Pin Trading 101

[tiffjoy]

My girls pin trade purely for fun, and I pay little to no attention to if they got a "good" pin or not. I view it as something for them to enjoy, not an investment. We did get a start lot of 20 on ebay before I knew about the possibility of fakes, but the pins were mostly cute and the girls like them, so... I don't know. Most seemed fine. I will not buy from ebay again now that I know that, but I wasn't going to throw away all the pins because most were cute.

We do buy pins at DLR as well because they are nice souvenirs. On our last trip, my DD5 got a little bag that she can wear as a purse to hold her pins- it's a little booklet when you open it up. DD8 wasn't with me when I bought it for her sister, and now she wants one too. The pins do tend to fall off lanyards and get heavy and not fun to wear for littles.

We trade primarily with CMs because my DDs don't want to approach strange guests. Last time we visited, DD5 and I were at the pin store in Frontierland on a Friday night, and the professional traders mentioned up thread were all there in full force. It was fun to see all their pins. While DD was shopping for her pin, a nice younger woman approached her and asked if she wanted to trade. My DD was super shy, but said yes, and looked through the lady's pins. She saw a cute Mulan one and offered the lady a pin for it that wasn't very nice (might have been a scrapper for all I know- I don't claim to be an expert, and since we trade a lot with CMs, and I don't stop the girls if they see a pin they like, I'm sure we have some). I started to stop my DD and get to to offer a "nice pin" but the lady said that was ok and traded with her. Not sure if the Mulan is fake or not either, but it's cute and the lady was super sweet and my DD couldn't possibly care less. I wouldn't intentionally trade a fake, but I assume the lady knew what she was doing, and at the end of the day, I view the pins as something to be enjoyed, not counted for value. That's my take on the pin trading.

 

[BriannaRuth]

When we were there last week, they were out of the locking pin backs resort-wide and had been for some time. They said they didn't know when they'd be getting more in. So if you need any, don't wait to get to the parks!

We keep all our pins on our lanyards, with the ones we don't want to trade on locking backs. The ones we're open to trading, we keep with regular backs so they're easier to get on and off. I was finally to the point this year that my lanyard was too heavy, so I only took about half my pins to the parks on this trip.

The pins that are usually available to trade with CMs or on the boards at the stores usually aren't as nice as the ones we buy at the parks. They're usually the rather plain flat ones. We used to trade alot more than we do now, but I just haven't seen a lot I really like at the parks recently other than the ones that are for sale. I buy one a year.

DD17 did trade for a cool Captain Hook pin this year, though ... just the hook! I'd never seen it before and she got it from a CM in Adventureland who actively approached us and offered to trade, which doesn't happen often.

 

[gillep]

I also recommend locking backs for the pins, you can purchase them off Amazon in advance so that you don't have to hunt them down. I love pin trading and usually try to have about 3-4 traders on hand for a day in the parks, the only downside to trading for me is just how heavy the pins can get!

 

[djk]

Buying online on eBay or Amazon certainly has its cost savings. If someone were to go that route, does anyone have a particular seller they recommend - one that has delivered a fair number of cute, quality and/or real Disney pins?

 

[Maleficent Goon]

They had locking backs in stock yesterday at the pin store in Frontierland. They are in small bags of 10 at each cash register.

 

[SMD]

Buying online on eBay or Amazon certainly has its cost savings. If someone were to go that route, does anyone have a particular seller they recommend - one that has delivered a fair number of cute, quality and/or real Disney pins?

I wouldn't recommend knowingly trading fake pins because they're cute or quality. That's an incredibly crappy thing to do to other guests who made the effort to get real pins.

 

[twodogs]

My girls love pin trading! We don't buy the Lots on eBay because I think a lot are scrapers. I do buy the sealed mystery pin bags like this on eBay. I only buy the series they collect, and we trade any duplicates. These come out to about $3-4/pin but they are a mystery, so you risk getting doubles or not getting one you wanted. Still less than the cheapest individual pin at DLR at about $8.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Disney-Trading-Pins-119600-Disney-Racers-Mystery-Pin-Pack-/272796303504

 

[djk]

I wouldn't recommend knowingly trading fake pins because they're cute or quality. That's an incredibly crappy thing to do to other guests who made the effort to get real pins.

Agreed. My thought was my kids could keep the ones that are "cute" and trade the authentic pins that would *hopefully* be included in a lot from a recommended online seller... thus the request for a recommendation as it does sound like some people have had success purchasing real pins online. For the record, we wouldn't *knowingly* trade "fake" pins.

 

[corrie563]

We had bought a few pins at Disney Aulani, and thought we would try out trading on our visit... I also bought a bundle from a recommended seller on amazon, all of the pins looked the same as they did on that site that has every pin ever made... So we took them along and did some trading, it was fun, no idea whether we traded for authentic or non authentic pins, it didn't really worry us...

At Walgreens (near hyatt house) we got quite a few legit (I assume) pins for $3-$5 a piece, so grabbed some extras and traded those too...

 

[SMD]

Agreed. My thought was my kids could keep the ones that are "cute" and trade the authentic pins that would *hopefully* be included in a lot from a recommended online seller... thus the request for a recommendation as it does sound like some people have had success purchasing real pins online. For the record, we wouldn't *knowingly* trade "fake" pins.

It seemed like "and/or" real pins implied that you didn't care as long as they were cheap.

 

[figment_jii]

I would look for lots or individual offerings/lists that are selling booster sets still in their original packaging (cardboard backing, cellophane wrapped or still in the sealed mystery pack). Those are probably your best bet for getting real pins at a somewhat moderate price. Any time you buy a lot of loose pins, there is a chance (the cheaper the price, the higher the probability) of getting fake/scrapper pins.

 

[mfleeting]

My kids wanted to start pin trading a few years ago and my husband also was interested in it. We bought 1 starter pack and everybody bought a pin they liked. Every time we go to Disney (or sometimes the Disney store) we always just buy a pack of pins that we use for trading. We don't really care if they are technically "real" or not and truthfully we never even heard of their being fake ones. However, our goal is just to have ones that we like to display for ourselves. The ones we are trading out we know are real as we buy them directly from Disney. But if we found a "scrapper" or "fake" one that we really liked then it wouldn't bother us at all. The kids display theirs mostly in their room and the pins we wear at Disney are normally for trading. Sometimes the kids will put a certain one they like on their personal lanyard before we go but not for trading. My son always wears Donald Duck at the park and is always looking for more Donald pins to keep.

We also only trade so far with CMs or in the stores. It feels weird asking a guest if they want to trade, as we don't know if they are wanting to keep theirs or not, so the kids know just to ask Disney Staff only.

 

[here757]

I buy the bulk pins on eBay. I would say 10 percent are scrapers. I toss those in recycling right away. I started with 15 for trading.

I try to only trade with cast members, so i figure the chance of getting scrapers is always there. I am more of a collect all the forms of transportation or all the cat pins rather than a value trader. I have had professionals go for pins on my pin pad so some from eBay must be genuine. One lady even wanted to go three of her pins for one of my eBay pins. Guess I had something she really wanted.

I generally keep a couple of real Disney pins, bought at Disney parks, in my pocket. If a guest asks to trade, I offer to put those on my lanyard and tell them I know those are genuine. Kids do not seem to care but I love the smiles from the parents when a person is honest with their kids.

Since I now ride an ECV, I am at eye level with the kids. I have had more ask to trade with me in DL than ever before.

Have a good time trading.

Only 10%?
lol it's much much higher