I have NO WORDS!

[CastMember 02]

As many are aware the Diamond Anniversary of Disneyland is quickly approaching. i woke my happy disney butt up at 5am, 5AM! to be sure to be on time for a 6am opening of the Downtown Disney Parking Area for the release of the 3rd in a 7 series pin set, oh no what do i find at 5:55am? A huge line from DTD to Ball Road! It was total madness! People hoping out of moving cars, you could only imagine! Got in line and there was not really too many CM's around explaining or anything, they coralled everyone in the valet lot and didnt start wristband distribution until 7:35am, 35 minutes late. I was in the 9th or 10th line, didn't receive wristband until 8:50am. It was wild and what really grinded my gears that we heard people laughing oh yeah we got here at 2:30am or 3:00 or 4am! Why cant Disney be more on the ball and actually uphold their policies they put in place? oh btw at 7:40am the pins were available on eBay of $170 a piece!

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm confused. Were they getting a new supply of anniversary pins or something?

It does irritate me that they make so many things "limited edition". I wanted a Small World Holiday pin on our early December trip and found out later they were "limited edition".

Surely they'll have some more things that aren't so hard to come by?

 

[CastMember 02]

mom2rtk Yes LE 3000, people were going bonkers!

 

[ehrawn]

The root of the problem is Disney creating "collectables." These limited runs, and worse, cumbersome distribution, encourages hoarders: people who have no love for the actual item, but who just want to make a profit on ebay. I'm not local, so it's even harder for me when Disney does this stuff. In some respects I appreciate the ebay crowd; they give me access to things Disney is withholding from me. Take the Starbucks "you are here" mugs. I would love to have a pair to get a daily dose of Disney to share with my DW in the morning. So I check ebay- people are selling $15 mugs for $75! and it's not like these things are rare. Every day, ebay has dozens of new listings. Essentially, speculators are killing fandom, but Disney (and their licensed partners) are promoting this garbage.

 

[corinne76]

Oh dang! are these the turquoise pins that seem to be averaging about $125 a piece on ebay? It looks like some people took the pics right then and there and immediately uploaded them to ebay

 

[figment_jii]

I'm not quite sure what you want Disney to do...what kind of polices do you imagine they could put into place that would prevent folks from re-selling items on eBay? I guess I'm not surprised that wristband distribution took a while to get organized - that's just how things seem to be...

In terms of collectibles, I do which the edition sizes were larger, but I suppose it's a fine line between having to many and not enough...

 

[CastMember 02]

figment_jii They need to model after what they post will happen at said locations, i dont agree with ebayers, it urks me to no end but no way to control that. if disney is smart enough they will see what people will really pay and raise prices. everyone has complained about a $3 ticket increase but buys a $170 pin that should only cost $15.95 SMH

 

[figment_jii]

They need to model after what they post will happen at said locations,

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "to model". From what I read, it sounds like wristband distribution will begin around 7:00 am (doesn't say it'll start at 7:00 am) and they asked guests not to queue before 6:00 am, but it doesn't say that they'll active forbid folks from queuing up. Honestly, I think if they wanted to avoid having folks queue up early, the only way to avoid this from happening is to not publish the release date in advance and then release the pin on random dates.

 

[lurkergirl]

We were there. Totally missed the change in procedure and arrived by 6am, oblivious to what was now totally different.

I know why they did it: previously 5 shops were selling 2000 pins. Each guest could get 2. People were hopping from shop to shop, buying multiples. The wristbands prevented this by forcing people to 1 of 3 shops and cutting off the bands with purchase, but it was organized chaos - the D23 Expo green tape lines were out in force. The distribution was slow...the bands for the DD Pin Traders were being given out faster than the bands for the 2 park shops. I don't know why. And then you had entire groups each getting a wristband and purchasing 2 pins...

I don't know what will make it better. I heard from a cast member that people tried to line up at 2am and were thrown out.

 

[GeneralTso]

Glad you got one! That's a lot of stress and drama for a pin.

 

[mom2rtk]

What would change it is for Disney to stop making so few of each item. This is by their own design since they control the numbers.

 

[bumbershoot]

everyone has complained about a $3 ticket increase but buys a $170 pin that should only cost $15.95 SMH

I really doubt if it's the same people.


There's truly no way for Disney to keep people from selling stuff. If they could, hopefully they would start with the purses sold at rundisney events. They don't even see if you're one of the runners/walkers before they sell them to you, for goodness sake!


Years ago we were going to the parks nice and early, and there was a HUGE line through DTD before it was even light out. Thank goodness we didn't just get in the line, because it was for people waiting to get a Teacup-ride themed pin with tiny pieces of old teacups in it.

And then as we walked on by to *our* line, people glared at us because it never occurred to them that there might be another reason for people to get in a line outside of the gates. Silly.

 

[ehrawn]

I'm not quite sure what you want Disney to do...what kind of polices do you imagine they could put into place that would prevent folks from re-selling items on eBay?

I don't wish Disney to stop resellers. Instead, I wish them to produce products to demand. Limited editions of some things I understand; quality reproductions of artwork, for example, would be too difficult to make in large numbers, but a silly coffee mug or a pin? Sell these things online and don't make artificial limitations.

 

[figment_jii]

I don't mind some pins being limited editions, but I do also wish that they would increase the edition size. I guess the hard part is gauging which pins will be very popular beforehand. Prior to the release of the 60th pins, I have no doubt that they knew they'd be popular, but what makes one pin need a wristband distribution and another pin not need it seems much harder to gauge. They don't want to have tone left over if they guess wrong (or make all edition sizes huge), but by the time they know if a pin will be super popular, it's probably too late to order more (think how long it took them to re-stock Frozen items).

 

[ehrawn]

Check out the Planet Money podcast, Episode 609: The Curse Of The Black Lotus. It profiles a company dealing with a very similar problem.

 

[CassieF]

I get wanting to limit multiple purchases by the same person but last time you could still purchase pins an hour after park opening. This time all pins were claimed by 7 o'clock. I was there at six got my wristband just before nine and my actual pin at 9:30. 3 1/2 hours for something that took me 15 minutes last time.... It was quite the frustrating process. It was poorly organized and understaffed. They set out the rules such as no joining in line and snow early arrivals yet didn't enforce any of that.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I do think they could do better job. I don't really know how but I know they could.

 

[Vala]

I get wanting to limit multiple purchases by the same person but last time you could still purchase pins an hour after park opening. This time all pins were claimed by 7 o'clock. I was there at six got my wristband just before nine and my actual pin at 9:30. 3 1/2 hours for something that took me 15 minutes last time.... It was quite the frustrating process. It was poorly organized and understaffed. They set out the rules such as no joining in line and snow early arrivals yet didn't enforce any of that.

15 minutes last time? Which shop did you go to? I'll ask my friend if I can post the photos she took when she was in the DCA sales location. Basically the whole shop was full to the brim with people trying to buy that pin. That line was way longer than 15 minutes.

She also said there was pretty much a stampede when rope dropped last time - think Anna and Elsa pre-FP. She called it "Mufasa gets killed" stampede. I guess they considered that too dangerous.

I do agree that this was way understaffed though. She told me they first had one person doing wristbands, then three. When I was at a Vinylmation release last fall they had three people working that line, and there were maybe 50 of us then. ><

 

[CassieF]

15 minutes last time? Which shop did you go to? I'll ask my friend if I can post the photos she took when she was in the DCA sales location. Basically the whole shop was full to the brim with people trying to buy that pin. That line was way longer than 15 minutes.

She also said there was pretty much a stampede when rope dropped last time - think Anna and Elsa pre-FP. She called it "Mufasa gets killed" stampede. I guess they considered that too dangerous.

I do agree that this was way understaffed though. She told me they first had one person doing wristbands, then three. When I was at a Vinylmation release last fall they had three people working that line, and there were maybe 50 of us then. ><

I was in DL and toward the beginning of the turnstile line. I walked to pin traders on Main Street and waited maybe 15 minutes to walk out with my pins. Emporium was quicker...someone split from their group and was done before we were. Westward ho was a little crazier with rope drop but the line formed and it seemed pretty well contained as I walked by. It didn't seem to be bad enough to warrent the wristband process.