Another GOH Badge question

[StampMom]

Sorry, I'm sure this has probably been asked and answered before, but the search function is disabled.

Has anyone done a price comparison between ordering the GOH badges from giftsofalifetime vs. ordering them from the Disney Merchandising department? Does it depend how many you're ordering which one is more cost effective?

Also, does anyone know if the Disney merchandising department has any badges other than the Mickey ones? Why has giftsofalifetime stopped carrying the other characters -- is Disney discontinuing them?

TIA!

 

[webmomom]

I ordered mine a couple of years ago. the reason I orderd them from GOL was the convience of it. Yes they were a little and mean just a little bit higher than the parks and of course you had to pay for shipping.

One reason was I had prepared gift bags for all of the grandchildren and wanted to have them in the bag when I gave them to them at the park.

secondly we have a few names and you can hardly fine on any shelf that has premake names on them. Even if we did find them, they are not spelled they way my children had spelled their childrens names.

the next reason was I did not want to spend our precious time we had waiting to get the names engraved since we had 19 of them. Even if it was only a couple I still wanted the time to do things, instead of waiting around.

It was nice to know when we left the house I had them and it was one less thing I had to do.

 

[StampMom]

Thanks for the reply webmomom -- I totally agree about the convenience of ordering the badges ahead of time! What I was wondering about was the price differential between ordering from GOL vs. ordering from the Disney Merchandising number (407-363-6200, I believe). I think that if you order from Disney Merchandising, you pay just the retail price plus shipping. But depending on how much they charge for shipping, it might still be more cost-effective to order from GOL. Also, I know that GOL no longer offers badges with characters other than Mickey, and I was wondering if Disney Merchandising still has other characters available.

My older DS has a badge I ordered a couple of years ago from GOL, but now I want to order one for my younger DS and my niece and nephew who'll be with us on our next trip!

 

[philaround]

I ordered mine from GOAL at $7.50/ea. I ordered other items from them at the same time and had to pay $9.37 for UPS on $70.00 worth of material. Some one else will have to give a price comparison for ordering from Disney.

 

[KellyJ]

I know this may have changed by now but when we ordered ours (about 18 months ago), we called Disney Merchandising first because I think, if I remember correctly, they were just a little cheaper when shipping was added in. However, Disney Merchandising wouldn't (at that time) do any personalizing. Unless the names were standard names that could be found on the rack, Disney Merchandizing wouldn't handle it. So, we ordered from GOAL... I'm thinking the difference wasn't more than $3-4 for the entire order.

Kelly

 

[lovetoscrap]

I called Disney Merchandising about a month ago and was told that they would not deal with GOH badges at all. They gave me a number for DD Christmas Store which I tried for several days and no one EVER answered. I tried another # I found here and left a message that was not returned for several days (I think at least 4). By then I had wasted so much time that I had gone ahead and order from GOL. Jane was wonderfully helpful. I got the badges, Mickey ear hats, and a few other items that were not on her site (a picture frame and die cast car). I was really nervous about getting it in time for my trip, but it all arrived the next week.

Yes, I did pay more (and believe me, I am very frugal and hate to pay extra!) but it was worth it! I don't plan to be at MGM or DD until late in the week we are there and I wanted these items for surprise gift bags when we arrive. Between the time I ordered an the time they arrived I kept wondering if I had done the right thing spending the extra money but once I opened the box I knew that I made the right decision.

My DH told me to look at it this way: "Would you pay 7.50 (the GOL price) for the badges if you saw them in the park for that price?" If your answer is "yes" then go for it!

I do believe that others have said they did get the badges through Disney Merchandising, so I may have just gotten a confused CM (I did specify that we all had common names)?