Disney Pins and Lanyards?????

[c2mh]

Hi there,

This will be our first family vacation and we are leaving in a month. It is my understanding kids can trade pins with cast members who are wearing 'green' lanyards with pins. My questions are:

1. Can you trade in all the parks or only certain locations?
2. Is a lanyard the best place to put pins (will they fall off?) or should we put them in a small zipped up purse-type of thing?
3. How many pins should my children start out with (roughly)? Someone told me 2, but that doesn't sound like enough. Would 5 be enough for each of them?
4. Do they earn pins while at the parks or if you come with 5, you leave with 5?

Thanks for any tips/advice. We are so excited!!!
Cris

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

1 You can trade everywhere even at DTD.

2 A lanyard is best. I haven't lost any just make sure you put the back on tightly.

3 5 might be enough. But if they really get into it they'll want more. Because they'll get ones they like and then they won't want to trade.

4 I think they give some away as prizes for the year of a million dreams. But in less you buy more your gonna leave with the number you bought.

 

[Parkhopper_Vince]

Kids can trade with any Cast Member wearing a lanyard. The green ones are special "kids only" lanyards, but this does not mean that kids cannot trade with the other Cast Members.

 

[kiddisney]

to the best that i know:

1. Can you trade in all the parks or only certain locations? there are specific locations where you can trade - but there are also cm's throughout the park who can and/will trade - you just have to find them in each of the parks

2. Is a lanyard the best place to put pins (will they fall off?) or should we put them in a small zipped up purse-type of thing? lanyards are good for displaying what you have - but they can be lost this way - it depends on how active or how careful you are - there are also bags or cases that you can purchase to display the pins

3. How many pins should my children start out with (roughly)? Someone told me 2, but that doesn't sound like enough. Would 5 be enough for each of them? It depends on the type - some can be costly - but you may not want to trade them - there are also starter 'kits' so you should look each over to see what you want to do

4. Do they earn pins while at the parks or if you come with 5, you leave with 5? generally you don't earn pins at the parks - on the cruise we did earn a pin when we won trivia contests - but not at the parks - you can get discounted pins sometimes like the passholder pins - or specials - but you have to purchase - and maybe in special cases you get 'dreams' awards - but again generally you have to purchase

 

[earthfaries]

Hi there

Pin trading is wonderful, my kids love it and they are 5 and 12. You can trade pins in all the parks plus shops in the parks and downtown disney. Lots of CM's wear lanyards , some for adults and children to trade with, some for only kids. Anytime you see a CM with a lanyard, don't be shy ~ ask to look at their pins It's really fun and the kids will love it.

Lanyards are great, but you most likely will pins ~ the backs on the cheaper ones especially come off very easily. The more expensive pins I've noticed have tighter fitting backs. We bought backs and put them on our pins, then when trading just told the CM's we would keep our backs. They come in a bag, there are sorcerer hat shaped backs, mickey gloves, etc. if that helps. The kids can hardly get them off ~ we never lost any with those backs.

I think starting off with 5 pins is a great number. 2 is just not enough. You will probably wind up with more than 5 though If you find yourself needing more, we just buy the least expensive ones that come in a package ~ then trade them for good ones and ones they want.

You don't earn pins at the park, but you can be given one by really nice CMs or for the YOMD. We have had nice CMs give the kids a pin of their own, from their personal collection before, and have gotten some from a CM for the celebration. I wouldn't plan on it though, it doesn't happen too often.

As for the lanyards, we bought some this Jan. just like a lot of the CMs wear, they have the lanyard but on the bottom is a big flap of material that holds about 10-15 pins. It's great. Definately worth the $15.00, but I don't know if they still sell them, you might want to look on ebay. Also they sell wallet type lanyards which are neat too, you just can't show off your pins but they are safe. I think those cost about $25.-30.

Hope this helps! Pin trading is one of our favorite parts of going to WDW ~ we buy ours from a great seller on ebay who only sells official WDW trading pins for about $2.25-2.50 ea. We bought some for our last trip but it wasn't enough. We just bought 200 for our upcoming trip in Sept.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

earthfairies - can I ask which seller you used? I just bought a lot of 100 and I think I want more.
Thanks.

And to the OP - pin trading is a lot of fun! Enjoy. My DD is 8 and she absolutely loves it.

 

[earthfaries]

earthfairies - can I ask which seller you used? I just bought a lot of 100 and I think I want more.
Thanks.

And to the OP - pin trading is a lot of fun! Enjoy. My DD is 8 and she absolutely loves it.

Sure, I'll PM you their name. Anyone else who in interested can PM me too

And I agree ~ it is so fun! My daughter esp. (5) loves it ~ she would trade a stitch pin for say a pirate dale, then trade that, then later end up trading for the same dale pin, just to trade It's so fun!

 

[TinkerCarol]

My family does a lot of pin trading. We do wear the lanyards. If they get to heavy for some of us,(not my one son-in-law!) we put them in our bag for a while. We purchase the cheapest sets we can at the gift shop at the hotel. Then you can trade up with out spending as much money. Be careful, the pin trading bug will get you! My DGD age just turning 4 loves her pins and knows exactly which ones are hers and where and how she got them. We all share stories about pin trading. Maybe earn a pin for good behavier for the day besides. Thing is, if you decide you made the wrong choice, you later trade it!

 

[JohnsonsRUs]

I agree with everything said here. Our DD who is now 10 got into trading 2 years ago, but last year was really into it, so 5 may not be enough, but I guess it also depends on how long you are going to be there. I would suggest maybe 5/day.

We were there on a Grand Gathering and had 4 kids, ranging from 14 to 7, 3 boys and 1 girl and they all loved it. To me it is most fun to just stay out of it and let them trade for whatever they want, since what the kids pick and what adults would pick are completely different. We bought a package of pins on e-bay and lanyards for each child for part of their Christmas present and then each day before we hit the parks they would take off their trades from the prior day that they knew they would want to keep and put on ones that they wanted to trade, this helped with the weight of the lanyards. We also did end up putting in the backpack at times during the day. They sometimes even traded with each other.

We bought pins that we liked to bring home as souveniers and then to display all of them we bought a painters canvas from a craft store and put them all on there, that way they can easily be removed and replaced for our next trip, if needed. (This was an awesome idea from a fellow DISer.)

 

[mom2zandjsquared]

My kids and I do pin trading - more the kids than anyone else. Some CM's walk around with special boards for the kids to pick from (we experienced this for the first time outside of TT at Epcot). My kids have also received "extra" pins from CM's - sometimes for knowledge (knowing an uncommon characters name) or for doing something nice in the presence of a CM. One time my MDS got a pin from a CM without even trading but we promised we would come back to where they were working the next day we were in that park to trade a pin (we did and my DS received a huge surprise from that CM).

Pin Trading adds to the fun and also keeps my boys occupied while we wait in lines, etc.

 

[kldmom2000]

My DD's got into it big time last year! One of their highlights of the day was going back to the YC resort gift shop to see if there were any new pins on the pin board that was kept behind the cash wrap..... all they'd have to do was ask the CM if they could look at the board and they always happily obliged

I'm not sure if other resort gift shops have a pin board too or if it's strictly the lanyards on the CM's?

 

[mrsstarwarz]

Can anyone let me know how much a starter set is? My son wants to pin trade after seeing a friends collection. I want to know how much $$$ this is going to cost me!

 

[anonymousegirl]

And it's not just for small kids. Big ones like it too. My friend and I just got back from her first trip to WDW (I hadn't been for 10 years). We're in our 40s and we had a blast trading pins. The best part is the interaction with people we would have never met if we hadn't asked to see their pins. It was the best part of our week-long trip.

The suggestion to get pins from Ebay is a good one. I bought a lot of 25 and it was sooo not enough for the two of us. Next time I will get 50. At approximately $2 per pin it is way better than the $8-$12 per pin if you have to buy more for trade.

DTD has a pin trading shop where SERIOUS collectors meet (near Rainforest Cafe). But they won't trade unless you have something they want, and if you have something they want, it is often hard to get so you probably won't have it. Many have pin collections ranging in the thousands, so it is really unlikely you will have something they need.

Also, many of the pin shops at the various parks have a special pins for purchase if you buy XXX amount of stuff from that shop. These pins are called Completer Pins and are not for regular sale. My friend and I would save our purchases for these shops and then take advantage of this offer to get the more valuable pins that finish our collections. By doing that I was able to trade with those serious pins collectors at DTD for the ones I needed.

I started trading on this trip and I now have 75 pins (I bought many of mine). It really is addicting. On the way home while at the airport I kept glancing at the airport employees lanyards onlyt to be surprised to find no pins there!

Also, the lanyard is an excellent way to keep your admission media, photopass, and hotel room key safe. Just make sure the plastic pouch has a zip-lock top or things will fall out.

 

[budmonster]

Can anyone let me know how much a starter set is? My son wants to pin trade after seeing a friends collection. I want to know how much $$$ this is going to cost me!

My daughter and I just went in April and I started her on pin trading. We went to DTD, the pin trading shop there has starter kits, we got a pink princess one with 4 trading pins ($20ish dollars), a large metal princess thing to hang on the end of the lanyard, and maybe 4 or 5 additional pins to trade and I think I spents around 50 dollars. Hope this helps.

 

[earthfaries]

Can anyone let me know how much a starter set is? My son wants to pin trade after seeing a friends collection. I want to know how much $$$ this is going to cost me!

The sets we bought in Jan. without a lanyard, had 6 pins in the box for 30.00.