Pin Trading - how many to start with?

[AngieWin]

We will be going to WDW in July for 2 weeks Week 1 is for ds11 World Series for baseball and week 2 is all fun! Both ds11 and dd12 are interested in doing the pin trading (a family friend showed off her pins from her Dec trip). Their birthdays are both in April so I was wanting to buy at least pins and maybe a lanyard so they would be set for our trip.

How many pins should I start with? I imagine they will be trading so the kind of pins right now are irrelevant.

Where is the best place to buy pins before going? We are staying offsite so we can pick up more at the outlets before going to the parks.

Also we have a ds4 (in July) and ds-almost 2 (in July). I know ds4 will want to do what big brother/sister are doing and will want pins also. What would be a good(small) number for a 4 year old and would a lanyard be the best option for him?

 

[overburnzz]

Downtown Disney has a store to buy pins
they were very inexpensive so my wife and i bought maybe 7-10 each and have traded with cm's to get better ones
also epcot has a good pin trading area as well
and the cm there is extremely helpful and answered tons of questions

 

[yanners]

I'd say 7-10.

I have gotten some great ones from Ebay for really cheap. I don't care what they look like as long as they are authentic. I'll be trading them anyway....

 

[mamacatnv]

We took 110 pins that I collected off of ebay over the course of about 6 months. They added about 5-7 new traders per day to their lanyards.

We loved pin trading. My DD 8 was the most avid pin hunter.

 

[tacomaranch]

We also love to trade and spend too much on ebay with good sellers. I have made a lanyard out of webbing and now working on adding a closed holder so the pins don't fall off.

Learn to know the sound of a falling pin! It is tinny and happens often.

I buy on ebay and then trade for Cast pins or just something that I want to collect. I am on teacups now. I have a princess series and the entire pirate series.

Find something you want to collect then have fun trading till you get them all.

 

[AngieWin]

What is a good price to pay per pin if I am just wanting any disney pins to trade with?

And how would I know if they are authentic? What should I watch out for?

 

[mamacatnv]

What is a good price to pay per pin if I am just wanting any disney pins to trade with?

And how would I know if they are authentic? What should I watch out for?

for ebay:
I paid about $3.25-3.50 per pin on ebay - look for wording that describes the pins w/Disney logo & Pintrader on back of pin. Cast Member pins w/hidden Mickeys are another good buy. Review the feedback of the seller. Do a search here on Dis, lots of people have listed good sellers of pins.

Personally, I would avoid the "lots" or "grab bags" I stuck to groups of under 10. Look around at the different auctions to get an idea of what is plentiful and IMO avoid the plentiful pins.

Avoid Sedesma and ProPins - they are not nearly as nice as Disney pins even though they may say Disney on them. They are smaller, lighter and the colors are not as vibrant.

DisneyShopping.com:

You will spend a little more, but the pins are usually good size and are authentic.

Keep an eye on these boards, the pin trading folks know when the sales are

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

DS 12- DS 7- and DS 5 traded pins last year. They didn't know what it was until we left for the parks that morning. I gave each kid 10 pins to trade. They immediately loved it!!! And trading those 10 pinds was easy and wanted more! Well, I bought about 50 pins from E-bay in advance. When we got back to the hotel late that night, 10 more pins each magically appeared. I did that for each child, each day. Leaving the ones they traded on the previous day at the hotel so the lanyard wasn't so heavy.

We were there 4 days (well 5, but didn't get the pins out the first day). So each child ended up with 40 pins. Some that I bought off of E-bay they wanted to keep so they didn't trade all 40. 40 might seem like alot but it's really not....of course they wanted more.

 

[Marmstrong]

I got some really cool pins off of Ebay a couple of weeks ago. Today I came home all excited because I bought some star lanyards at REI, our Disney store doesn't carry them.

BUT my DH won't let them wear the lanyards. They "might get it caught on a ride and decapitate themselves". I think this is a non-negotiable.

Anyone seen any good alternatives that aren't too bulky?

 

[mamacatnv]

I got some really cool pins off of Ebay a couple of weeks ago. Today I came home all excited because I bought some star lanyards at REI, our Disney store doesn't carry them.

BUT my DH won't let them wear the lanyards. They "might get it caught on a ride and decapitate themselves". I think this is a non-negotiable.

Anyone seen any good alternatives that aren't too bulky?

Just a thought - Disney has lanyards that have a piece of velcro that holds the ends together so in the event of it getting caught it would come apart. We taught the kids to tuck their lanyards into their shirt fronts when going on rides so nothing was flying around.

The kids could also wear some type of vest or place them on a hat.

 

[justwinnie]

My 3yo daughter traded pins this trip. We started out with 7 pins that we just seemed to have acquired over different trips-- all free (DVC tours used to give pins, Magical Express vouchers used to come with free pin vouchers too).

She had a great time! We would buy her a new pin every day.

I, too, worried about her wearing a lanyard so I would let her wear it in the stroller, but as soon as we were getting on a ride, I would hold the lanyard. I was also worried about her losing the pins too. She really only wore the lanyard when she wanted to trade pins.

They sell little zippered binders at Disney to keep pins. They didn't seem too difficult to carry around too.

I was thinking a small hip bag could work for pins-- you just have to unzip the top to access the pins. Some castmembers wear their pins on a hip holder-- I wonder if something similar can be made or if it's sold anywhere.

At the Disney Outlet at the Orlando Premium Outlets, pins are availalble in the $4.99 - $5.99 range. They had some nice pins that we bought to keep, rather than trade. They also had layards and other accessories available, although I did not look closely at prices.

Currently, Disneyshopping.com has a new line of "star" pins available for $5.99-- there are many different characters available. They all seem to be available for free shipping on Mondays too. There is a 20% coupon available right now (code = weekend), bringing the price down to $4.79. A matching lanyard is also available.

Pin trading/buying is pretty addictive! I think it's more fun for me right now than for my daughter!

 

[dsnymomof4]

I agree with all of the above posters. I think for the older kids, 10 pins is a good number. I usually let them start out with 5 or 6 and let them add a couple of new ones each day. That way, if they get pins they really don't want to trade, they can keep them back at the hotel, but still have some to trade. As far as the 4yo, I would say 3-4 pins would be fine. I've noticed that when my kids were younger, they really didn't get as attached to the pins, so they didn't mind trading the same pins over and over.