There have been a few posts on this blog about Pin Trading - a fun souvenir and way for visitors and Cast Members to interact at Disney. We didn't start pin trading until June 2010, over a decade since pin trading was introduced at Walt Disney World.
Our go-to plan has been to buy a set - 5 or 6 pins of a similar theme together for around $25 - for each trip. We have both enjoyed trading and them taking them home as a souvenir. Our first trip's pins are in a shadow box, but I still haven't figured out the best way to store them. Suggestions welcome!
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| Adam wearing his lanyard for the first time - June 2010 |
Anyways, sometimes we'll find a goal pin to search for - my trip, I searched for Thumper. Turned out to be fruitless, so Adam bought me a stuffed Thumper instead :) Another trip, we let Noah pick his favorite and I looked for a great Mickey Mouse pin for him. That trip, a cast member gave us a Mickey pin for Noah trade free!
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| I pin traded with my medal lanyard last January! |
For this trip, we're trying something different. After hearing this trip several times, I looked on ebay and found a deal that seemed too good to be true. Someone else mentioned they had received fakes which worried me, but I paid about $25-30 for maybe 40 pins (numbers escape me!) and they all look great!
Some of them may have to stay in my final collection! They all have the collection number and counts on the back, several of them are obviously from different sets. And now, we can both have 10 pins to trade freely, no attachments!
Are you a pin trader? I'd love to know your style of trading or collecting!
I agree with your tip for buying on Ebay. Once I did that the trading became so much freer and everyone in the family became very engaged. My husband always looks for Buzz Lightyear or Monorail pins. I like princesses. My oldest likes Goofy, and my youngest looks for Tinkerbell. Very fun!
ReplyDeleteI am a total pin trader and every trip I buy a lot from ebay and use them to trade. In all the lots I've bought (probably 5 or 6) I have only received one pin that was a fake.
ReplyDeleteI store my pins on a corkboard. I like being able to see them all together.
I bought my first pin in 1999, not know then that they were the first of what would now be Pin Trading. That May there were only the Mickey head shaped pins of the countries around Epcot. I bought the Canada pin and still have it! I wear in on Canada day . . .
ReplyDeleteIf you are shopping at Disney and they have the offer to buy a blanket when you purchase $X amount in souvenirs, I did that one year. Came home and sewed a sleeve across the top, got a curtain rod and hung it on the wall. It is now my Pin blanket. If I want to admire all my pins, it is easy to do. If I want to wear a pin - which I do all the time, also easy to do. And it makes a great conversation piece.
For someone living in 700 sq ft, I don't buy a lot of big souvenirs. Pins are a great way to collect Disney, without taking up lots of space.
I usually buy a mystery box as my first purchase when I go on a trip. Those are the start of my pin trading while on vacation.
My son just started his collection in October and we fell in love with it! We purchased pins from ebay too and got our collection going. So much fun!!! Cannot wait to add more. Great post!
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