Pin Trading still popular?

[kellbot]

I just got back from a trip to WDW, wanted to share my experience trading pins. I just got into it. I had some random hand-me-down pins which I think are legit, they're at least not on an of the scrapper lists I could find and don't have obvious quality issues.

There are boards all over, but you see the same stuff over and over and over again. I now realize those are mostly knockoff / scrapper pins. It felt like 90% of the pins were the same 100 or so designs from 10+ years ago. I had the best luck finding interesting pins at EPCOT World Showcase early in the day, as well as at some of the resort gift shops.

I noticed there were a lot of the round "EPCOT symbols" pins so I started trying to collect all of those. Once I noticed the quality difference between a few of them I realized at least a couple of them are scrappers. It's a bummer that people who don't know better are trading legit pins for knockoffs. I'll probably still try to collect that set, but I'll definitely look more closely before trading next time.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Just curious-how did you know where the pin boards were? Or did you just see them in stores?

 

[kellbot]

Just curious-how did you know where the pin boards were? Or did you just see them in stores?

Yeah I just saw them all over. Some of them were behind the counter in a few stores (like in the resort hotel gift shops), mostly I just kept my eyes peeled for them.

 

[AustinTink]

We’ve been home a couple of weeks now and I forgot to report back on the pin trading. We actually found a lot more pin boards than we anticipated!

We left home with just our lanyards and our favorites on them. I thought we had a bag of traders but we all agreed we wanted to keep them. So we arrived at Disney without pins to trade.

Once we arrived and saw pin boards everywhere we were bummed we had no traders. We ended up buying some certified pins (Sold directly from Disney) on Amazon and had them shipped next day to the hotel. They happened to be on sale half-off from the normal Disney price for a 6-pack. We bought 4 packs and ended up trading them all. I saw a trader snatch one of the pins up the second we walked away from the board, so they must have been popular to someone.

We saw pin boards in just about every gift shop in the parks. The Yacht and Beach club where we stayed had 6 boards total throughout the complex. It was fun to check those at the beginning and end of each day. We got to know the folks manning the boards pretty well. Lol.

We had one guy (non-employee) ask my husband if he would trade him for one of the pins on his lanyard. It was one of his prized monorail pins so he politely declined. That was the only trader we came across in the parks.

It’s a bummer that the cm’s don’t wear lanyards or the hip pads they used to wear with pins. We always noticed the manager types walking with purpose throughout the parks always had the best pins. We would send our kid after them… “go get those pins!”

Anyway, it was fun trading from the pin boards. We didn’t find anything great but it’s always fun to spot the boards and have a look. As for me, I’m still looking for that last jewel in my princess jewel set. Maybe next time.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

On my last two trips I’ve taken some nice pins we’ve accumulated over the years from DVC events, ride openings, special occasions etc (we don’t collect or do anything with them) to pixie dust people we see with pin lanyards (not trading, just gifting) because I feel they could get some use and enjoyment out of them. And we never came across a single person with a pin lanyard over the course of 2 two week trips. I’ll keep taking them with us in the hopes of seeing someone who would enjoy them. They’re unique pins that id love to give away but can’t find anyone to give them to!

 

[pindecisive]

On my last two trips I’ve taken some nice pins we’ve accumulated over the years from DVC events, ride openings, special occasions etc (we don’t collect or do anything with them) to pixie dust people we see with pin lanyards (not trading, just gifting) because I feel they could get some use and enjoyment out of them. And we never came across a single person with a pin lanyard over the course of 2 two week trips. I’ll keep taking them with us in the hopes of seeing someone who would enjoy them. They’re unique pins that id love to give away but can’t find anyone to give them to!

I don't wear my lanyard any longer. I don't love the new silky fabric they use and there doesn't seem to be a point now that CMs don't wear them.

 

[fbarker]

Pin trading is not as popular as it was years ago, but the boards are still up and CMs will be happy to trade. The main issue is that 99% of the pins on the boards are scrapper (bootleg) pins.

Mmmmm 99% is that you being sarcastic or a statement of fact? I find 99% to be quite high.