I don't think it is fair to trade counterfeit pins or sedesma or other such "junk" pins w/ cast members but if the pins are from Eurodis. then who cares. I think that while you'll find ppl on this board that don't like them mny do, b/c they are different and you can't buy them at WDW. Remember a lot of ppl who trade do not surf every trading board online or try to find every rare pin available. Some people trade only on their Vacay and look for stuff they like- regardless of it's "tradeability" So if they are genuine Dis pins go for it.
Of course all this talk about the CM's "refreshing" their lanyards is crap. Disney is into pin trading for the $$$ they don't care if nobody wants the pins that are on the lanyards. There are a million employees w/ lanyards in the park you'll find something decent eventually, so where is the profitability in them taking a eurodis pin off and tossing it if someone may come along and buy a OE pin for 9$ and trade for it. People will trade for characters they like regardless of the edition size or origin of a pin.
Remember that as much as we love trading WDW loves money. There were pin traders before WDW started stocking their CM's w/ lanyards and there will be pin traders if they stop. But that's unlikely seeing as how it has lead to an extremely profitable situation for them.
Not to mention that if the CM isn't into pin trading then they might not even notice a crappy pin vs a good one. I've seen plenty of sedesma on CM lanyards. and some CM's don't even look at what you're giving them.[/QUOTE
I would say a good rule of thumb is
trade what you want to find on the Lanyards! We buy pins from the outlet near us and take those to trade.
We met a few people who were excited about our pins and several cast members commented on how nice the stuff we were trading was.
I say
if you are looking for good pins - trade good pins. We found a lot of nice stuff on lanyards last weekend. There was also a lot of cuties and lots of Euro Disney.
I did notice some cast members seemed to be hiding or avoiding adult pin traders. This is different from other times we have been to WDW where they were more friendly.
A friend had commented that she noticed this at DL on a recent trip. I know this is because of the people that only take Lanyard pins and nothing else and sell on Ebay or trade hard for them at DTD.
I collect non-lanyard pins - so I occasionally trade for a lanyard from a CM and sometimes I trade one back to them!