To Pin Trade or Not to Pin Trade?

[Dannielle]

Just a few short years ago we really enjoyed Pin Trading as a family. When we got home we each create a shadow box of the pins we collected. One trip my husband made a Mickey Silhouette to display the pins. They are all displayed in the kids hang out room in the basement.

Over time though, it seemed to us that you really couldn't get any good or unique pins anymore. So, we switched to buying the ones we really wanted to put in our scrape books.

Our next trip we will be taking my Nephew for his first trip to Disney World. He has asked about Pin Trading and wants to try it. Do you think it is worth it still? Or, should we let him pick out a lanyard and in each park let him pick out 1 or 2 pins to purchase? WWYD?

 

[DisArmyWife215]

We tried pin trading for the first time our last trip. I thought it would be so much fun and my daughter would love it. I was so wrong! She hated wearing the lanyard and felt weird about asking for the pins most times. A few cast members were great and fun to trade with, but most seemed to be annoyed when she was taking her time deciding. By the 2nd day she didn't want to do anymore trading the whole trip. She likes the pins and wants more, so we've just decided if she wants a pin we will buy it to display. I'd maybe buy a starter set and let him feel it out, if he's into it great...if not you have a backup idea with letting him get 1 or 2 per park.

 

[G719]

My kids like pin trading but they mostly look for the big boards of pins to make trades on instead of asking Cms. We just carry some pins in a pouch in our backpack. They use their lanyards for their favorites but don't wear them much.

 

[Klayfish]

We tried pin trading for the first time our last trip. I thought it would be so much fun and my daughter would love it. I was so wrong! She hated wearing the lanyard and felt weird about asking for the pins most times. A few cast members were great and fun to trade with, but most seemed to be annoyed when she was taking her time deciding. By the 2nd day she didn't want to do anymore trading the whole trip. She likes the pins and wants more, so we've just decided if she wants a pin we will buy it to display. I'd maybe buy a starter set and let him feel it out, if he's into it great...if not you have a backup idea with letting him get 1 or 2 per park.

Our experience has actually been just about the opposite. Our kids love pin trading. Yeah, wearing the lanyard can get old, sometimes they take them off. However, we have had nothing but wonderful CMs when it comes to this. In fact, I can't count how many times a CM walked up to our kids and engaged them and asked if they wanted to trade.

 

[lookame]

My kids enjoyed pin trading, I even got in on it our last trip. Some CM could tell I was going to ask and would grab their pins ready to trade. I liked trading on the boards more than with CM since there were more I could look at. I liked seeing what my kids really liked and seeing how the pins changed so much after a day or two. The only times we had issues with CMs is if my kids tried to trade a pin the CM already had (because some of them were adamant about not having duplicates). My son didn’t understand/didn’t like the idea of mystery pins on CM lanyards so he kept trying to turn them around to look. Overall though they really enjoyed it. By the end my daughter collected a slew of pins and if she saw a pin she liked but not more than the ones she had she’d say “I’m ok” and walk away. It was good for her since she can be shy.

 

[wendlle]

I used to love to trade but over the years the CM's have so many scrappers and fake pins that it isn't worth it.
Don't buy those expensive real pins only to trade them for fakes.
We just collect pins now - no trading.

 

[wilbret]

Our kids pin trade, and it acts as a nice diversion. You can certainly do it in the parks, but then you have to lug the pins around.
We prefer to do this at the resort if we are staying on site, and also go to Disney Springs. Every cast member has pins to trade, and if your kids are into it, they can spend hours trying to get a set assembled. And it's free. (unless you buy some pins, but that's up to you.)

 

[wcw57]

I vote no.....who has time? who wants to bother carrying them around? For these, and other reasons, I vote no

 

[Dannielle]

I think the plan is that we will buy my Nephew one lanyard and have him choose 1 or 2 Pins to purchase in each park.
i have a few pins left that never made it to our shadow boxes, so i will bring them along if he wants to trade a few.

 

[rg35]

We only buy pins we like to collect them, none of us have ever had much of an interest in trading.