) to it. Then you can choose which pin to give the CM as long as they don't already have it. At some resorts they will have a cork board set up at certain times that are covered with pins to trade. They also have a brochure on the ins and outs of trading. 
Ditto _exactly_ what HRH-Disney said. We got a bunch off Ebay and then my boys used some of their souvenier trip money to buy others (those are usually special 'keepers', but sometimes they trade those too). Heck, I never expected it, but I also got into it....only seek out certain ones; but its still fun.
We got our boys lanyards at Target - the $1 section - but lots of places have cheap ones. Walmart is supposed to have nice ones w/ the plastic pouches on the end (nice for room cards - I used to put our hotel/phone number info in it, so if my little one got lost he could show it to whoever found him...)
We also only trade w/ CM's, or each other!
Have fun!!!! He will love it - I was happy how it makes the kids less shy and they chat w/ the CM's sometimes.
long time no see!
THey spent their money on it, too, so they really appreciated it. 
For us newbies to pin trading, how can we know when we are ordering online? I'm considering trying this for the first time with my 8 & 10 year olds when we go this summer. If the ebay site says that the pins are authentic and tradeable, how do we know if they really are or not? Maybe for us who are new to this you could give additional helpful info. It sure seems like a good deal when they say "mystery lot of pins for $1 each, authentic and completely tradeable" (or whatever it says, I'm going from memory).
Of course people who are selling fakes are going to tell you they are completely authentic. But the truth of the matter is that there is NO WAY you can buy authentic pins for less than about $3 each.
The bulk sellers on eBay buy the pins from counterfeiters in China for pennies apiece. They sell them for a dollar apiece and make a HUGE profit. They buy 500 each of 10 designs, break them into "lots" and off they go. And the parks are flooded with fakes.
We used to love pin trading, but we are just about over it. The fakes have taken all of the fun out of it. I am going to throw the traders we have on hand in our Owner's Locker and we'll trade through them, but when those are gone we are FINISHED trading.
From now on I will buy a few special pins each trip to add to my collection, and that's it.
