Pin Trading Beginner

[may12th]

I am thinking about getting into the pin trading game for our trip in October. My main goal is to use it as an exercise for my shy daughter to practice initiating conversations. I thought this would be a fun and safe way to do that. So... where do I get the pins. I found some on Amazon but some of the reviews confused me. Should I try ebay? Any suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks!

 

[Corbinator]

We are going in Oct too and I just saw this thread because I bought some pins online. I have real ones from the last time we went to Disneyland in 2013 without kids and we planned to introduce our children to trading on this trip to WDW. My experience online was so so. I paid $25 for 25 pins on Amazon from the best reviewed seller I could find and let's just say a lot of people are dumb Half of the pins are absolute garbage and I threw them away after I saved the Mickey ears backings. The other half are ok. NONE of them are first editions, all are seconds. There are a few we might keep that fit our collection (we got a pumpkin one for Halloween!) but the rest we will trade. Real pins are usually colorful, heavy, smooth, and our ID numbers are printed on the back after stamping is complete. Hardly any of the ones I bought on Amazon even come close to this standard. So just buyer beware. Have fun on the trip! We plan to buy hotel specific pins and then encourage our kids to choose a theme for them to search for: a movie, a character, a park, etc.

 

[DisneyMom111]

We got started with a lot from Ebay. I usually pay around $15 for 25 pins and have never gotten any that were trash. Maybe an occasional loose pin back, but that's it. And we have gotten many off of Ebay over the years. As the PP said, not all will be real, but some are. If you are just doing it for fun, it shouldn't matter. We have over 300 pins at this point and I'm sure many that I got on ebay and traded for in the parks are knock offs but that doesn't bother us. The fun is in the collecting. So I would get your daughter a fun lanyard she likes, get 25 pins from Ebay and let her go for it, she will have a blast. Then while you are in the parks you can start buying the nice ones in the stores. We have been doing it for years and it's alot of fun!

 

[may12th]

Thank you for your response! Forgive my next question, we are totally new to the pin trading game. Will the CM's trade with the ones you got from Amazon or do I need to just get some from Disney for the CM to trade?

Thanks again!

 

[Corbinator]

They will trade with the ones on Amazon. I believe the rules state that CMs cannot deny a trade based on that, only the limits of a certain number per person per day. I am trying to keep in mind though, if I were another family, would I want to see terrible pins in the rotation for my child to trade up? That's why I tossed the truly horrible ones and will only trade the better made ones. Hope that helps. Oh my gosh I am soooo excited...

 

[Meeko5]

We bought a lot off EBay to start - included a lanyard and 10 pins. If they were scrapper pins nobody batted an eye at trading for them. They all were new and in perfect shape. Only one CM even looked at the back to see if it was a real pin. We even had one CM shocked that DS was trading away a Stitch pin and tried to tell him out of it haha.

Just find a seller with positive reviews, but you won't have any issues with trading. My 6 yo had a blast doing it and all the CMs were super friendly.