How did you get into pin trading?

[susana's kid]

I got into it on my last trip to WDW. My first pin fell out of the sky. It did really. My mom had planed a surpise for me. It involed gifts. One of them was a pin that fell out of the sky. It was O'Malley. It all started from there.

 

[NHMickey]

On a trip to WDW in Nov of 1999. My wife had heard about pin trading and we went to the Disney Store and got a few of the pins from the 101 set to trade with. Well that was the start and here is hoping we never get to the end.

 

[LynniethePooh]

Innocently enough, when in WDW for the 25th Anniversary I bought a 25th Ann baseball cap and added a few pins to create a special souvenier (Pooh Pluto Goofy 25th Ann Sorc. Mickey, Monorail Rainforest Cafe All Star Sports). THEN in January 2000 Shirley 38 came back from WDW with a wonderful collection, she told me about the DIS....and here I am!!!!!!!! She knows I fully BLAME her for this....I have yet to send her a bill tho! She would turn around send me a bill for the ENJOYMENT I have rec'd from this insanity.....and low and behold....I would (and DO ) owe HER more! So time to say, again, THANK YOU SHIRLEY for infecting me!

 

[Buzz2001]

It's Cynthia & Dom's fault I tell you...all their fault! LOL!

I started by collecting the framed sets. I saw a few inexpensive ones on Disney Auctions and purchased them. Then I saw the Disney Auctions LE 100 quote pins and was lucky enough to get 2 of them. But still nothing serious at this point. Then I saw on the boards that a meet was being held at the mall in CT. I went to look at what all the fuss was about. I'm telling my DW the whole way there that I would never by like "THOSE" people. The ones who walk around with pin bags or standing in line at 5:00am for pins. Well, it's been 2.5 months since that meet and I now have 221 pins and 2 bags. Yes, my DW has not let me foret what I said. It's very addicting.

I need PA, Pins Anonymous! HELP!

 

[Engr-Chas]

I had a few pins that I have purchased on trips to DL (pre DLR) through the years and then I started collecting the DS 101 set in 1999. I got into trading in 2000 at both DLR and big time at WDW. The best part is trading with kids and making them smile! And out sharking a shark is also fun!!!

Engr-Chas

 

[Doctor P]

I started in a very altruistic way. DW and DSD both had pin lanyards with a small number of Disney pins that they acquired on our trip in December 99. Then we were talking with brisully at the October 2001 DIS meet in Gurnee and he had a bag of TDS 100 years pins and mentioned that they were great to use for pin trading off of lanyards at WDW since they were cheaper than the rack pins at WDW and many are quite nice. He gave DD a Jasmine pin since that is her absolute favorite character. I then bought a selection of the DS pins to give DW and DSD for Christmas so that they could trade pins when we went in December 2001 (they did not do any trading the last trip). I also bought a few for myself. I was the only one who brought all my pins with to trade as I recall, and really got into getting neat pins I wanted off of the lanyards. I bought the NYE limited edition pin when I was there, but was unable to get the NY day pin before it sold out. I made the mistake of going on Ebay to buy that pin, and the rest is history as they say.

 

[holycow]

it was but the Disney store had there 101 pin set for the holidays...I was in a Sams club and I saw a worker wearing a lanyard and on the landyard was the Cinderella with the swirling dress.....I wanted that pin!!!!!!!! LOL....I asked her about it and she told me they didn't sell them any more and I was out of LUCK!....we'll she has no idea what she started because I was going to get that pin!...(I did off of Ebay) well then in the spring...Disneyland started a new tradition...pin trading....you got a little letter D with every 15$ of pins!....I got a bunch of those little D's....I was so happy!!!!!!!....and the pin monster was created!!!!! LOL

Holycow

 

[Brise Nannie]

I really got into pintrading in 1999 with the release of the TDS Millennium series.

 

[3kids4me]

:ointing at Linda:: It was **her** fault! Lol

Seriously, though, we had an upcoming trip to Disney planned which believe it or not was just last month. And I decided it would be fun for my kids to get into the pin trading thing. So, Linda offered to sell me some great pins at an inexpensive price, and even hand-delivered them to my husband at his workplace!! And now, with over 100 posts here on this forum and I don't want to count how many pins, the rest is history!!

The best part, though, is trading in person. I'm bummed about not being able to go to New York, but I'm hoping to make the CT one (looking very good)!

 

[Mainepinpal]

My DH and I started pin collecting in November 1999 in our celebrating-retirement-from (30/36 years of) teaching trip to WDW. We had read about the pin trading that was to kick off the millennium celebration. We loved trading at the parks with CM and guests, and upon our return we discovered the DIS and other boards... and the rest is history!
We are WDW bound on April 6! See some of you soon, I hope!
Penny

 

[Figgy]

In Nov of 1999 Britt and I took a vacation at the world... Yeah big surprise there..HEHE Well we had a brief meeting wish some of my disney pals and I noticed that they were wearing lanyards and pins I asked them about it. It sounded like so much fun that I wanted to do it... Well after three days of basically making puppy eyes at Britt he gave in and said I could get a few pins if I wanted to... about 3 days after that I had him in a hat with pins and so on and so on and so on... I laugh at some of the pins that I tried so hard to get those first few days...HEHE

Remember those pins that everyone just had to have in the beginning and now we use them as CM traders? Or maybe I am the only one who did this...:

Tigger with black nose
Minnie with no dots

and many others...I giggle when I think about it...

You know on that note I bet that Britt wishes that he had resisted just a little harder because it was on that trip when we kept hearing the conflicting stories about what a pin was that he decided to start PinPics....Boy did we not know what we were getting into ...LOL

figgy

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Sounds like 1999, especially the month of November, was a good year for Disney pin trading.

DW Lauri and I were married on November 6, 1999, and honeymooned at WDW. While there, I decided I wanted a pin from each park to decorate my camera bag strap. Instead of stopping there, a CM trainer at the AK pin cart was telling us about the pin trading part of their millennium celebration. Next thing we knew, we were hooked. We made another trip down in January of 2000 for a weekend. A couple of months later we were checking on things for our next trip and I saw a mention of www.wdwinfo.com in a Disney guidebook, and a mention of the message boards. I wondered if they had anything there with pin traders, found the Collectors Board, and we've been here ever since.