what happened to pin trading?

[katt789]

I still pin trade but I just keep my pins in a bag in my purse, I don't like wearing a clunky landyard or risk losing them lol!

As for pin trading itself, we still saw tons of it when we were there, though there did seem to be less cm's wearing lanyards, many of them had the little pouch things, and remember it's only certain roles that will have pins. Food & beverage & attractions usually don't have them (too busy and not food safe) merchandise & character attendants are a good place to look!

We found enough to trade with, although some trips there are a LOT of crappy pins, even cm friends said they didn't have a lot of good ones, and when they were in the parks with us they were trying to trade their work ones for different ones so they'd have good pins to trade with kids the next day

 

[mom2rtk]

With fewer people wearing lanyards (because their tickets and FPs are on their magicbands) I have to think fewer people will think about pins and trading.

 

[decoy7375]

I just returned from a two week trip to WDW and saw many lanyards on cast members and looked at many pin books, binders, boards, drums, suitcases, hats, etc in the shops.

The real problem is the same cheap pins over and over and over again.

In the end I managed to add just three pins to my collection.

I still had fun talking pins with people but the time spent looking vs. actually finding ones you are interested in really makes me think it might be time to hang up the lanyard.

This was our experience also...lots of cast members but the same pins over and over

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

We never have any issues finding a CM with lanyards or even pin boards. Where we have an issue is finding a variety. It seems that all of the pins come from the same pin lots that are sold through ebay, Mousepins Online, Pin Castle, etc. Each CM we visit has the same pins over and over again.

 

[rainwatter]

I wanted to add that twice on our trip a few weeks ago, cm's flagged us down from across the path or store to ask if we wanted to trade (DD and I had on our lanyards). Another time a photo pass photographer have me advice on which pins are rare/valuable. There might be fewer guests trading, but the cm's I encountered are still into it.

 

[DisneyChristmas]

I was buying a couple pooh pins at the trading post and behind the counter was one of those cork boards with a bunch of pins to trade. I asked the cashier "can I see what pins you have there?" and he looked at me with a totally straight face and said "no." When I asked why he told me "I don't trade with people I don't like." I was extremely confused and kind of hurt? I had a lanyard on my neck and was making a purchase and I wasn't being loud, obnoxious etc. There wasn't a line behind me or anything. Sometimes CMs will joke around but he was so serious and wouldn't bring the board closer. He just handed me my change without looking at me. It was really bizarre and I thought about it for the rest of the day, wondering why he "didn't like me." Makes me really not want to ask CMs to trade anymore.

Boo. That's crazy. What a bummer. I remember feeling rather unwelcomed when DNephew and I attended a pin event that was hosted by mostly local Orlando area people at the Poly. It really put me off of pin trading do a while.

I've stopped wearing my "better" pins at the parks. Children don't realize the difference and often seemed hurt when I wouldn't readily trade the way the CMs do. These days I mostly keep a stash of common pins and give them away to kids (with the parent's OK).