May the Force be with who? A May 2013 PTR

[kwitcherkicken99]

I've never had issues before, but I always contacted Special Diets and filled out their form.

They say to only email them if you don't have a "common allergy" (nuts, fish, dairy, gluten, ) that isn't listed. Mine's not listed so I email them. They send me back a form letter with a .pdf on how to eat dairy free at Disney.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

OH! Also got the kids their first gift cards of the trip.

Also grabbed some vanilla soy milk for cereal. It's actually 8 individual servings but they can use it on their cereal AND it was on sale AND it doesn't need to be refrigerated.

When I told DH what I got and the fact that it was on clearance, his next comment was, "How long is it good for?"

Gee, I wonder if I'm smart enough to check the shelf life...

 

[PrincessInOz]

And........what is the shelf life???

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

I vote CRT as well... it is the most regal setting for a birthday celebration out of the lot.

yes... when does this great deal expire?

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

It was on clearance for $1.89/4 pack. The sell by date is September 2013.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

DD and I counted last night. We only have 133 trade-able pins for eight days. That's only four pins per person per day.

 

[PrincessInOz]

It was on clearance for $1.89/4 pack. The sell by date is September 2013.

That's a bargain.

 

[PrincessInOz]

DD and I counted last night. We only have 133 trade-able pins for eight days. That's only four pins per person per day.

The question is how many new pins will you come home with???


And for someone who obviously doesn't collect (much) or trade - what's the difference for tradeable pins vs non tradeable pins?

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

That's a bargain.

And it's Silk vanilla soy milk.

I will say, I love our Kroger. They occasionally put stuff on clearance just to give people a price break.

The question is how many new pins will you come home with???

Um...

Well...

I just bought a lot on eBay. 153 pins from a person's personal collection.



By the time the kids pull out ones they need for their sets, that will probably leave us with about 260 pins to trade for 8 days.

And for someone who obviously doesn't collect (much) or trade - what's the difference for tradeable pins vs non tradeable pins?

Tradeable pins are legit Disney pins. Non-tradeables are scrapper pins that are made/produced after Disney orders their lot.

The only way to guarantee your pins are 100% Disney pins is to buy pins from Disney.

HOWEVER, if you know what to look for, you can usually find lots on eBay for reasonable rates.

Buying pins directly from China can almost guarantee you are buying (s)crap. A lot of the "random" or "mixed lot" lots also contain high amounts of scrappers, even if the seller is from the US. Guess where they got their pins...

I only buy lots that are from personal collections and I also look at the pictures super close. If I can see signs of a lot of scrappers, I won't get the lot. However, even buying personal lots, even the best pin traders can get duped as there are some VERY good fakes. Heck, I traded for an Yzma Hidden Mickey bowling pin pin and only one small part was messed up. The color in one section was the wrong color. Everything else was spot on. I compared it to the master list on www.pinpics.com to find out.

I go through our pile of pins often to see if I have missed any that are blatantly obvious because I know what it's like to get my hopes up about a pin, just to get it back home to find out that it was a bad pin. It really IS a buzzkill. I don't throw away our scrappers, but I pull them from the trading pile so I can teach my kids what to look for.

And I will say that my kids (and probably me) have some scrap pins on our personal boards. We keep them because we like them and I don't find any harm in that. Now down the road if we were to ever get rid of them, I'd pull those pins for the trash.

I just couldn't live with purposely flooding the pin trading lanyards with bad pins.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Signs of BAD PINS:

• poor/funky coloring
• completely flat on the front (no ridges from the metal)
• THICK metal detailing lines
• rough edges around the pin
• thinner/lightweight
• dipped/concave paint
• scratch marks from sanding down the paint
• some can be larger (which was the case with my first traded for scrapper)
• missing paint/messy paint
• having a CLEAN Mickey-less border on the pin back

 

[danicaca]

Oh my. Just got a really good lesson last week in pin trading. I have always wanted to try it, and my friend gave me the name of a seller on ebay that she has used before. Before I ordered, I had never heard the term scrapper, and one of my other friends warned me about them. I fretted something awful until my pins arrived! According to pinpics, out of the 51 pins we ordered, we have 9 obvious scrappers, 1 bootleg, and about 15 others that are known scrappers, but even an expert has a hard time telling the difference. The rest are legitimate. I was super relieved, but now I am reading articles that say most of the CM lanyards contain about 90% scrappers - say what? My girls have already had a good lesson in what to look for, but honestly if they really like a pin, isn't that what it is all about? As long as they don't trade the pins we buy in the park! So are you kidding about not having enough pins to trade? There are 3 of us, and I thought the 50, well I guess 41 since I won't trade the obvious scrappers, would be plenty for the 3 of us - DH has no interest in pin trading...

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Sadly I'm not joking about not having enough. We are MAJOR traders.

I took 80 pins for my BFF's and my trip and we (I) got through almost all of them in 7 days. Mostly it was me because I was looking for pins to finish sets for my kids. It was my week's goal to find a completer pin for one of DS's set. And I found on the last morning when E and I went into DHS for a last minute ride on ToT and RnRC. I saw it from across the courtyard and scared the pants off the CM who was wearing it.

In other words, we are totally hooked.

My friend that I'm renting points from gave us a book called, "Unauthorized Mouse Pin Trading Guide: The Complete Guide to the Fun and Obsessive World of Disney Pin Trading" summer 2012 edition (3rd). It has pictures of the Hidden Mickey pin sets from 2004-2012 and by my count, we need about 86 pins to complete the sets we are currently working on. DS is working on the current small alphabet set and it's a BIG set (he has 6/26). He's working another set of the villains bowling pins and I believe that is a set of 10 or 11. He has four of them.

Several of them we should be able to find, but there are a few that I have no idea if we ever will. I'd like to remain optimistic about finding a good number as I've told DS he's not allowed to start ANY new sets until he completes at least three current sets.

Plus I'm hoping we'll run into Scoop Sanderson on Main Street one of the days. He's kind of like pin trading's Elvis. He has his own pin and I hear he is WONDERFUL with kids.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I'd hazard a guess that E's mom, MB, maybe traded 15 pins the entire week. She decided that she would collect Pluto pins.

E was looking for Muppets and something else, I can't remember. But she maybe traded 15 total as well.

That pin book suggests only trading what you are willing to pay for and pins are one of the things that I have budgeted for. It's such a great way for my kids to practice manners and learn about interpersonal relationships.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks for the education.

I've been buying pins that I like from Disney sites. Haven't been trading them at all. Most still are attached to the plastic holder that's used for hanging them on the racks.

I guess I might have a bit of googling to do...to see if we have any that belong to sets.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

If the pins are "rack" pins, or pins that you buy off the rack in a store, mostly likely no.

There are a few "rack" pins that start as sets (Muppets with Mickey ears, toddler princesses and boys, some Duffy pins). But people tend to look at them like starter sets.

Other pins off the rack can be limited edition pins (and they're marked on the back - the edition size).

Most of the "sets" my kids obsess over are the Hidden Mickey or Cast Lanyard pins that you can ONLY get by trading with CMs.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

And skip Google. Just head for www.pinpics.com.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Some more reading for me!!!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I would look at the back of the pin if you want to do a search. OR you can browse the pin groups pages. However, if you have a pin of one of the main characters, you could be looking forever!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I've just come to that realisation!

I think I'll just stick with random purchases and decide that I'm probably better off not being bitten by the collection bug.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I hear ya.

I'm pretty selective of what HM/CL pins I start to collect. I much prefer to collect villains (especially Maleficent) and Muppets.