Pin Trading - still a thing?

[mmbrad02]

Is Pin Trading still active in the parks? My DD13 was not interested back in 2018 at our last vacation, so I’ve never really looked into it. But on our 2022 cruise, she really enjoyed collecting pins (purchased onboard) and wearing them on her cruise lanyard. That said, I think she would enjoy trading in the parks. Would you suggest ordering a lanyard ahead of time (like on shopdisney or any other suggestions?) or wait till we arrive? Any other tips? We have a few authentic ones at home that we would add for trading but for the most part we need find a base to start with. Also, how does it basically work - Do you just walk up and ask to trade?

 

[TangledHairDon'tCare]

We rarely trade with other guests but my 9yo enjoys trading with cast members in the stores. Most recent trip was July 2023.

 

[Ohiostatefan606]

My son always traded with Cast Members. Also, the stores / restaurants / resorts have pin boards. You can trade 1 pin per day. (or so they say). Unfortunately there are a lot of fake pins out there. But we were really pin trading for the fun of it and the experience to talk to other people. Even at 8, my son walked up on his own to CM to ask about trading. I was close by, but not initiating conversation. I usually only stepped in if he was having a hard time deciding which pin to select.

 

[eticketplease]

My son always traded with Cast Members. Also, the stores / restaurants / resorts have pin boards. You can trade 1 pin per day. (or so they say). Unfortunately there are a lot of fake pins out there. But we were really pin trading for the fun of it and the experience to talk to other people. Even at 8, my son walked up on his own to CM to ask about trading. I was close by, but not initiating conversation. I usually only stepped in if he was having a hard time deciding which pin to select.

The cast members used to wear them everywhere but we haven't seen that in a while. DS loves doing it and we stop at the shops and community hall has pin boards. One of the best places was to the right as you leave HS I can't remember the name at this moment but it had two large pin boards and very caring cast members. DS also has a hard time selecting 2 from the board and then even harder figuring out which ones to part with.

 

[frozengirl]

We are big pin traders! If you happen to see a cast member with a lanyard or a pouch, they are happy to trade. Most stores have a pin board at the register, as well as every hotel. The pin stores are the best! An you can trade one pin per stop but for my kid if they see two pins they really want, the cast member always trades 2.
I would not suggest a lanyard for trading. It takes time to remove the pin as well as we have lost pins on our lanyard. We carry 2 ziplocs, one for trading and one for the pins we want to keep.

 

[eticketplease]

We gave up on the lanyards as DS has sensory issues and wouldn't wear them and we would have to fish it out of the bag and pins would fall off. We have several of the pin folios (At least that is what I think they are called). They are binders that zip closed and you just stick the pins into it as at the shops you never exchange backs. It also has a pouch built in to hold the backs.

 

[HopperFan]

Last couple trips seen lots of CM trading with Guests.

 

[AndreaDM]

My GD was trading back in April, there also were some souvenir kiosks that also had pin trading that we just randomly found.

 

[Shughart]

My daughter got into pin reading in 2019 (precovid) and found lots of opportunities. she went in 2021 (with school) and then 2022 with us, and there were less opportunities. Just some boards at stores.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

The issue we ran into after while was that everyone keeps their good pins and wants to trade lesser pins.

And you need a circulation of lesser pins for currency...so what happened was cheap knock offs appeared and folks would buy a bunch of those in the hope of trading them for good pins.

We stopped when every CM lanyard/pin board was full of crappy bulk eBay pins

That was a 3-5 years ago. Maybe its better now.

 

[BingandNelsonFan]

Pin trading is coming back in the parks and is definitely still going at the Resorts and Disney Springs. Cast members have been spotted in the parks and Disney Springs with hip lanyards for trading. But there are a quite a number of pin trading boards at various stores and shops throughout WDW.

You can trade 2 pins per day with each cast member/board.

I'm not sure on a really current list of board locations right now, but you could try the PinPics forum, as I think there are some people there that might be keeping track.

 

[rdaky]

The issue we ran into after while was that everyone keeps their good pins and wants to trade lesser pins.

And you need a circulation of lesser pins for currency...so what happened was cheap knock offs appeared and folks would buy a bunch of those in the hope of trading them for good pins.

We stopped when every CM lanyard/pin board was full of crappy bulk eBay pins

That was a 3-5 years ago. Maybe its better now.

I really feel that the issue is the same. So many garbage pins that people want to trade for good pins.

 

[Shughart]

The issue we ran into after while was that everyone keeps their good pins and wants to trade lesser pins.

And you need a circulation of lesser pins for currency...so what happened was cheap knock offs appeared and folks would buy a bunch of those in the hope of trading them for good pins.

We stopped when every CM lanyard/pin board was full of crappy bulk eBay pins

That was a 3-5 years ago. Maybe its better now.

This! The pin boards are just very meh. My daughter's favorite souvenirs are pins, that's what she spends all her money on. I encourage her to buy for events/festivals/holidays first since those are limited time. She has the pin purse and keeps her favorites there. We bought a couple packs of starter pins on shop Disney to trade with, but she's never found anything as good as/worth trading away a single pin she paid $15-20+ on.

 

[BingandNelsonFan]

This! The pin boards are just very meh. My daughter's favorite souvenirs are pins, that's what she spends all her money on. I encourage her to buy for events/festivals/holidays first since those are limited time. She has the pin purse and keeps her favorites there. We bought a couple packs of starter pins on shop Disney to trade with, but she's never found anything as good as/worth trading away a single pin she paid $15-20+ on.

Trading in the parks with CMs or park boards is definitely for trading pins, not collecting pins. It would be really unusual to find something worth trading the $15+ pins on. Generally, you'd be looking at trading the trader-type pins. There are lots of bad pins, but over the course of a trip, you can usually find some fun stuff. Just keep looking! Also, checking out boards that are in more out-of-the-way places can mean finding some neater stuff. But it won't be the special expensive pins. You really have to be trading with guests to find variety like that.

There is a monthly pin trading meet at the Holiday Inn near Disney, and that is supposed to be really good!

 

[rdaky]

Trading in the parks with CMs or park boards is definitely for trading pins, not collecting pins. It would be really unusual to find something worth trading the $15+ pins on. Generally, you'd be looking at trading the trader-type pins. There are lots of bad pins, but over the course of a trip, you can usually find some fun stuff. Just keep looking! Also, checking out boards that are in more out-of-the-way places can mean finding some neater stuff. But it won't be the special expensive pins. You really have to be trading with guests to find variety like that.

There is a monthly pin trading meet at the Holiday Inn near Disney, and that is supposed to be really good!

But that's not how it started. The original intent was for everyone to be trading real decent pins. Not necessarily limited edition, but legit pins that weren't purchased in bulk off of eBay or "trader pins" I think that's the point. That they shouldn't be junk boards and that's what they mostly are.

And as someone who has looked at a lot of boards and observed a lot of behavior, I can say that some pin traders are really mean to cast members who say no to fakes, duplicates, broken pins, pins that aren't even Disney, or trying to hover and keep trading over and over again. So of course the boards look bad. Last week I witnessed a 9-10ish year old start chewing out a CM, calling her mean and a liar because the CM wouldn't let the girl keep trading, stomping her feet like a royal brat, so mom came along and chewed out the CM too. These aren't the CMs personal pins, so why should they care if the pins are decent. It's probably not worth the hassle.

 

[BingandNelsonFan]

But that's not how it started. The original intent was for everyone to be trading real decent pins. Not necessarily limited edition, but legit pins that weren't purchased in bulk off of eBay or "trader pins" I think that's the point. That they shouldn't be junk boards and that's what they mostly are.

And as someone who has looked at a lot of boards and observed a lot of behavior, I can say that some pin traders are really mean to cast members who say no to fakes, duplicates, broken pins, pins that aren't even Disney, or trying to hover and keep trading over and over again. So of course the boards look bad. Last week I witnessed a 9-10ish year old start chewing out a CM, calling her mean and a liar because the CM wouldn't let the girl keep trading, stomping her feet like a royal brat, so mom came along and chewed out the CM too. These aren't the CMs personal pins, so why should they care if the pins are decent. It's probably not worth the hassle.

Oh, I agree that it didn't start like that. But it started back at the end of 1999. The whole world has changed since then, and pin trading is no exception. It's just that now the trading with CMs and park boards is definitely trading pins and not collecting ones. And yes, there are a lot of junk pins. But if you want to trade with the CMs or Disney Boards, you need to know what you're looking at or be happy with whatever you trade for. There are also the mystery boards/boxes. There's never a guarantee that you get something good from those . . . but you sure can sometimes! Sis and I always designate two pins at the start of the trip that are just for mystery boxes.

 

[4leobeans]

This! The pin boards are just very meh. My daughter's favorite souvenirs are pins, that's what she spends all her money on. I encourage her to buy for events/festivals/holidays first since those are limited time. She has the pin purse and keeps her favorites there. We bought a couple packs of starter pins on shop Disney to trade with, but she's never found anything as good as/worth trading away a single pin she paid $15-20+ on.

I didn’t know about ‘scrappers’ or fake pins on our first visit. We spent too much money buying pins (3 kids) and ended up trading away real pins for fakes

Our last visit, we bought mystery bags only so at least those were more affordable.

We are planning a surprise Christmas visit this year, and I know my kids will be so excited to pin trade again (for the past five years, we’ve been doing on FB groups!). So glad to hear pin trading with CM is back!

Our first trading experience with a non CM (I think he was a pro pin trader), and he traded a scrapper with my daughter so it was a bit disappointing to have someone do that. We had much better trades with other visitors after that. I think pin trading was one of their favourite activities

 

[msmayor]

I've never traded pins, and don't intend to start...but I do wonder what the reaction would be to some of the pins/pin sets I have from our trip in 2000. Those pins are over 20 years old and well out of regular circulation.

 

[_19disnA]

Never traded pins but often wonder what people do with them? Do you display them at home on some sort of board? They seem so tiny not sure how to effectively show them to others. Perhap older/limited edition pins have some sort of value to other collectors? Doesn't surprise me that some rude/pushy parents always want to argue about the pin trading rules when at Disney.

 

[BingandNelsonFan]

Our first trading experience with a non CM (I think he was a pro pin trader), and he traded a scrapper with my daughter so it was a bit disappointing to have someone do that. We had much better trades with other visitors after that. I think pin trading was one of their favourite activities

Sadly, there are a lot of sharks out there who take advantage of kids when trading. The best thing to do is stick to the CMs or the casual looking traders. There are a lot of friendly traders out there who won't take advantage of your kids. My sister and mom and I always wear lanyards that have pins we'll trade to any kids for whatever they want to trade. Nothing worse than a child who gets up the nerve to ask to trade a pin and then gets turned down.

I've never traded pins, and don't intend to start...but I do wonder what the reaction would be to some of the pins/pin sets I have from our trip in 2000. Those pins are over 20 years old and well out of regular circulation.

That would depend on who was looking at your pins. Most of the 2000 pins hold very little value now, since so many people don't know what they are. The pins that were absolutely the hottest thing back then can be little more than a park trader now. But there are still people who love those old pins, so I'm sure it would make someone's day to see them! What were some of the pins you got on that trip?

Never traded pins but often wonder what people do with them? Do you display them at home on some sort of board? They seem so tiny not sure how to effectively show them to others. Perhap older/limited edition pins have some sort of value to other collectors? Doesn't surprise me that some rude/pushy parents always want to argue about the pin trading rules when at Disney.

Displays vary by person and their house situation. Large cork boards are very common. Shaped boards that are cut into silhouettes of various Disney characters or icons. Frames with nice pin sets in them. And there are zip-up pin cases and bags that are effective for storage and sorting of collections, too.

Yes, there are valuable pins and not-valuable pins. That can have to do with LE or age, but not always the case. Sometimes it can be the character, or the brand, or the event release. All kinds of things, and it's a very fluid hobby with values fluctuating all the time.