Pin trading on the Fantasy

[Fantasyfanatic]

Do y'all ever do much pin trading on the cruise line? How is trading on the fantasy?

 

[Quellman]

Pin trading on all ships is similar.
1. There is generally one pin trading book in each gift shop. (On the fantasy, there is not a book in Tiffany & Co, and in the White Caps). The books are generally filled with duplicates and scrapper (fake) pins bought on ebay and amazon bulk purchases.
2. There is usually a person with a pin lanyard outside each dining facility who instructs you to wash hands.
3. On the Captains Gala night, there is an officers pin trading event. These lanyards are generally well stocked.
4. I will see personal pin trading stations hanging up outside of peoples stateroom doors. Those can be a hit or miss, require you to walk to find them, but can be fun.


On a cruise, I only keep one trader on me at a time, and usually end up not trading it at all.

 

[SteveMP]

I've found to to be interesting at times. As some of the CMs have pins from other countries that I hadn't seen before, espeically on the captains gala.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

3. On the Captains Gala night, there is an officers pin trading event. These lanyards are generally well stocked.

Our kids particularly liked this. They went through the two lines of officers several times each and traded pins over and over until the found a mix they were happy with. We also encouraged them to talk with the officers, who were happy to do so, and yet the line moved well. Good fun!

 

[SunDevilFanAZ]

Both of our sons enjoyed it a lot along with their two friends who also sailed with us. The pin selection was. I have better than 3 years ago too.

 

[Fantasyfanatic]

Are a lot of the pins fakes or scrappers? I don't want to waste my time but also kinda want to have fun. Lol.

 

[Dug720]

Are a lot of the pins fakes or scrappers? I don't want to waste my time but also kinda want to have fun. Lol.

My question is why would Disney knowingly put fakes or "scrappers" (whatever those are) in the books or on the lanyards?

 

[SteveMP]

Are a lot of the pins fakes or scrappers? I don't want to waste my time but also kinda want to have fun. Lol.

No they won't accept fakes or scrappers.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

My question is why would Disney knowingly put fakes or "scrappers" (whatever those are) in the books or on the lanyards?

I can partially answer this. The books in the shops are brought out whenever someone asks for them, and the CM doesn't stand there and watch every swap. The normal rules apply, you can only trade a pin the book doesn't have, etc. but no one is standing there to make sure someone doesn't take a pin put a fake in as a trade. The question is how often and how vigorously they go through those books and remove any that shouldn't be in there.

As for on the lanyards, the issue is that it isn't ALWAYS clear what pin is a "scrapper". Some are obvious. Some, less so. So a CM might not call out a trader and say, "Hey you can't give me that!", especially since the person might have just gotten it from another CM lanyard. Again, it is about how often and how thoroughly they remove them.

It doesn't help that some people use the term "scrapper" rather loosely, when what they might mean is just "common." I've seen this done by some of the "serious" pin hunters. They are looking for rare, expensive, valuable pins, so anything that isn't that, they sometimes think of as "trash". Whereas, if you are just looking for fun pins that you and your family will enjoy, you will probably find plenty. You just won't make any money at it.

 

[Quellman]

I am talking about counterfeit, second run, or unauthorized pins when I refer to scrapper pins. The books were always out and were comical with the number of fake pins. On a single page there would be maybe 10 of the same pin, all with varying degrees of color on the ink, and other identifying feature.

It was my impression that Disney just accepts any pin for trade, because guest service. I don't know if they check the lanyards at the parks, but the books on the boat were the same day after day, expect when someone was trading in a duplicate "mystery' pin they get from the blind bag boxes.

Here is an image of a real and fake pin.
http://www.****************.com/sites/default/files/images/IMG_4603.JPG

 

[Fantasyfanatic]

I'm just looking to have fun with my sister, nothing crazy. Just wanted to know what people's experiences were. I'm most interested in the Captain's Gala night and possibly trading with Cast Members. In your experiences, were most of the pins on the Captains night good?

 

[anniepoppins]

Just a caution here on Star Wars pin trading nights - we have been and I am adult and just wanted to trade with the Cruise Staff in the Lobby which was advertised - it was an entire madhouse. As soon as they came out, they each had 3 or 4 awesome, expensive Star Wars special limited edition Large pins and the kids nearly ran them down. I was right by where they were forming a line and I was already in line, but they were all gone in like 2 minutes flat.

 

[SunDevilFanAZ]

Just a caution here on Star Wars pin trading nights - we have been and I am adult and just wanted to trade with the Cruise Staff in the Lobby which was advertised - it was an entire madhouse. As soon as they came out, they each had 3 or 4 awesome, expensive Star Wars special limited edition Large pins and the kids nearly ran them down. I was right by where they were forming a line and I was already in line, but they were all gone in like 2 minutes flat.

Yep, was pretty much the case last week. If you weren't first, you were last.

 

[crystalwolf]

I've researched how to tell authentic from fakes but apart from obvious signs like coloring, or how smooth magnets are, and the logo at the back, how can I tell if a magnet is a fake or scrapper?