Purchasing pins

[CindyZMomof3]

Green Green Newbie here!

My 8 year old son would like to pin trade in October. He does not have a sense of "value" of pins and he will be most interested in the "act of trading" and obtaining fun pins and as many different ones as he can.

I know I must be able to purchase pins once we're down there, but I think it would be good to go with a Lanyard with pins already. Where is the best place for us to start? Disney catalogs? Ebay?

I don't even know the average price of a pin.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

~Cindy Z in CT

 

[Dizneypins.com]

Personally I think Ebay is a good start.
Look for lots of 5, 10, 15 pins. Most of the time these pin sets are selling for about $2 each or $20 for 10 pins . This make about the cheapest way to get pins..

 

[LisaZoe]

My DD and I are also going to give pin trading a shot. I won a "lot" of cast lanyard pins on eBay for about $3 each. I've seen other lots go for less per pin but they often have Sedesma pins in the lot. Since I'm new to pin trading and have heard that some CMs and other pin traders question the authenticity of Sedesma pins, I decided to try to avoid those this time.

Don't get me wrong, I know that Sedesma is a licensed Disney pin manufacturer and CMs <I>should</I> take any licensed Disney pin that meets the trading guidelines. Also, I've seen some very nice looking Sedesma pins on eBay as well as PinPics.com. However, I don't want to worry about people questioning our pins so decided to play it safe this time.

Another tip - make sure you don't get any pins that are listed as "Fantasy pins" unless you do so because you like them. Those pins are not licensed by Disney and you or yoru DS wouldn't be able to trade them with CMs - although other pin traders may be interested in getting them.

Here's a link to Disney's Official Pin Trading website:

http://psc.disney.go.com/eventservices/index.html

Good luck to you and your DS. Be prepared that you may get "sucked into" trading and collecting too. There are so many really nice pins out there that it's hard to not start buying them for yourself.

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

I have to chime in here with a laugh .. LisaZoe has been asking questions and studying hard and here she is answering the same questions like a pro! Way to go!

While I am here I will throw in some pin info. At the parks, the pins start at 6.50 and go to 12.50. There are lots of cute pins in the 6.50 range. But, if your son is just getting them to trade, I would really try to avod paying full price. Ebay is a good place to start.

In order to save you wallet and sanity, have your son pick a theme. Does he like Stitch, Toy Story, Nemo? He may also like pins of his favorite rides. If he tries to collect pins from all those movies you will be broke!

I would suggest one movie or chacracter and some park pins, like Magic Kingdom 2004 and Pirates, or something like that.

You can look on www.Dizpins.com and www.Dizneypins.com and www.pinpics.com for great info.

Have fun!

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

delete .. double

 

[LisaZoe]

Thanks for noticing, CoolDisneyCat. Can you tell I'm a bit obsessed with my new "inexpensive" hobby? I'm starting to think I should move my reservations from AKL/WL to a value resort to make up for what I've spent on pins via eBay. What seemed like a very innocent idea for something fun for DD and I to do has quickly become much more than that. I am, though, happy to say that it has been more than 48 hours since I bought any pins on eBay (lost the auctions last night .

I hope it's OK to mention this here but eBay isn't the only place to get inexpensive pins in advance. One of the links CoolDisneyCat provided has a board for pin enthusiasts and one forum is for pin sales. I saw a couple people listing what seemed to be good deals for cast lanyard pins in lots of 10 or more for about $2 per pin plus a bit for shipping. Sorry if providing this info is against the rules...

 

[rapriebe]

LisaZoe - There's another site to buy pins inexpensively????? Please do tell - I've been buying pins on eBay but lately it seems like they are getting over $3 a pin and I try not to spend that much. You can PM the site if you are leary of posting.

Thanks in advance

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

LisaZoe: yes, please do tell!

Also, the Disney outlet stores at Belz in Orlando have some very cheap pins -- we drove there on Friday night just to look at pins, and found some for a buck each. They are definitely not ones I'd want to keep, but should be fun for my dd to trade. The only warning about the "outlet" stores is that a lot of their pins are full price.

 

[Dizneypins.com]

Both of the above mentioned websites starting with "D" have sale boards. One is "At Cost Or Below Cost Only"