CM Lanyard Pins available on eBay but not on CM lanyards

[rapriebe]

I've been at WDW for almost 2 weeks and have been to a different park everyday and have had miserable luck with locating the Series 4 lanyard pins. I've gone super early and stayed late but still do not seem to be able to find very many on the CM's lanyards to trade. BUT you can go on eBay and numerous sellers have lots of Series 4 pins available for sale. So I'm confused on how these pins (still new in the little bags) are making it to eBay but you can't find many of them at the parks. Aren't these pins only suppose to be available to CMs to trade???

There are only a few that I am really interested in getting but it's really discouraging when you can't find many on the lanyards. Especially since this new series has not been available for very long.

Any ideas on how this works?

 

[LMC]

Well I can't give any input on series 4, I don't even know what they are as I am new to PT. We were at the world from Christmas thru New Yrs and the first few days had success getting CM pins. Of course we didn't know what we were getting but the kids were picking things they liked so it was fine with everyone. Then after a few days, we learned a little bit and the kids decided they wanted certain things, a Tink 3 pin series, the Tiki series, monorail, trans bus series. Well you couldn't find any CM pins the last 5 days or so we were there. IT was very discouraging. I was beginning to wonder if disney was holding them back since the parks were so packed and they were being traded so quickly. Anyway, we had alot of different pins so when we got home I decided what each kid would collect and I have now ordered what they needed off ebay to complete 2 sets each for the boys and one very special set for my dd, but she is also getting a couple of other special pins too. I am happy considering how much I spent in buy "cheap" trading pins while at disney and now ending up with alot of pins we don't "need". We'll just trade those next trip, after they pick a series they want to collect.
Are the boiling pots part of series 4? I heard that one pot was released at DL only but the others were released at WDW.

 

[padalyn]

I usually have luck at the end of the parade route just before the parade starts, for which ever park I am in. There are usually managers out, and their lanyards have not been gone over so much. Good Luck!

 

[ekmdisney]

Here is a link that should take you to a site that has all the pins for the CM lanyard series #4:
http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/group.cgi?group=3273

If you are new to pin tradeing you should check out, www.pinpics.com it has pics of nearly every pin that Disney has ever released.

 

[doombuggy]

You have gotten some good advice here. I would add that trading with CMs at pin carts and especially places like Pin Traders in DTD are probably a good place to start as well. I would guess that they might have better access to a supply of pins, and probably refresh the cast lanyards there more frequently because of this.

Good luck and happy trading!

 

[Luv2Roam]

We have friends who have been here for weeks, and are in the parks daily. He has made the comment a few times that you just don't see lanyard pins much any more on Cast lanyards. Most pins available to trade are the pins from the lanyard starter packs.
I gave up on the lanyard pins long ago. There are so many now anyway.
And it seems traders have none, or a bag full.

 

[krdisneybound]

I have it on good advice that most of the managers keep the pins for themselves and put the pins up for auction or give them to friends/family members to auction them. They deny it but it is most definitely done each and every day. If it was not for the managers doing this, they would be all over the parks. Some of them get caught and some of them don't.

 

[mossy1]

I would have to agree about Downtown Disney being a great place to trade(check the whole store). Also we have had great luck in checking CM that some people may pass over, like the CM checking garbage cans and the like. For example there was this one nice older lady with a trash cart at the studios that not only showed us her lanyard pins but also had a separate bag of pins(like 20-30) that she let our kids look at. This was very nice of her and she didn't have to do that but, it never hurts to ask do you have any other pins? I don't blame the cast members for keeping some pins they really like for themselves, now managers that's a different story---I'm sure they are well paid for their services and don't need extra money or anything. One final note we have also had good luck at the different pin trading "events". These are usually just for kids under 12?--I think and are a great time for them to trade.

 

[WDWLVR]

I have it on good advice that most of the managers keep the pins for themselves and put the pins up for auction or give them to friends/family members to auction them. They deny it but it is most definitely done each and every day. If it was not for the managers doing this, they would be all over the parks. Some of them get caught and some of them don't.

Very sad and what gives some ebayers a very bad name. They are just out to make a buck. Sadly it is not just with pins. The people who sell empty X boxes or those who overstate the value of park tickets are just as bad. They may be making money but karma will get them some day.

On the flip side I've also seen some people go out of their way to make someone happy with pins. Keep your eyes open there are some very good people out there as well!

 

[Swamp_Fox]

My take on the Cast Lanyard series is this a large percentage of the newest pins are snapped up by the locals. By locals I mean the same traders you see at DTD, Conterporary Pin trading nights, and other locations day in day out week in week out (you get the point). Another piece of the puzzle are the Cast Members some but not all either tip off the locals about the pins or they heed the call of Ebay to make a quick buck. All of this really stinks for the average or pure collector/trader.

Swamp_Fox

 

[caribear]

As a CM I can tell you that lanyard pins are not passed out to the CM's that often (at least not where I work). If I want to have lanyard pins then I have to find the one manager who handles all of the pins....at an off time when he/she isn't busy....which is very rare. Once I have 2-3 lanyard pins on my lanyard...they are gone within minutes! We are supposed to have 12 pins on our lanyards....so a very small amount are lanyard pins. Wish I had more lanyard pins for the kids, but they are taken so fast by those who know exactly what they are looking for. I make it a point to show the kids the lanyard pins if I have any at the time.

 

[lovethattink]

As we were leaving the AK on Saturday, my son found a CM with a lanyard FILLED with ALL series 4 lanyards. He was in heaven. He picked out the 2 he wanted most and begged me to trade for 2, but I told him to let other people have a chance. That was the first we have seen lanyard series 4 in a long time.

 

[olbear]

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time finding them. We were there just yesterday for the day. We went to AK first for Breakfast, we saw a manager right off and he was loaded with LS4 pins. We hit the motherload. Yes we only took our 2 each even though he offered more.

I truely think it's mainly hit or miss more than anything.

Most of all, have fun!!
Blessings,
Winnie

 

[PaulaSue]

I am really clueless about the pin series but I clicked on the linked, since I knew we got 3 special pins, and one was the belle from that series.

The other 2 were princesses with the round circle around them.

After we got the first one the CM told us how special they are. We just collect cute ones the girls wanted but I wanted you to know we saw them out when we went 1/15 - 1/21.

 

[webprinter]

We were at WDW in December and I wasn't able to find any either. One of the CM noticed I had a global series 3 lanyard pin on my lanyard. He pulled out some pins he had in his pocket that he wasn't putting on his lanyard and wanted to trade one of them for my lanyard pin, so, sometimes even the cast members have trouble collecting them. Debby

 

[doombuggy]

caribear & olbear:

 

[hightown]

I usually don't post here as I'm not a collector at all though my daughter (11) collects the CM Lanyard pins.

On our last trip in November, the ONLY place she found lanyard pins is going to the kid pin trading events. There were several times in the parks when a CM would say, 'sorry, just had one but it just got traded' or 'those people beat you to it' and the people leaving were adults.

You could see them at park opening hot footing it to the nearest CM, trading or not then quickly moving on to the next.

Sorry, don't want to offend anyone or get flamed. You are entitled to collect whatever your heart desires.

But felt compelled to agree with Swamp fox and caribear about the locals and hard core collectors.

 

[lovethattink]

It's going to get even harder to find them I think. I just heard that they are lowering the pin trading board age from 14 and under to 12 and under. My son is happy because he'll still have some time.

 

[rapriebe]

If you want a good example of an eBayer selling Cast Member Lanyard Series 4 pins, check out plummer249. He has a ton of lanyard pins for sale and if you check his past sales, you can see that he has sold a bunch of them. He sells them in lots of 10 as well as individually. In fact, I have purchased some from him (still in original packaging) inorder to complete my sets.

So how does a seller in NH get all these lanyard series pins, he's definately not a FL local snagging them early in the morning.

 

[disneydramadiva]

Hmm, I"m not sure. I had no trouble finding Cast Member, I just looked for HIdden Mickeys. Keep on trying!