Pin Trading

[MJCota]

So I decided to save money on the pins, since I know my son will want to trade, was to buy them off ebay. I got my first package yesterday and they are so cute!! I made sure they were authentic and only bought from the US. We get our 2nd package I just bought this week. We will have 65 pins to share between the three of us. My husband already took out ones he doesn't want to trade. I find it funny and adorable how excited he got over the Dumbo pin. It's his favorite Disney movie. Hm..I wonder if he'll ride dumbo alone...

So..anyone else do this too? I ended up paying around .45 cent per pin in the end! Great deal.

 

[Uncle Orville]

So I decided to save money on the pins, since I know my son will want to trade, was to buy them off ebay. I got my first package yesterday and they are so cute!! I made sure they were authentic and only bought from the US. We get our 2nd package I just bought this week. We will have 65 pins to share between the three of us. My husband already took out ones he doesn't want to trade. I find it funny and adorable how excited he got over the Dumbo pin. It's his favorite Disney movie. Hm..I wonder if he'll ride dumbo alone...

So..anyone else do this too? I ended up paying around .45 cent per pin in the end! Great deal.

I do the exact same thing. I always pull out pins I like and then I feel free to trade whenever I want. If I see a pin I kind of like I trade for it because I have nothing to lose. If I don't trade for it I may regret it. If I end up not liking it, then I trade it later on. Its a wonderful system that works well.

 

[SAV]

Yep. I get the kids their pins off of eBay as well. Let them pick their keepers and traders. If there is an argument, I keep the rest. Needless to say, they don't argue about it.

 

[3Caballeros]

So I decided to save money on the pins, since I know my son will want to trade, was to buy them off ebay. I got my first package yesterday and they are so cute!! I made sure they were authentic and only bought from the US. We get our 2nd package I just bought this week. We will have 65 pins to share between the three of us. My husband already took out ones he doesn't want to trade. I find it funny and adorable how excited he got over the Dumbo pin. It's his favorite Disney movie. Hm..I wonder if he'll ride dumbo alone...

So..anyone else do this too? I ended up paying around .45 cent per pin in the end! Great deal.

Definitely yes at this house! Now, you too, will have this fun addiction. At our house, we have 3 cork boards of keepers that decorate the toy room walls.
We prepare for our trip to WDW by getting the bag of pins from eBay. It is fun to see what we got. I leave the decision of what to keep & trade to DH & DD, cause if all 3 of us picked keepers there would be nothing to trade but a few duplicates!

 

[erasure fan1]

yea we have done this a few times. Its by far the best way to do it. No chance we are trading a $12 pin. Its funny when you get a batch and the kids "I love em all! can we keep these and order more?" It can be the hardest part of the trip for them, what pins to keep or trade.

 

[MJCota]

I haven't sat down with my son yet to let him choose but I have a good idea on what he'll want to keep. I got my 2nd package today and has some REALLY cute ones. I had a tinker bell cupcake one that I am going to keep. I love the corkboard idea! I'll have to get one and hang it up to start our collection

 

[JillC LI]

We did this before one of our trips too. I kept my fave and the 2 kids split up the rest, deciding which ones to keep and which to trade. They really enjoyed trading at the Parks and resorts. They were 9 and 11 at the time. Now that they are a little older (12 and 14), they want to focus more on the rides than on pin trading (at least the older one does), but it made for a unique trip experience a few years ago. Make sure to buy a lanyard before you go too.

 

[MJCota]

How do you know which employee's trade or do all of them? I heard not all of them trade.

 

[andy773]

Here is Disney's info on pin trading:

http://disney.go.com/eventservices/whatispintrading.html

If you click on the guidelines link on that page, it will give you pin trading etiquette.

 

[3Caballeros]

How do you know which employee's trade or do all of them? I heard not all of them trade.

You will quickly learn...they are everywhere wearing their lanyard or the side pouch. they are easy to approach and accommodating.
Also, a lot of the shops & resorts have pin boards behind the counter. Our favorite pin boards to see are in the Magic Kingdom Trading Post and the shop across from the Dumbo ride (ask a worker where their pin board is and they pull it out from behind the counter).
You will quickly find yourself looking at their lanyards when walking past the workers...remember, it becomes a fun addiction!
Oh and the pin backs can come off easily. So be careful. We put our keepers in the bag so they don't fall off the lanyard. DH wears his lanyard but DD does not like to wear it. When she trades, we pull her lanyard out of the bag (and i keep a couple of traders in my pocket for quick access). We also take a photo of what we have at home. After a day of trading we go thru and see if we can find any duplicates to go back as traders the next day.

 

[MJCota]

Ok, thank you so much! I figured my son might wear his the first day then not want it on him. He has a sensory disorder and hates certain things touching his skin for a long period of time. I will keep my eyes peeled for the workers

 

[JillC LI]

How do you know which employee's trade or do all of them? I heard not all of them trade.

It's quite easy to spot the CMs that trade. They are wearing lanyards around their necks full of pins. The ones wearing a particular color lanyard (green, I think, but I might be remembering it wrong) only trade with kids.

 

[erasure fan1]

Also, a lot of the shops & resorts have pin boards behind the counter.

This is something missed by a lot of people. Just because no cast members have a lanyard, doesn't mean they don't have pins to trade. Also even if all the cast members have lanyards, it doesn't mean that is all the pins they have to trade.

Oh and the pin backs can come off easily. So be careful. We put our keepers in the bag so they don't fall off the lanyard. DH wears his lanyard but DD does not like to wear it.

Yea they do. We use the metal pin backers that you need the little wrench to put on and take off for all the purchased or really nice pins. It would really stink looking at your kids lanyard and noticing the $15 pin they just bought is missing. I'm surprised you don't find pins all over the place. Lol

 

[Phonedave]

So I decided to save money on the pins, since I know my son will want to trade, was to buy them off ebay. I got my first package yesterday and they are so cute!! I made sure they were authentic and only bought from the US. We get our 2nd package I just bought this week. We will have 65 pins to share between the three of us. My husband already took out ones he doesn't want to trade. I find it funny and adorable how excited he got over the Dumbo pin. It's his favorite Disney movie. Hm..I wonder if he'll ride dumbo alone...

So..anyone else do this too? I ended up paying around .45 cent per pin in the end! Great deal.

If you are getting pins from ebay for 45 cents each, I would bet money they are not authentic - even if the seller was in the US. It doesn't ruin your enjoyment, but just be aware they are not 'real'. They may be unauthorized runs by an authorized factory, and therefore identical to real pins, but still, they are not aurhorized runs.

 

[JillC LI]

This is something missed by a lot of people. Just because no cast members have a lanyard, doesn't mean they don't have pins to trade. Also even if all the cast members have lanyards, it doesn't mean that is all the pins they have to trade.

Yes, I remember now that we were walking through the Poly, and DS asked a CM working at a kiosk if he could trade a pin with her. She whipped out 2 big books of additional pins and asked if there was something in particular he was looking for!

 

[Betsyboo]

I traded for the first time last week. Lots of fun. A friend gave me a bunch of pins to take to see how I liked trading. I can see this would be great for kids, especially in Epcot World Showcase where there isn't as much little kid stuff to do. All the CMs were super nice about the pins and many told me which ones I should or shouldn't trade. AK was a good place too. Especially the CMs stationed on the forest walk as I doubt they are approached as often.

 

[3Caballeros]

Yes, I remember now that we were walking through the Poly, and DS asked a CM working at a kiosk if he could trade a pin with her. She whipped out 2 big books of additional pins and asked if there was something in particular he was looking for!

These are little magical moments that brings smiles to everyone's face!

 

[MJCota]

If you are getting pins from ebay for 45 cents each, I would bet money they are not authentic - even if the seller was in the US. It doesn't ruin your enjoyment, but just be aware they are not 'real'. They may be unauthorized runs by an authorized factory, and therefore identical to real pins, but still, they are not aurhorized runs.

They all have the Disney World authenticity on the back. I sure hope they are real, is there a way to tell?

 

[NormC]

They were probably made by the same company that made the original order for Disney but never passed through Disney's hands. They are "over runs" You will not have any trouble trading them and in most cases you will never know the difference. Lets say that Disney orders 10,000 of a certain pin and the manufacturer makes 15,000 to cover the order and any QC failures. The rest end up on ebay.

 

[MJCota]

Thank you NormC! I was nervous that they wouldn't be tradable