Pin Trading

[Belle's World]

Hi,

I have never done any pin trading before despite having visited 8 times already. I have however in the past bought a lanyard and around 8 pins. Looking at a thread on here the other day made me really interested and am planning on buying a bag of pins on ebay from America. The guy selling has really good feedback and it is only $1.89 per pin plus post and packing which i thought was a great deal esp as to buy in DLRP is probably gonna be about 6E that's how much they were when i went in 2006.
Anyway my real question is when swapping with a CM how do i tell which pins are Hidden Mickeys or Cast Member Ltd Edition. Also how many of these are there at any given time? Apart from the special edition pins do cast members have the more normal ride nad hotel pins? Sorry these are probably really stupid questions but i'm just trying to sort it out in my head.
Thanks

Ro

 

[jillrobinson]

Anyway my real question is when swapping with a CM how do i tell which pins are Hidden Mickeys or Cast Member Ltd Edition. Also how many of these are there at any given time? Apart from the special edition pins do cast members have the more normal ride nad hotel pins? Sorry these are probably really stupid questions but i'm just trying to sort it out in my head.
Thanks

Ro

The only Hidden Mickey pins I have are ones I have bought, I would say that the majority of CM's pins are hotel and ride ones in my experience, I would only consider a swap though if it were for a Maleficent pin, that's all I collect but my kids have some nice pins from swaps.

 

[tennisfan]

If you are buying then look up the pin on http://www.pinpics.com it has all the Disney pins on there. Usually if you are buying then the seller would state they are LE etc. If you are swapping its harder to know without looking at the back of the pin. Most cases it will say what number it is in the LE series for example 330/5000. Meaning 5000 were issued & you have number 330.

Just be warned when buying from the States as you could be charged import fees if they go over a certain amount. I think its £18

I have seen CM have pins from other Disney parks.

 

[Danauk]

Hidden Mickey pins will be identified by a small hidden Mickey face somewhere on the pin. LE pins will have a number on the back telling you the edition size and sometimes the pin you have from that edition. I have traded quite a few pins at DLRP this year and most pins I have traded have either been hidden mickey ones in series have been trying to collect or character pins. CM's rarely seem to have LE pins on their lanyards as you have to trade a LE pin for a LE pin. I have however traded LE pins on the pin boards that they sometimes have out at certain times of the day in the pin section of the shop at the top of Main Street.

One thing to be aware of when buying off ebay is that the cheap pins might not be offical ones, they could be sedesma pins or pro pins which although have Disney on the back are not offical oin trading pins. You can still trade with these, it is just something to be aware of that when choosing a pin from a lanyard others might have given one of these pins in to trade.

Like Nikki said you are best looking at pinpics for info in regard to official and pins and the cheaper ones.