Pin Trading

[czkmom]

Is pin trading as big in DL as WDW? My kids loved this during our trip to the world and I'm just wondering if they should bring their pins to DL. (They are by no means "serious" just like to trade with the cast members).

Thanks.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Definitely, all the CM's wear pins to trade. My DD traded last year with one of the Dream maker CMs. But, did we get Dreamed, noooooo!

Oh well, maybe this year!

 

[jemilah]

My 2 sons, 10 & 8 love pin trading, my DH thinks it's dumb but they take such good care of the pins and look at them often. They have ones to trade and keepers. Trading with cast members is great, the older pro traders can get a bit anal about it.

 

[shoppingmom]

Our gang of kids loved it last year and even my husband got into the act. It was great. We came home with some really neat pins. Everyone has their pins ready for next years trip!

 

[flyinshirer]

I have heard of pin trading but don't know much about it. I know that you trade you pins with other people's that you like. But how do you get started? Wouldn't you naturally buy the original starter pins that you like? Then why would you want to trade them instead of just keeping the ones that you bought that you liked? Totally confused huh?

 

[ssc7]

You know who had some of the best pins when we we at DL? The street sweepers and the garbage carriers! They were the nicest and gave my kids several tips on where some of the best pins were! Not all carry them, but many have then attached to their sides or on belts! Plus say your pleases and thank yous! My kids were so well mannered (for once!) and many CM's and other pin traders were very helpful as to where they could find some of their favorites! Happy trading!

 

[jemilah]

Mine got started withthe free pin and lanyard from AAA, costco and getaway today have them too. You can trade that pin right when you get it. I have picked up a few at the outlet, some just because they were cheap to trade later at the parks. The thing with trading you can see some that are not currently for sale. For Christmas I am getting the boys cases for the extra pins. It is quite addicting.

 

[dragonflymom]

Is pin trading as big in DL as WDW?

I would have to say that pin-wearing CM's in DL are definitely not as prevalent as WDW. When we were at WDW in April this year, it took us forever to get from ride to ride as my 7-year-old daughter absolutely had to check each cast member's lanyard that she crossed path with and there seemed to be a ton of them in all four parks. It was her first time pin trading and good thing I brought all my backup traders I got from EBay (I ordered 50, but only gave her 20, thinking that would be plenty, but brought the rest along anyway, as we were going on the cruise and thought maybe we could do pin trading onboard). She traded all 20 the first day at the parks! And she's fairly picky, looking only for Chip and Dale pins and CARS and Toy Story pins for her brother.

My daughter had high hopes to do more pin trading during our August trip to DL. We were quite disappointed. Definitely not as many CMs with lanyards hanging out in DL. We noticed especially that not many DL line-tending CM's and cart vendor CMs wear the pin trading lanyards which was how we got the majority of our pin trading done in WDW. DD ended up doing most of her DL pin trading during pin trading events at the Downtown Disney Oub Store, DVC kiosks and surprisingly, at Grand California Hotel where we stayed. We also noticed that DCA seemed to have more of the "desirable" pins than DL.

DH actually wrote to Disney management after our August trip about the need for more kids' only lanyards at DL. My theory is that perhaps DL employees on average are serving more guests per hour than WDW and they don't want to offend guests waiting in line to buy ice cream while the vendor CM chitchats with pin trading guests, which may explain why you find more cleaning crew CMs wearing pin trading lanyards than gift shop CMs at DL, compared to WDW.

Don't get me wrong, you can definitely find opportunities to pin trade at DLR, I'm just answering the OP's question asking for a comparison between DL and WDW.

 

[flyinshirer]

Are there any pins that you cannot trade?
Doesn't the cm's have to trade with you if you ask?
How do you ask?