ASD Child Pin Trading/Passport Stamp Collecting

[toodycat]

If a lanyard is too uncomfortable, a child could always wear pins on his hat. Although Jake was willing to wear his lanyard, we also bought him a khaki bucket hat covered with Animal Kingdom themed pins. A kid who wasn't attached to the AK could definitely get a lot of mileage out of the trading 8-10 pins that came with the hat.

Has anyone ever attended a pin trading function at one of the resorts? Would you recommend that for an ASD child?

 

[SueM in MN]

There was a thread like this a while ago (maybe last year about this time). Most of the things brought up in that thread have been mentioned here. A couple of other things I can think of:
- From what I understand, the pins have to have a Disney trademark on the back to be tradeable. (no junk pins, as several posters have mentioned).

- You could have a specific place that he puts the pins he does not want to trade. If he has a book, you could even write something on that page that says no trading so it's clear to people looking that he won't trade those (and maybe as a reminder to him).

- You could make a rule to trade only with CMs.

- Make sure he understands that a trade is forever.

 

[mechurchlady]

For those who do not know what junk pins are hold on tight. The junk pin is a pin that has a disney mark on the back and is tradeable with a CM. I would never tell anyone to go buy the fakes HRMPH, SNARL,. CM can refuse any pin that is damaged, fake, made of nonmetal, or a duplicate.

There are sharks out there. HOWEVER, the vast majority of us pin traders are kid friendly as word gets around fast. People like the people that are kid friendly and trustworthy. If a kid with downs syndrome for autism came to me for a trade I would show him what pins he could choose. I always had a cheaper bag for kids and new people. If I lost value it was no big deal and the person did not get their heart broken over a pin. It kept them from offering a $3 junk pin for a $25 limited to 100 pins auction pin that is worth $100+ in pins.

Go in first and talk to traders and find the ones who seem nice and helpful then bring your son in to trade. Let them know before hand what he likes so they can quickly help him. If I were to meet your son in WDW I would probably end up giving him some of my valuable pins because he would charm the pins out of me. I liked trading with kids as they loved pins for meaning not value. I quit because of harrassment in pin trading and finances but I still remember my dear pin trading friends.

 

[bopper]

I woudl like to disagree with the advice of buying junk pins online. .

What I suggest is to look into buying a lot of Disney pins on Ebay. Look for official Disney Pins, but generally if you buy a lot of 10 they will run about $3 a piece instead of $7-8 at the parks. Also, they are a mishmosh of pins that are probably not the most awesome, so will be easy to trade away.

 

[irish dancer]

My ASD DS did well with trading however he's now aquired pins he doesn't want to part with so on our next trip I'll have to pick up some new "traders". We did get some Pixar ones from the Disney movie club, maybe he'll use those.

We haven't done the passport in Epcot but that is definitely on our list for next time.

On our last trip we did the passport type one they have in AK and he LOVED it. We too would cross out the stations on the map as we visited them and he didn't care about any of the rides until he had all of his stamps. What made it tough was we were there in the afternoon/evening so we were racing against time to make sure we hit all the stations.

I hope your DS has a great time trading.

 

[Tinker_Belle]

What I suggest is to look into buying a lot of Disney pins on Ebay. Look for official Disney Pins, but generally if you buy a lot of 10 they will run about $3 a piece instead of $7-8 at the parks. Also, they are a mishmosh of pins that are probably not the most awesome, so will be easy to trade away.

Thank you! That is a great idea!

My ASD DS did well with trading however he's now aquired pins he doesn't want to part with so on our next trip I'll have to pick up some new "traders". We did get some Pixar ones from the Disney movie club, maybe he'll use those.

I'm so glad to hear that your DS did well with the pin trading. I am sure my DS will also have more than a few that he does not want to part with. Thank you!

On our last trip we did the passport type one they have in AK and he LOVED it. We too would cross out the stations on the map as we visited them and he didn't care about any of the rides until he had all of his stamps. What made it tough was we were there in the afternoon/evening so we were racing against time to make sure we hit all the stations.

I hope your DS has a great time trading.

I didn't know that they had a passport in AK. Where were the stations?

 

[mechurchlady]

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/discovery/
That describes with pictures the Animal Kingdom passport program.

Their brochure:
http://www.aza.org/Publications/2005/11/Kids-Discovery.pdf

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/kidcot/
That one shows pictures and discribes Epcot.

 

[ireland_nicole]

I have never done pin trading, so thanks for starting this thread! I think DD maybe DS too would really enjoy that; and I'm gonna borrow DH's work lanyard and see if they will wear it (of course, DD would only wear a pink one lol); and then do a social story- wow, more stuff to work on before the trip-but at least it gives me a break from the hidden mickey book and Youtube!

 

[marimario]

I was thinking on trying the pin trading on our upcoming vacation and then I remember the drawer tool chest(sp) where my dh keep all his tools, have fill of pin from wdw for way before me. He keep them in the drawer, we are talking more than 15 years. I ask him about it and explained him I was thinking of get ds4 into pins trading and he said " oh yes, still in there go and check it out" I did not, just because I was tired. But how I know how much value they have? where can I found this inf. I just don't want to trade some that are valuable. Thanks

 

[mechurchlady]

www.pinpics.com is a great source for pin information. It is sorted by pins and buttons. If you make a list then some pin traders can tell you the value. Check ebay also. A Figment pin from the 1990s can be worth several hundred dollars. Cast pins and genera pins are hot. Genera is type like trains, transportation, rides, dogs, good dragons, one or more characters, princesses, fire department, job, etc. There are those who collect DCA pins, cruise pins or resort pins. IF you find someone wanting a spinner, genera or other type of pin then to that person it is worth a lot more.

I am not in pin trading right now so I do not know much but would help if I could. If you have a 1990's figment then I got dibs, lol, like could afford those. The highest price I seen was over $600 for a Gracie pin from HM.