pin trading in parks and DTD?

[Sven]

has the pin trading improved at all? i seem to recall on our last trip all of the CMs had pretty much the pins. i also seem to recollect that fewer of them participated.

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

We were there in June and December in 2013. Both times we saw the same pins on CM lanyards over and over again (and the same pins on both trips). I believe the issue is all of the people buying pin lots from the same sellers and that is what is being traded. Sad; I used to love pin trading.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I was looking at a facebook group who had done trading in the parks over the past 2 weeks and they had gotten a nice variety of pins.

I have some pins that I'll be bringing for trading (some older ones that I'd bought that I no longer want) so I'm hoping that I can find a nice variety of real pins (not scrappers) to trade for.

I'm really interested in the new Seven Dwarves Hidden Mickey pins for my Snow White pin collection and the new colored Pascal Hidden Mickey pins that I think are really cute.

 

[eyehartdisney]

Epcot is the king of Pin Trading. Go from country to country, and hunt down those CMs! They tend to get less business (I think, never had to wait to ask to see their pins like other places) which means they probably see less scrapper pins. Plus, almost every CM has them. You just have to make sure to go to Disney owned stores. Many of the specialty shops are outside owned and thus, not CMs. The RnR has a giant drum in it's dump shop that has loads of pins, a good place to go first thing in the morning looking for new stuff. Look at the resorts. We take a tour in the afternoon one day to all the resorts and hunt down CMs for the pins.

 

[handicap18]

Don't know if they still have it because its been 5 years since our last trip, but there were a few places were CM's had books of pins for you to trade with. Found one at the big Disney Store in DTD, it was in the big room that sells pins, there were specific hours a CM would be there with the books to trade and also came across one at Wilderness Lodge.

Just something additional to be on the look out for.

 

[eyehartdisney]

I remember coming out of MK and heading to the monorails and they had the boards out there one time, but I've only seen that once, so I don't know if that's a 'thing.'

 

[elaw]

We actually had the best luck at the resorts ... we got 80% of our 2014 Hidden Mickey pins there.
We ended up with 2 full sets of HM Seven Dwarfs pins, 1 set of HM sketch pads, 1 set of HM Parking signs and 1 set of HM Pascal's (3 extras too)

CBR was great
POR ... not so good this trip
POFQ was also great
WL was not so good.
YC/BC was great

 

[Wendybird55]

DS enjoys trading pins and we have found that many shops (especially those selling pins and at resorts) have pin trading boards and/or books with LOTS of pins in them...Many times more variety then CM lanyards. We've also seen a pin trading board in the Art of Animation gallery.

Most people trade with CMs and they tend to have the pins from pin-trading sets and lot pins from E-bay so they tend to be the same. However you tend to find more variety on the pin boards and books in the shops.

We've found the Vinylmation trading has gone way downhill. Most of the ones they have to trade are the discount ones found in the Disney store. Last trip was a total bust with vinylmations, but DS did find some good Villain pins.