Trading pin, at disney world or online?

[Livelovedisney]

Hey you guys. We are going in June and I was thinking about surprising my little girl and boy with hints on where we will be going. I was going to get Mouse Ear hat along with autograph books form the park authentic items online. Then I saw the trading pin collections and was wondering, should I go ahead and get the trading pin collections or should I just wait until we get there. She will be five and my little boy will be 2 so I don't think they will know much about trading pins. I was going to surprise them with it at the end of our trip. On the last day I'm thinking about boxing them up and writing a nice note (of course saying that it's from their favorite character). What do you guys think?

 

[SDisney90]

Hey you guys. We are going in June and I was thinking about surprising my little girl and boy with hints on where we will be going. I was going to get Mouse Ear hat along with autograph books form the park authentic items online. Then I saw the trading pin collections and was wondering, should I go ahead and get the trading pin collections or should I just wait until we get there. She will be five and my little boy will be 2 so I don't think they will know much about trading pins. I was going to surprise them with it at the end of our trip. On the last day I'm thinking about boxing them up and writing a nice note (of course saying that it's from their favorite character). What do you guys think?

Great idea and an awesome way to surprise them. The mouse ear hats with autograph books are the perfect start (glad you're getting the authentic items online I assume from disneystore.com)

Now to my next issue, pins. Personally, I have a cork board half filled with a ton of pins and I love/enjoy collecting them yet never trade them (just not my thing). When purchasing pins always make sure to buy them from www.disneystore.com! I don't care what anyone says about eBay - there are a TON of a fake pins there produced in China in mass quantities. I know this isn't a part of your question but I wanted to throw it out there I'm sure a member will tell you to try eBay. Yes, there are some real pins on there but 90% are definite fake "illegal" pins.

It's a great idea to maybe get them each 1 booster set with the lanyard from disneystore.com just to get them started. This way, before the trip you can explain what they are, what you do with them etc. Then, you can take them to DTD (springs?) to the pin store and trade with a cast member if they'd like.

PS- when you're there try to get a dated pin, I always do when I visit the world..its a good souvenir especially for the kids!

 

[MickeyMomV]

Great idea and an awesome way to surprise them. The mouse ear hats with autograph books are the perfect start (glad you're getting the authentic items online I assume from disneystore.com)

Now to my next issue, pins. Personally, I have a cork board half filled with a ton of pins and I love/enjoy collecting them yet never trade them (just not my thing). When purchasing pins always make sure to buy them from www.disneystore.com! I don't care what anyone says about eBay - there are a TON of a fake pins there produced in China in mass quantities. I know this isn't a part of your question but I wanted to throw it out there I'm sure a member will tell you to try eBay. Yes, there are some real pins on there but 90% are definite fake "illegal" pins.

It's a great idea to maybe get them each 1 booster set with the lanyard from disneystore.com just to get them started. This way, before the trip you can explain what they are, what you do with them etc. Then, you can take them to DTD (springs?) to the pin store and trade with a cast member if they'd like.

PS- when you're there try to get a dated pin, I always do when I visit the world..its a good souvenir especially for the kids!

SDisney is talking about 2 different things here, Pin Trading and Pin Collecting.

When it comes to pin trading we, like the majority of the people out there, go to ebay and grab some for the fun of trading. Are they all real? not sure. I have ones that I bought at the parks and then I have the exact same one that I got from a "pin Lot" on ebay and after looking them over I can't tell the difference. All of the back marks, pin logo, and front coloring are exactly the same. Waiting to get there to buy ones sold at the park for $5-$10 each and then trade them and getting ones that sombody else traded that came from ebay never made sence to me. We have been doing this for the last 4 trips and we usually buy 75-100 for each trip (depends on how many from the last trip we are bringing). All in all we have spent $200-$300 on ebay trading pins. If we would have bought them all at a park we would have easily spend at least $2000 in pins.

Now for pin collecting. I also have a pin board at home that I keep all of the "special pins". These are all ones that I have purchased from events (ie MNSSHP, MVMCP, Run Dis Races, and any other limiteds that I buy). These ones will never be traded.

My suggestion is to grab a lot of 25 from ebay and then let your little ones pick out a lanyard from the hotel.

 

[PinnySmart]

SDisney is talking about 2 different things here, Pin Trading and Pin Collecting.

When it comes to pin trading we, like the majority of the people out there, go to ebay and grab some for the fun of trading. Are they all real? not sure. I have ones that I bought at the parks and then I have the exact same one that I got from a "pin Lot" on ebay and after looking them over I can't tell the difference. All of the back marks, pin logo, and front coloring are exactly the same. Waiting to get there to buy ones sold at the park for $5-$10 each and then trade them and getting ones that sombody else traded that came from ebay never made sence to me. We have been doing this for the last 4 trips and we usually buy 75-100 for each trip (depends on how many from the last trip we are bringing). All in all we have spent $200-$300 on ebay trading pins. If we would have bought them all at a park we would have easily spend at least $2000 in pins.

Now for pin collecting. I also have a pin board at home that I keep all of the "special pins". These are all ones that I have purchased from events (ie MNSSHP, MVMCP, Run Dis Races, and any other limiteds that I buy). These ones will never be traded.

My suggestion is to grab a lot of 25 from ebay and then let your little ones pick out a lanyard from the hotel.

And this is exactly the reason there are so many counterfeit pins out there. Pin trading at WDW and DL has been flooded with counterfeits because of people purchasing lots on eBay made by factories in China and other places. This has diluted the trading experience for those who actual value their pins. Because of this, most pins on cast member lanyards are now counterfeit as well. Castmembers do not have to trade for counterfeit pins but most will not say anything. Please do not advise someone to do something that in fact is really not the correct way to pin trade. Just because the "majority of the people out there" as you say and i quote do it does not make it right.

 

[SDisney90]

And this is exactly the reason there are so many counterfeit pins out there. Pin trading at WDW and DL has been flooded with counterfeits because of people purchasing lots on eBay made by factories in China and other places. This has diluted the trading experience for those who actual value their pins. Because of this, most pins on cast member lanyards are now counterfeit as well. Castmembers do not have to trade for counterfeit pins but most will not say anything. Please do not advise someone to do something that in fact is really not the correct way to pin trade. Just because the "majority of the people out there" as you say and i quote do it does not make it right.

Thank you...as I clearly stated in my post someone would come here recommending eBay. You hit the head on the nail my friend. Thinking about it again now I realized why I never pin traded in the first place, CM's do have fake pins regardless if you can tell or not. There is websites devoted to stopping this and advice on spotting the counterfeits.

As MickyMom said, why trade your pins bought in Disney for a high price and trade them for a fake pin someone else has traded and paid nothing for from these "pin lots". The argument is valid, but I could not justify doing this- two wrongs never make a right. From what I know also, you can ask the CM if the pins they wear on the lanyards were traded by a guest or supposedly they are allowed to remove certain pins from the Disney inventory to trade..

 

[MickeyMomV]

And this is exactly the reason there are so many counterfeit pins out there. Pin trading at WDW and DL has been flooded with counterfeits because of people purchasing lots on eBay made by factories in China and other places. This has diluted the trading experience for those who actual value their pins. Because of this, most pins on cast member lanyards are now counterfeit as well. Castmembers do not have to trade for counterfeit pins but most will not say anything. Please do not advise someone to do something that in fact is really not the correct way to pin trade. Just because the "majority of the people out there" as you say and i quote do it does not make it right.

Let's follow this logic for a minute. Let's say all the pins on ebay are "counterfeits" and produced in China in mass quantity.... News flash, disney pins you buy at the World are produced in China in mass quantity. Same cost to produce. The only difference is the disney ones come attached to a piece of black plastic.

I've read through most of the boards devoted to counterfeit pins and most are getting to point that they say there are no differences. The only way to know for sure is to spend the $$ at disney and keep it forever.

Lets not forget the act of pin trading was created as a fun activity for kids while on vacation.

Say whatever else you want, I'm done.

 

[NormC]

Problem is that the "counterfeits" are made by the same company as the "real" ones. Lets say Disney orders 50,000 of a pin from the manufacturer in China and the manufacturer makes 100,000 and sells the overage on ebay. Same pins but unless you bought them from a rack at the park they are considered fake. Note that this is just an example of what happens.

 

[SDisney90]

Problem is that the "counterfeits" are made by the same company as the "real" ones. Lets say Disney orders 50,000 of a pin from the manufacturer in China and the manufacturer makes 100,000 and sells the overage on ebay. Same pins but unless you bought them from a rack at the park they are considered fake. Note that this is just an example of what happens.

I agree there are two different parts to this point. There are scrappers which Disney contracted a company from China to create a pin, if that pin is not up to the disney pin standard it is "scrapped". These people will then sell them in lots and such. Then you have counterfeits, when a pin is produced the mold is then destroyed. The mold often times are then obtained and used again to make illegal pins. So yes, there are two different situations here neither making them right IMO.

 

[BWK05]

Back to one of the original questions...IMHO I feel that your children(especially the 2 year old) will have no concept of pin trading. On my daughters first trip at age 7 she did like collecting them and has never been into trading and she is now 15. I have used the pins as rewards and souvenirs of our trips, each time they rode a ride I would buy them a pin of that attraction this works really well the the more intense rides such as RNR and TOT. Works as a badge of courage! But watch out our "starter pack" from 2007 has turned into an obsession of several thousand pins!

 

[Livelovedisney]

Back to one of the original questions...IMHO I feel that your children(especially the 2 year old) will have no concept of pin trading. On my daughters first trip at age 7 she did like collecting them and has never been into trading and she is now 15. I have used the pins as rewards and souvenirs of our trips, each time they rode a ride I would buy them a pin of that attraction this works really well the the more intense rides such as RNR and TOT. Works as a badge of courage! But watch out our "starter pack" from 2007 has turned into an obsession of several thousand pins!

You are definitely right about that. My little boy is probably not going to have much interest in it, and I'm mostly doing it for my baby girl. I think what I'll do is but one pin on the counter every morning after she meets each princesses. I'll say it's something from them. I'm debating if I should get my little boy any pins at all since he may not care for them. Maybe I'll get him a really cool looking toy.

 

[NormC]

I agree there are two different parts to this point. There are scrappers which Disney contracted a company from China to create a pin, if that pin is not up to the disney pin standard it is "scrapped". These people will then sell them in lots and such. Then you have counterfeits, when a pin is produced the mold is then destroyed. The mold often times are then obtained and used again to make illegal pins. So yes, there are two different situations here neither making them right IMO.

Unfortunately what collectors call scrappers can just be the overage and most cannot be distinguished from the ones sold by Disney. Same molds, same factory, same pins in most cases. If Disney wants them to be valuable they need to crack down on their manufacturers and oversee the destruction of the molds and excess inventory. Until Disney deems it an issue there will be ebay "trading" pins. I feel that Disney does not see it as an issue because it still sells pins. I have spent hundreds on real carded pins from Disney racks for myself and family. I have also purchased a 50 pin trading lot on ebay to swap with cast, etc. I have also thrown away a few that were clearly damaged or poor quality that I would not trade with anyone.