilla]

DD13 is an avid pin trader. However, last October DD13 was very disappointed in the selection of pins on CM lanyards - it seemed that every CM had the same pins, which we later learned are scrappers being bought cheap by the hundreds off ebay DD felt like scrappers had taken over the pin trading and it was really hard to find "good" pins on CM lanyards. We will see how it is this year in a couple weeks - I'm afraid that dd will be again disappointed in the same scrapper pins available to trade for

 

[PrincessJen09]

My family is all adults and all of us trade. When we first arrive, I feel silly, but I quickly get into the swing of it again. I get in such a habit that I often find myself still looking for pin lanyards when I get home!

 

[wolf29]

I also trade, along with my sons. We each try to pick some kind of theme and see how many we can find. We go annually and we too found a much diminished selection on CMs lanyards. We had much better luck on the boards at the Resorts.

 

[Disneydreamsdancer]

I've never had any trouble trading with cms and I'm 29, it can actually start some great conversations! Enjoy trading, just watch out for scrappers