So...YOU like Pins?

[WDWScottieBoy]

The ENTIRE Disney Store set? How much did this cost you?!

I did it the one year Grizz and it was 100 pins. So you figure it was either $6.50 to $8.00 per pin. I think after taxes and everything I payed over $700 for my set of 92 or something (still missing a couple).

 

[General Grizz]

I did it the one year Grizz and it was 100 pins. So you figure it was either $6.50 to $8.00 per pin. I think after taxes and everything I payed over $700 for my set of 92 or something (still missing a couple).

[SIZE=100,000,000,000][/SIZE]

Not trying to downplay your passion, but that sure is a LOT!! (Could buy me a couple of AP's )

We have a member here who was in Disney Magazine for having so many pins. . . curious to know how many she has now!

 

[nicholas]

I personally just don't get it. I guess it's like baseball cards for Disney fans, but I never understood baseball cards either. They just seem really expensive to me, and I don't understand trading them, as that doesn't help you gain pins. You just end up with the same number after the trade. And why would you buy a pin you were just going to give to someone else anyway? I dunno. I think I'm in the minority as it seems pins have invaded WDW. But at the same time, I've yet to witness any guests or CMs making a swap. Maybe I just didn't notice because it wasn't something I was looking for.

And now to comletely contradict myself, a friend did give me the cast exclusive pin this past V-day featuring Wendy trying to kiss Peter Pan while Tink pulls her by her hair. And that did get me to thinking..."hmm, it would be nice to have a pin for each ride I've been on."

I'm just a big ole hypocrite.

 

[Tramp]

The ENTIRE Disney Store set? How much did this cost you?!

The Disney Store pins were less expensive than the pins at the park. I think they were $3 or $4 each. Occasionally, there would be a special pin for $5. At the time, the park rack pins were $6 each and limited edition pins were $8.

Absolutely crazy, man, crazy! :hammer:

 

[Steamboat_Kevin]

I like collecting pins from attractions I like or with characters I like I'd never spend more than $20 on a pin, though.

 

[mrtoad]

I can't see myself dropping that much cash on them (if I had that much cash) but do not fault anyone else for it. I use to collect Disney watches. I have about 16 or 17 and some were $200 to $300 but most in the $100 range. I wear only two now and they are not worth anything. I look on eBay and they do not really sell so I just keep them in case someday they will.

 

[mrtoad]

I'm just a big ole hypocrite.

But isn't everyone? :lol:

 

[Tramp]

I personally just don't get it. I guess it's like baseball cards for Disney fans, but I never understood baseball cards either. They just seem really expensive to me, and I don't understand trading them, as that doesn't help you gain pins. You just end up with the same number after the trade. And why would you buy a pin you were just going to give to someone else anyway? I dunno. I think I'm in the minority as it seems pins have invaded WDW. But at the same time, I've yet to witness any guests or CMs making a swap. Maybe I just didn't notice because it wasn't something I was looking for.

The idea of trading isn't to get MORE pins, it's to get DIFFERENT pins. Someone may have a pin you don't have and you trade him one he doesn't have for it.
Here's the problem. If you're an out-of-stater, collecting pins limited you to ebay or some other third party source. Limited edition pins were suppose to be sold TWo maximum yet one person would be selling 20 on ebay. Cast Members were starting their own side business to supplement their wages and were making a killing. This was suppose to be against the rules but who knows who on ebay. If you lived out of state, you could never get pins at retail, you were forced into third party sources and they doubled the cost. It wasn't fun at all!
This past July 4th, a limited edition Tinkerbell was to be released at the MK. We were there at 8:30am and 2000 pins were sold out. A quick check of ebay showed many people selling 10 or more of the same pin.
I wrote to Disney several times with suggestions on how to give people from out of state the opportunity to buy new releases and never heard back from them.
If I never saw another friggin' pin in my life, it would be too soon. :zipit:

 

[Woody13]

It all started on our April, 2000 trip when a friend of my daughter's asked us to pick her up a pin during our trip. We had no interest in pins. Well, we got the girl the pin and we spent hundreds of dollars and got hooked. The idea of trading pins seemed like a good one but we soon learned that the sharks had no interest trading with the average person except to land an unsuspecting novice willing to unknowingly trade a rare pin. CMs rarely had limited edition pins so approaching them was fun only to the extent of striking up a conversation with them.

The interest, thank God, has waned over the last year and we spent less than $100 this year, mostly on July 4th pins and a couple of limited editions. That's the way it should be.

I curse the pins.

Pretty much the same story here! However, I have another PIN story. We had previously booked a stay at WDW starting 09/13/2001 and we followed through and made the trip. My daughter had three Mickey Mouse American Flag Pins (similar to your avatar Tramp) and those pins were in short supply at WDW. As a result, she was able to trade for some "rare" pins. However, don't ask me what they were, because I don't know anything about pin trading or values, etc!

 

[rainfully]

A couple of years ago I spent what I thought was way too much money on pins (I bought like 7... LoL) and I wore the lanyard around the parks and was constantly looking at the carts. The ones I bought symbolized something special for me (a favorite character or attraction). I don't understand the whole trading thing, though...

This year, I left my lanyard at home and I didn't even look at one pin! I was too scared I'd get wrapped up again... I just can't really justify spending that much on pins... there's so much else to buy, and other Disney vacations to save up for!!

 

[DisneySaint]

I have a lanyard and a half worth of pins - so I can only wear 1 landyard's worth at a time. I have only attractions I like and extinct attraction pins. My pin favorites are: World of Motion, Horizons, Mr. Toad, Star Tours, Rocket Rods, and Fastpass.

 

[Tramp]

I like collecting pins from attractions I like or with characters I like I'd never spend more than $20 on a pin, though.

I bought this very beautiful pin set of Cinderella's coach and her horses for my daughter...all were three dimensional with the horses separate from the coach. Well, I happened to get TWO of these with the intention of giving a set to my cousin for Christmas. They were $30 each but if you saw it, you might say it was worth it.

Anyhow, my cousin had no interest in pins and I wound up selling the extra set for $140 on ebay at Christmas time to a woman in Tokyo.

btw...The Japanese are even CRAZIER than us about pins. I have a picture of two Japanese girls who travelled to WDW for the sole purpose of attending a pin convention in 2001. And there were plenty of others who did the same thing. Lunacy! :hammer:

 

[WDWScottieBoy]

[SIZE=100,000,000,000][/SIZE]

Not trying to downplay your passion, but that sure is a LOT!! (Could buy me a couple of AP's )

You think that's bad?!? As I stated earlier, I have about 250-300 pins if not more (not sure, haven't counted lately). The ones I got at TDS that cost about $700 total was only 1/3 or so if that of my collection, and they are my cheapest ones. The rest of my pins, which would be the last 200 or so cost anywhere between $10-$30+. I spent at least two years searching for signed and LE and retired pins which had gone up in price and have gone up even more now. So all together, my collection probably cost me around $5000 or so. Now considering I've been wanting to become a DVC member, buy and AP every year and everything else, of course I haven't been able to for a while (just never got around to it) and am looking forward to all that next year. I guess I'm more into pins (at least I was, not so much anymore) than I though. When people say they like them and collect them they have maybe 20-30 or so, not in the hundreds. I'm starting to scare myself now. :lol:

 

[AEfx]

I collect attraction pins, concentrating on MGM mostly (I'll buy any pin with the MGM logo). I also collect some villians, notably any pin that has the Witch from Snow White - one of my most vivid memories of my first WDW trip was having the crap scared out of me at 7 years old by the witch, and she holds special meaning for me.

AEfx

 

[MKCustodial]

I'm one of those who don't get the hype. Really, some pins are cool and all, but never really BOUGHT any and I sure wouldn't get out of my way for one.

 

[surfsupdon]

I voted that I hate the pin process. If it were slightly modified, I might have enjoyed it.

Not that I am an "el cheapo" but the pins seem to be expensive! If pins were anywhere from 2-5 bucks, it would be real nice. Then have some collector special edition pins for more moola. I feel that the pins are an unneccessary way that Disney takes advantage of its Guests in charging high prices. I feel the majority of their merchandise is reasonably priced--great quality--yet the pins always seemed through the roof. And I always feel bad when I see families shining in a tremendous amount of pins b/c they spent so much money, lol.

Oh well, people buy, Disney is smart.

 

[waltdisny]

I have a growing collection. I personally like to collect attraction pins, Figment and attraction pins. I don't trade much with other guests, but I enjoy trading with cast-members, if they have something unusual.

The rest of my tribe also collects, but they're far more rabbid about it than I am. The neat thing is that each one collects different types depending on what they like.

We display them in shadow boxes on our wall at home, it makes a nice focal point.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

You do have a point surfsupdon:

surfsupdon: Not that I am an "el cheapo" but the pins seem to be expensive! If pins were anywhere from 2-5 bucks, it would be real nice. Then have some collector special edition pins for more moola.

While they do have some price "tiers", yea, $10 for a small piece of metal can be a bit expensive.

Let me offer you another way to look at it (attempts at justification by an addict so beware :animwink: ) Many of these, particularly the ones I am drawn to can be looked at as pieces of art...and they are a heck of a lot cheaper than buying a sericell. Also they can be looked at as photo's or any other memento. When I do look through my book(s ) I could tell you what meaning each has, from nostalgic (past attractions) to favorites (current attractions or events), historic (opening days, anniversaries), favorite spots or specific visit related. Kind of like a photo album.

So anyway...they serve for many (me included) as a permanent reminder or scrapbook rather than a source of trading or making money.

But speaking of making money, I marvel at those who live near the parks who make it their life's work (or maybe significant income supplement) who are there for every limited release and special event then turn them around immediately on Ebay.

 

[webmomom]

My DH first started with the pins and then I took over. I became totally envoled with them. I just kept buying and then one day at a park I stopped at realized that most of my time at the parks were being taken up with PINS. So now I just buy what I like. I have a large selection of pins, but they are for our pleasure. I use them to decorate my Mickey Room. One of the other things that turned me off was watcjomg some of the "Professional Pin Traders" being very mean to small children that wanted to trade. One actually told a child he had nothing worth him trading for. I was so mad, I went to the little boy and told him to pick one from my lanyard no restrictions.

i will tell you I have had fun with the pin trading. I have meet and had some very interesting conversations with people. i really think is is a neat idea, but of course some people have to push it to the edge and become consumed with it. that is their choice.

 

[Pippa]

I have bought a few in the past but I'm selling some on ebay at the moment because although it seems like a good idea on holiday to buy them, i don't wear them and they only sit in a drawer.