Trade some pin trading stories

[liveforthemagic]

OK. I cannot decide if I want to start up this pin trading thing. I need any stories from families -- good and bad--regarding pin trading experiences so i can better figure out if it is for us--especially DS (9) who is hitting that I'm too cool stage we all know and love.

I know the CM's with green lanyards have to trade--with kids only. What CM's? The ones running the line queues, or the little food carts, or the ones accompanying the characters? I do not recall seeing any pin trading when I was there a few years ago--most likely cause I was not involved and the kids were younger. Also--if you kid goes crazy for pin trading--how much time does it take out of your day--we have limited time in each park....I don't want to spend the whole day running around to trade pins.

Any helpful stories, suggestions would be WONDERFUL!

 

[merfsko]

My sister and I bgean pin trading last year and my mom joine din with us thsi year. None of us went crazy about Pin trading so I can really only give you information from our view...

To start off with, you have to buy the pins a lanyards, and dependng on how mnay pins you start off with/add, it can get a little pricy. As for the time thing, I don't think that's an issue. We would glace at CM's lanyards as we walked by and if we saw somethign we wanted to trade for we did. It wouldn't would take 5 minutes at the most. Some younger kids taht we met during our trip, didn't really care which pins they had, they just liked to trade and would trade with every CM they met. Same: they took 5 minutes maximum.

If you decide to begin Pin Trading, when you're buying Pins find the store CHARCTER PREMIERE (located in the Belz Outlet Mall) because they sell a bunch of good Disney Pins for half price and you can get a bunch for your daughter! We didn't discover this stor euntil otu second last day but we still bought a good number of pins.

That's all the info I really have so I hope I was of some help! Post your descision when you make one!

 

[Traveliz]

First off you don't have to buy a lanyard.

My daughter is big into this (she just turned 18) but she has been doing it for many years (I can't even remember when this all started!). Anyway she just carries any pins she might be interested in trading in her purse or backbag or whatever she is using and if she sees a pin on CM she wants she stops and digs it out.

She stores hers at home in one of the large pin books. She gets pins to trade in case a CM has something she wants and can't buy.

She has always had great experience trading pins with CMs - she does not feel comfortable doing it with the professional pin traders that congregate at pin stations.

Liz

 

[memymomonica]

My daughter is 7 and loves it. We bought the lanyard. Then we bought a few pins of characters she wasn't fond of so she wouldn't feel bad trading them. She had a blast. There was no rhyme or reason to her trading. She just traded for what she wanted at the time. She was obsessive at first, but if we were waiting in line, etc. she would trade with a CM nearby. It can get expensive though.

 

[ErinInCT]

You can buy a lanyard from an office supply store (looks like a necklace with a clear plastic id holder on the end) & customize it for yourself but putting your name & info (in case it gets lost) into the id sleeve, or print Disney pics or put stickers on it, whatever.
We thought dd4 would enjoy getting princess pins. You can buy relatively inexpensive pins ($3) from eBay. We bought ones we did not care about so dd4 could trade them for princesses. She learned a lot about good manners (asking "may I see your pins" & saying "thanks for the trade") & about talking to adults. All CM's with lanyards will trade with anyone.
Dh & I got WAY more into it then we thought! Next time we're going to do it too!! Dh bought an expensive book that shows all the pins (too bad he left it on the plane on the way back - $30 down the drain!). DD4 had traded her 16 pins in about 2 days! Next time we may bring more!!
I say do it, here is the one thing I noticed. DD was trading a lot in EPCOT at the kidcot stations & there were a lot of other kids around who did not have pins & they seemed very sad that they could not get a pin. The poor parents had to explain that you needed to have a pin to trade & the kids usually ended up crying!! So I say it is better to bring everything & plan to do it & NOT end up doing it if ds thinks he is too cool. Trust me, when he gets to Disney & sees people of all ages wearing lanyards he'll want to do it! And it costs a bundle to buy them at Disney! So bring some just in case!
Oh, and the lanyard gets pretty darn heavy so we rarely wore it. We kept it in the backpack & pulled it out when we wanted to trade!

 

[Catrin]

I had a blast trading pins last year.... and this year, when I bring my 10 yr old, he will do the trading.

I just bought a set of 10 pins on Ebay for less than $30.00. These will be his trading pins. In addition to these, I told him I would buy one Special pin for him, if he sees one he wants but doesnt get to trade for it.

I think this will be such a fun activity for him. He loves to chat with the CM's...

We did the pressed penny collection when he was 5 - and I will do this with my 6 yr old when I take him next year.
Catrin

 

[Cplofdisneynutz]

my DF got very into it on our last vist. She started with 4 and we ended up buying quite a few and the games began She had 2 lanyards full by the 5th day, and needless to say CM's were talking to us about them. We got fast passes at AK for the Safari because the CM was so impressed with her collection. It was also fun to have children walk up to her and ask to see all her pins (some traded, some didn't). It was a great conversation piece and fun to do. a few of our more "notable" experiences were on the Jungle Cruise @ MK the boat captain made the joke about her sinking the boat with the extra weight. Another was at the gift shop at our resort, the CM had a character we didn't recognize, turned out to be a limited edition pin that only 1000 were made, so we traded for it very quickly. As for what to do with them when your not at the world, we are making a shadow box to display them in our home, and take them with us on our trips. I say go for it, its fun and you never know what good will happen!!

Hope that helps have fun, happy trading

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Our first trip to Disney DH and DS8 really got into this. I believe if the CMs are wearing green they only trade with kids and if its black they trade with anyone. If you are just starting out try to focus on one theme. I met a few visitors that were collecting the movie posters. DS8 liked the safety series that were cast member exclusives. We set a goal to get all of them and we did. DS8 was very proud to get them all. I think we scared a few CMs as we charged for them if we thought we saw the safety pins
I di notice a some CMs turn the pin around if it was one to keep. We had 2 lanyards, one for trading and one for keeping. Be careful though, some of the pinbacks don't fit securely and we lost a few pins along the way, next time we will keep them in a bag. The CMs really seemed to enjoy it when we let them chose one of our pins, I think most people just give them a pin. I believe the only time the CMs will refuse a pin is if they alredy have one.
The hardest part was trying to find pins to give up
Good luck and happy trading.