first visit pin & start of pin collecting?

[alicia1506]

so... total DLR newbs here who only just found out about this pin collecting thing...

and my SO is so very interested, so i figured i'd hit up the place with all the info

i've heard it mentioned by other DISers that first time visitors can head to Main Street (?) and pick up a pin to celebrate your first ever visit to DLR... is this true? are there any other 'hidden pins' that you need to qualify for (ie birthday, celebration, milestones etc) or do you just buy them? also, I've been reading through the Disney Pin Trading regulations etc and just wanted to clarify... so you essentially can either buy all the ones you want from various pin trading places etc... but the object of the whole 'trading' thing is to trade your pins with others to complete themed collections etc.

and that various CMs will have pins available for trade at any time, and cannot refuse a trade unless they already have the pin on their lanyard?

also... can anyone give me a ballpark for lanyard prices/average starting pin prices etc so i can see if this will be feasible for us on a wee bit of a budget?

thank you all in advance

 

[SnowWhite09]

I believe the first visit pin that you are asking about it can be collected from Town Hall on the left when you enter the park. This type of pin is different to those that people use for pin trading though as it is a large button type pin/badge. You can also get these for celebrating birthdays, anniversaries etc. I hope this helps!

 

[MND]

also... can anyone give me a ballpark for lanyard prices/average starting pin prices etc so i can see if this will be feasible for us on a wee bit of a budget?

thank you all in advance

I suggest buying Disney pins in a large lot on Ebay to trade with CMs. I have bought a few lots in the past and you can generally pick up pins for less than $1 each. In my opinion, this is the BEST way to accumulate pins that you can use to trade.

Have fun!

Mike

 

[It'sKim]

If you go to the pin trader booth in DTD and buy I think it was $25 worth of pins, you can then buy a starter set of pins for $14-$16 (I can't remember the exact amount sorry). These are nice because you get a basic lanyard and it gives you 8 pins to trade and you don't need to worry about them being counterfit or anything. It also has a little paper that explains pin trading etiquette and the rules around it.

The CMs have to trade with you, but some of them will have a teal coloured lanyard/pouch. Those ones only trade with kids.

I'm not much into the trading, but I do like collecting. My kids and husband absolutely love the trading. Have fun!!!

 

[DlandAmanda]

These are button you can get for free at several places in DLR:

These are pins that you buy and can trade with others:

 

[Mama Who]

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd now I am totally coveting that ELP pin.

 

[DlandAmanda]

Haha, sorry . I collect my pins for each trip I take, so each one has meaning to me. I'm not a pin trader. However, I often think about buying extras for trading. Maybe this will be my new thing for our next trip.

 

[mydisneymoney]

My DS age 6 loves to trade pins. We buy a large lot on Ebay prior to going to DLR. I recommend that if you buy on Ebay that you buy from someone that has a really good rating and doesn't have a reputation for selling scrappers, pins that are fake. Yes, there is a huge market for manufacturing and selling fake pins.

Buy yourself a lanyard. If you sew, you might make one. I found some disney lanyard ribbon at Walmart for a couple of dollars and made my own. Put the pins you want to trade on the lanyard and head for the park.

There are a couple types of pins. First are the pins that you can purchase and trade if you like and then there are cast member only pins that you can only get by trading with a cast member. Each CM that participates in pin trading is given a couple of new pins per day to trade. So you basically walk up to a CM that you see has pins and ask if you can look at their pins. Pin trading etiquette says that you do not touch each other pins until you actually trade. Once you make a decision, they will remove their pin and put the back on it and you will do the same with the pain you want to give them. They do not have a say in which pin you give them but you should not give them one they already have on their lanyard. Then you trade pins. Each person can trade up to two pins per CM. If a CM has a green/teal colored lanyard, they can only trade with children.

Here is the official pin trading etiquette from Disney
http://eventservices.disney.go.com/files/Etiquette122004.pdf

Warning: Pin trading can be very addictive

 

[deesquared]

My DS age 6 loves to trade pins. We buy a large lot on Ebay prior to going to DLR. I recommend that if you buy on Ebay that you buy from someone that has a really good rating and doesn't have a reputation for selling scrappers, pins that are fake. Yes, there is a huge market for manufacturing and selling fake pins.
:

Do you have any Ebay sellers that you recommend?
Thanks

 

[elaw]

I recommend that if you buy on Ebay that you buy from someone that has a really good rating and doesn't have a reputation for selling scrappers, pins that are fake. Yes, there is a huge market for manufacturing and selling fake pins.

ebay warning ... if it's too good to be true ... its probably fake (Large lots of traders for cheap)

Because of all the Counterfeit and Scrapper pins, we have found trading with castmembers to be a hit or miss thing. It seems that about half of the pins we've traded with CM's recently are fakes. They generally accept them from people and its very discouraging because we traded good pins only to later discover they are sub standard and/or junk. Since i do not want someone else to get stuck with these pins, I've just cut the pin backs off them and glued a magnet on them and made some nice refrigerator magnets of them.

 

[MND]

ebay warning ... if it's too good to be true ... its probably fake (Large lots of traders for cheap)

Because of all the Counterfeit and Scrapper pins, we have found trading with castmembers to be a hit or miss thing. It seems that about half of the pins we've traded with CM's recently are fakes. They generally accept them from people and its very discouraging because we traded good pins only to later discover they are sub standard and/or junk. Since i do not want someone else to get stuck with these pins, I've just cut the pin backs off them and glued a magnet on them and made some nice refrigerator magnets of them.

I've bought a few different times on Ebay, usually lots from 40 to 100 pins. We are a family of 5 and we dole them out in the family and we keep some and trade the others. We have paid anywhere from 60¢ to $1.00 per pin.

The pins have always looked great and we have never had a problem trading them. If you acquiring pins to trade, this is a great way to do it. It makes much more sense than buying pins at Disney for $6.95 each.

I'm not sure what you mean by scrapers or junk , but we're not dealing with fine jewelry or precious art here. I realize that some pins are highly collectable, just like some beanie babies are highly collectable, and I don't expect to get the highly collectable ones in my ebay lots. I'm just looking for some inexpensive pins to trade.


Mike

 

[Mama Who]

I'm not sure what you mean by scrapers or junk , but we're not dealing with fine jewelry or precious art here. I realize that some pins are highly collectable, just like some beanie babies are highly collectable, and I don't expect to get the highly collectable ones in my ebay lots. I'm just looking for some inexpensive pins to trade.


Mike

"Scrappers" are not actually Disney pins and CMs are not supposed to trade for them. It isn't about highly collectible, it's about whether you run the risk of getting to the park and not being able to trade the pin.

We have done well at outlets and Company D for pins. We buy whatever is cheap and swap for what we want in the parks but we only want actual legit pins.

 

[MND]

"Scrappers" are not actually Disney pins and CMs are not supposed to trade for them. It isn't about highly collectible, it's about whether you run the risk of getting to the park and not being able to trade the pin.

We have done well at outlets and Company D for pins. We buy whatever is cheap and swap for what we want in the parks but we only want actual legit pins.

Can you tell if it is a scrapper? Are the CMs trained to refuse to trade pins with guests? I've traded the last couple of years at WDW and have never seen a problem or had a problem.

Mike

 

[oumagic]

Lats year was our first visit and we knew nothing about trading pins (still don't). My son has bought a lot of pins at the park without intending to trade because he loves them. What is the etiquette on trading? He likes to wear his lanyard/pins and he couldn't figure out why everyone kept asking him to trade. I just want to do the right thing this year and he may want to start trading?

I was just going to watch for a CM with green/teal lanyard and ask them the ground rules but I wouldn't mind knowing ahead of time. He was really turned off by the trading at the end because he had bought himself a Phineas and Ferb one with his own money and then a CM asked if he could trade for it and he was like, "NO WAY!" and I think the CM might have thought we were a little rude (my son is 7 so hopefully the CM understood).

Should ds8 only be wearing pins he is willing to give up or can he wear ones he likes and doesn't want to trade and just have a few he is willing to let go of if he sees one on a CM he wants? I am just confused and we leave on Saturday.

 

[SeattleTink]

I love pin trading! I personally don't pin trade to complete collections. I strictly trade pins only because I like them. If I like the pin, I keep it. If I don't really like it "that much" I trade it. I have some that I love and would never dream of trading.

I have had very good luck with buying lots of pins on Ebay. Remember to buy from a seller that has good positive feedback and specifically says they are Disney pins. Usually they are about $1 per pin. It is important to have lots of trader pins you want to "upgrade".

Pin trading is also a really good way to meet CM's and other guests too.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Hoku]

We were disappointed to discover that Disneyland doesn't seem to make new pins very often. We went two years ago and hoped to find a bunch of new pins since then. There were a few new ones, but all the same ones we already bought (except year specific pins) were still available! We thought we'd have unique pins when we came back, but no luck.

After Disneyland this time, we went to Florida and had one day at Epcot. We discovered that Walt Disney World has a different selection of pins for the same rides. For example, we were very disappointed with pin selection at Disneyland for It's A Small World. We looked EVERYWHERE, too. So we bought what we could. Then, at Epcot, we found an IASW pin that was WAYY cooler! We even found that same pin at the Disney Park store at the airport.

Yes, e-bay can be a great place to find pins, too.

 

[Mama Who]

Can you tell if it is a scrapper? Are the CMs trained to refuse to trade pins with guests? I've traded the last couple of years at WDW and have never seen a problem or had a problem.

Mike

Disney pins have markings on the back. (There's probably a good "spot the fake" tutorial if you Google.) CMs may choose not to make an issue of it but they are not supposed to send those pins back out into circulation, so if they take a non-Disney pin they are essentially giving away their pin for nothing of value. It is great that you have gotten lucky, but it should not be taken for granted that counterfeits will be accepted.

 

[AmericanItGirl]

One way to get trader pins purchased at a Disney location is to get a mystery box, which contains 2 pins. I just started getting into pin trading this past summer, and the first pins I bought for my lanyard were a mystery box set featuring characters on rides. I loved one pin, but didn't like the other (instantly giving me a pin that I wanted to trade). Beats having picked out a pin that I liked and end up not wanting to part with it.

 

[mydisneymoney]

It is very hard sometimes to spot a fake and sometimes it is very obvious. For instance, I collect donald duck pins. I have a pin of donald wearing a fireman coat. It is bright yellow. I bought some pins and in the lot was the same pin and the coat was greenish yellow. It was obviously not real. Even the ones with all of the official info on the back can sometimes be fake.

My DS6 wear both pins he wants to keep and ones he wants to trade. I have never had a CM approach him for a trade. There are lots of people who buy pins and wear them and do not trade. They just wear them because they like them.

It is a lot of fun. You can trade with any CM that has pins on. The CM's with the teal lanyards will not trade with adults, only children but children can trade with any CM not just those wearing teal lanyards.

 

[becstr]

This is all very interesting. While we were waiting to get into the character breakfast at PPH this Monday, my DD7 noticed a woman with a large pin collection and asked if she could have a look. She was very nice and gave her a pin to start her own collection. Afterwards, I bought her a lanyard and a few more pins. I wish I would have known about the starter pack.

I think next time we go my DD7 will be interested in doing some trading. Are cast members with pins to trade throughout the park or only in specific locations. What is the deal with the people with pin collections that gather at the entrance to Frontierland?