Pin Collecting? How does it work?

[aimeeg]

I may be the only person who does not know but . . . How does pin trading work. I think my 3 year old would like it. Can you get starter pins and lanyards on line? Will this cost a fortune?

Any help would be great or a point in the right direction would be great. Thanks

 

[disneymoon_0307]

Pin trading is probably one of the coolest things disney has to offer. It's great because kids of all ages can do it. If you're doing it for the first time there are 2 ways it can be done. You can buy a starter set which includes a lanyard and 4 pins (usually its 2 of the same pin, that way you have one to trade), or you can buy a regular lanyard and just buy your pins. The sets run about $15 or so and the lanyards run anywhere from $5-10. The pins are going to range anywhere from $6 to $20. The pins can actually go much higher than that in price, but i'm sure you weren't looking for anything like that for a 3 year old. The pins change pretty much every year and they have different pins for different things going on that year. Every year I go I get a year pin (a pin that has a character and that year) so I have momento of that trip. Anyway back to trading...it's cool b/c your 3 year old can trade with anyone, however something you must know is the only people that HAVE to trade w/ anyone are Cast Members. They must, it's part of there job. You can trade with other guests, but if any of them are like the 10 year old me met a couple of years ago. They can be very rude. I hope this helps. One site I trust very much is ALLEARSNET...the link for the pin trading is http://allearsnet.com/btp/mil_pin.htm

 

[disneynewbeemom]

Look on ebay and you can find some great deals.

 

[aimeeg]

Does it have to be an official pin? I do not even know how to know the difference between a wdw a knock off.

 

[disneymoon_0307]

It doens't have to be an officail pin persay. To tell if it's a true disney pin it should have mickey mouse ears for the pin back (or a goofy hat there's about 10 different backs) and it will say disney on the back with they year it was released. If it's a cast member they aren't going to say no to a kid. I don't know of very many knock offs of the pins though. Just because they don't cost that much to begin with.

 

[Mrs Potato Head]

There are lots of knock offs out there, but as long as the pin says DISNEY on the back, it should be trade-able in the parks. If you buy on Ebay, and want to collect pins, I'd be careful of pins that say Sedesma, or Propins. Most collectors don't want those pins. Also, don't get a lot (25 or more of the same pin) of Kodak pins or 2000 "dancers". Most of the lanyards in WDW already have one of each of those pins on them and therefore, you can't trade those with a CM. The one rule they will stick to is that if the pin is on their lanyard already, they can't take another in trade. Those two pins mentioned specifically must have been produced in the millions for all of them out there!

Another place to check out is dizpins.com - it is an online group of pin collectors/traders. There is a thread there of people selling pins and you will usually get very good traders from the folks there. Half the ones I buy there I end up keeping!

Keep in mind, this is all for fun. Make sure your daughter find the CM's with the green lanyards - those are kid traders only and usually have good stuff on them too!

Guests will sometimes trade with other guests, so look for the ones with lanyards full of pins. Lots of locals in the area love to find new traders and help them out - especially if they are children!

 

[Cool-Beans]

If your kid isn't into this, don't get them started, lol. It gets very expensive.

You can find pins everywhere. Seriously, if you aren't actually on a ride and don't see pins in front of you, just look around - chances are there'll be some.

I thought the CMs just traded Disney pins for Disney pins, but may be mistaken. My pin collector doesn't trade, except those Kodak pins when he can...they gave those things away everytime you bought a disposable camera for a while, so we've got tons. But most the CMs have them, lol.

Seriously, avoid this as long as you can.

 

[rstamm]

There used to be some really good deals on www.disneyshopping.com but we haven't seen any in quite some time. For a while we got DS lots of pins there for between $2 and $2.50 each when they had free shipping or big discounts.

 

[missj1975]

It doens't have to be an officail pin persay. To tell if it's a true disney pin it should have mickey mouse ears for the pin back (or a goofy hat there's about 10 different backs) and it will say disney on the back with they year it was released. If it's a cast member they aren't going to say no to a kid. I don't know of very many knock offs of the pins though. Just because they don't cost that much to begin with.

Sorry but "Disneymoon" is slightly wrong. To trade at the park, the pin has to be stamped "Disney" on the back. The pin back has nothing to do with the "officiality" of the pin. Older Disney pins have metal clasps and they are still official. Pin backs are easily lost and switched out but that doesn't effect the value of the pin. All that matters is that "Disney" is stamped on the back. Also not all Disney pins say the year they were released on the back.

 

[Piglet42]

As long as you are carefule and read the reviews, ebay is a great place to start. I've always wanted to pin trade and I had a few, but they were the ones I bought myself. DH bought me a lot of 10 pins on ebay for Christmas this past year for around $22. They were all authentic and I was able to trade all but 1- that's only because I liked the pin and kept it for myself.

 

[aimeeg]

Thanks for all the advice.

I was thinking of getting a trader pin for everyday we are there. I did buy a really cute tinkerbell pin on ebay last night for $1.51. I am going to give it to DD after the family magic tour. I am pretty sure she will want to get the princesses. Since she is one! I am concerened this is going to be an expensive little game!!!! Oh well what isn't expensive about this vacation!

 

[Cool-Beans]

Thanks for all the advice.

I was thinking of getting a trader pin for everyday we are there. I did buy a really cute tinkerbell pin on ebay last night for $1.51. I am going to give it to DD after the family magic tour. I am pretty sure she will want to get the princesses. Since she is one! I am concerened this is going to be an expensive little game!!!! Oh well what isn't expensive about this vacation!

Vacation, HA! It doesn't end when the vacation does. Once the kid starts getting into it, they start wanting all the collector pins on ebay...$20 for a pin that was only issued to CMs, for instance.

They want to take certain tours so they can get the tour pin. They want to see the pins that only Disney Visa people and Annual Pass people can get, which means a trip to the pin store in Downtown Disney, because they have them all in one place.

And special trips to certain hotels to pick up the new pins there that the DTD store didn't have. If it rains, OOOH, we have to get the pin of Mickey in a raincoat now! It never flippin ends.

Plus, every time they get a new book/holder thing, you gotta get one of those!

It gets REALLY expensive and more than a little time consuming.

Go forth and pin your heart out!!! But you might end up being sorry, lol!

...I could just kill the Disney people for giving him the lanyard with the 2 pins on it.

 

[Octoberbeauty]

How does it work? Buy a lanyard with a few pins. Trade a few. Get addicted. Spend the rest of your souvenir budget buying pins everywhere you go for the rest of your trip.

Okay, so that's what happened to us. We had to have ones from his favorite rides, from the hotel we stayed at, from each park....You get the picture.