How many pins to trade for children?

[onajourney]

We are taking our first Disney trip with kids. (DH and I went in high school for senior trip) We are buying trading pins to take with us to trade (thanks for the 'safe' seller lists... I am buying from those sellers to avoid the junk) but I don't know how many to give the kids to trade. I was going to ration them out and have them leave their favorites that they don't want to ever trade away in the room at night and leave some new trading pins under their pillows each night to trade the next day. Is that wise? I just don't know how many for them to start the week with or how many for them to have for the week as a whole. BTW, ages 11, 9 and 5.

 

[pixiewings71]

Well we are a family of 4 traders, we can easily blow thru 100 pins in just 3 days. That's 25 traders each...

 

[onajourney]

Really! Okay, so if we are in parks 5 days, I will need at least 100 pins for the 3 kids... guess I need to be buying then!

 

[pixiewings71]

I would take that many just to be safe, but if you don't have enough you'll be able to buy booster packs that are multiple pins for less money.

 

[Stitchnut]

I have a 15yr old and an 8 yr old. They both are into pin trading and it's a highlight of there time in WDW. My 15 yr old is a little more selective when he is trading and looks for hidden Mickeys ( a symbol on the trading pin) or he tries to find pins that will complete a set that he is working on. My eight year old on the other hand just trades for the fun of it. She loves certain characters and will trade for those. She also will trade a pin she just traded for for something else that catches her eye. I've bought trading pins off of ebay and they go to the parks with 10 each and can spend a week trading those. They love recycling the pins and only hold on to their favorites. We also buy a pin as a gift such as a resort pin or special character/holiday pin and surprise them after going home as a way to keep the magic going. Hope this helps.

 

[tamis]

My boys (11, 7, 4) caught the pin trading bug on our last trip in March. They had so much fun trading with Cast Members. We couldn't pass a single cast member up without checking out their pins, but 25 pins on a child's lanyard would be HEAVY!! I would start them off with 5-8 and let them build from there. Inevitably each one of your kids will also find some "must-have" pins at the different parks they'll want to buy themselves. I say start small, and see if they like it before investing too much money.

I LOVE the idea of putting a pin under their pillow every night. What a fantastic idea! My 7 year old lost a tooth on our last Disney trip, and requested a pin from the tooth fairy that night instead of money. Needless to say, my husband was out scurrying to find a pin before all the shops closed. We ended up putting one under all the kids pillows, and they loved the surprise the next morning. Of course with the next lost tooth, we had to convince my DS that the Tooth Fairy can only leave pins under pillows if you actually loose your tooth at WDW. He wasn't quite as excited to get a dollar bill .

 

[pixiewings71]

Well you don't put all 25 on the lanyard at once. LOL We carry extras in a Ziploc in our park bags, then when you get one to keep you put it away and replace it with a trader.

 

[tamis]

I realize you don't put all the pins on your child's lanyard , but even carrying them around the park in a ziplock bag can get heavy for mom & dad. Well at least for this mom...I've usually got a camera, autograph books, hand sanitizer, souvenirs, snacks, and the list goes on and on and on. I think I need a stroller, but not for kids....just to carry all my stuff! This past vacation, my 4 year old even decided he didn;t want to wear his lanyard, so onto mom it went.

Can I just say though that I really loved watching my kids get so excited about the pins they got. They just tended to recycle the same pins over and over though which is why I say start off small. My kids would trade with one cast member then immediately trade the same pin with another cast member. I never knew what they would be coming home with.