Where are the pin traders from Japan???

[suzanneb]

I've notice a sad trend: for the last four trips I've made to Disney parks (3 to WDW and 1 to DL) in the last 6 months, I've encountered NO Japanese guests trading pins!!!!! I've seen a NUMBER of Japanese guests reading Japansese maps and speaking Japanese, but NO traders...this is soooo sad, as I LOVE the M&P History of Art series, and it is MUCH harder to trade a US than Japanese guest for these...comments please...

 

[Mr. Plutonium]

Hi!
I'm just guessing but about a month ago I was able to trade with just one Japanese couple at Disneyland. I was there for a week and sort of noticed
that the only languages I heard people speaking were English (Duh) and Spanish (Cinquo de Mayo). So there were very few guests from abroad.
I guess people are afraid to fly because of the war in Iraq, there is a recession in Japan that has no light at the end of the tunnel due to their banking practices
for the last 20+ years or so. My guess is your best chance to see Japanese traders is during Golden Week ( in the spring?) which is when the whole country goes on vacation or around New Years when they are all on vacation again. I too love trading with the Japanese. Since the banning of trading at TDL/TDS I wonder how that has impacted the hobby over there. As far as I have been able to find out the Japanese don't seem to hold their own unofficial pin meets as we do over here all over the country. I will or will have attended 3 pin meets this month in the Chicago suburbs, for example. I am unable to read Japanese and thus there isn't much point to surfing the net in Japanese looking for Japanese pin meets for a possible vacation over there.
Janelle, AKA Original Godzilla on the Dizpins Boards, lives in Japan and speaks the language. She told me that she doesn't do much face to face trading there since trading was banned in the parks. She can get you pins if you ask her. I don't know what they will cost since I have never done business with her. SACC in Santa Ana, CA can get you Japanese pins. I've gotten pins from them but the Japanese pins are $$$ and in short supply sometimes.
Finally you can't lock your suitcases any more, when you fly, and I don't know if I'll be checking a bag full of pins anymore. I do know that a carry on pin bag always ends up being hand searched because they can't see anything in the x-ray machine due to all the metal. On the last trip to DLR my luggage strap disappeared on my checked bag because it was opened and they didn't bother to put the strap back on. I don't think any pins disappeared but I was lucky it was only a strap this time. Imagine you are not an American and you read and hear about the new security regulations in the US. Maybe you will stay home this year and save the money instead of having to deal with all the hassles that air travel entails now.

-Gene

 

[suzanneb]

thanks for your insight...I think you're "right on the money"....there are a few Japanese guests at WDW and DL, but not trading pins..

 

[daber]

I was trading at the All-Star on a Thursday night meet at the end of April and there were two Japanese couples trading pins that night. So I didn't notice anything different the last time I was in WDW.

 

[suzanneb]

Howdy David- thats great...I only hope I get lucky and find Japanese traders again!!!! I didn't see any Easter weekend...except a very nice Japanese couple at Scoops Seminar...but they were trading DL PARIS pins!!!! (which were also nice, but not History of Art)...

 

[Mr. Plutonium]

Hi!
A couple more thoughts:
Sometimes the Japanese couples are newlyweds on their honeymoon.
There are very few with kids visiting the US and even fewer who trade pins.
Sometimes it will be two Japanese women in their twenties.
I guess what I'm trying to say is they can't afford to keep coming back over and over to keep us supplied in pins. I've witnessed American traders taking advantage of Japanese novice traders and the surrounding of these poor jet lagged folks. Did we make their trading experience a good one? What did they tell their friends when they got home about our manners during pin trading? Sometimes our excitement gets the better of us and perhaps we
haven't been the best of "hosts" as far as trading with the Japanese. My last two trading experiences with Japanese traders (One in Florida and one in California.) has been that they seem a lot more savy than they were in the past. Are we seeing "the old timers" who began trading in the Japanese parks? Since there is no more official Disney Pin Trading in Japan are there fewer new traders there? A lot of us got started with cast member lanyard trades and moved on from there. They don't have that anymore.
Finally as I understand it, the last two pin series from the Disney Stores have also been available in Japan. I haven't actually seen a whole book full of their version of "our" pins or seen any packaging but the only way I can tell is a direct side by side comparison of the backs. The only example in my collection is the DS Japan Stamp pin with Minnie. The fronts are identical and the backs are different. I got the Japanese version in a trade from a Japanese trader over a year ago, way before our version appeared in the stores around here last Christmas. I have never seen the packaging for the Japanese versions.
I half expected some of these pins released in Japan would show up on pinpics.com but I haven't come across a list of pins or any pictures of the packaging so far.

-Gene