Thinking about Pin Trading

Here is all the info on pin trading... its pretty easy

http://eventservices.disney.go.com/pintrading/page?id=getStarted

As for knock offs... yes. It does happen, but you can also get REAL ones. I try to deal with sellers from either Cali or Florida and I check their feedback. Most of them are honest and if you find a dud... they will ship you new ones.

We tried pin trading in May for the first time. Hadn't got a clue. We ended up not trading because we liked the pins we had too much so next year going to buy a book and read up on it. We met one guy who explained about collecting sets and he knew so much more than the CM we were talking to about her pins!!

Both Sally and Spook...

Yeah. That site has everything you need to know to get started. Also will show you past pins and future pins as well. There are better sites out there for it though. My wife Jess has a site that she keeps up with. She usually tells me the hidden mickeys for the year and I'm good to go. Lol

You can also collect pins without worrying about pin trading. When pin trading first started I would trade. These days I have a couple of ones that I will take to trade, but I just keep them in my pocket in case a Cast member has something that I really really want. When I buy a pin now, it's because it's something that I really want to have and I'm keeping it in my collection.

Same with me, all of my many pins mean something to me and is always associated with my trips in some way, like MVMCP pins or MNSSHP pins or rest. or lodging or rides that we have been on. I do have a few duplicates and those are the ones I bring to trade with CMs but they are always way better than the common cheapies that they have to trade so I wind up bringing those and the newly purchased pins back home.

Hidden Mickeys are usually sets that you can only get by trading with Cast Members...

Last year I collected the shirts that you see with the blue background top left...

Usually if you go to the Pin Store at Downtown Disney you can see all the different Hidden Mickeys that are available. What makes them a hidden mickey is the mickey symbol on the pin somewhere. Thats what makes the pin trading fun... to get these pins and try to complete the set. Mu daughter did a princess one that was a circle with one of the princesses in the middle. Jess completed one. But having a goal like that makes the pin trading awesome.

Pin trading is so much fun....And there is nothing wrong with collecting either....We have tons that we have collected and any of the pricey ones that we buy we keep....but it's also fun to trade with the CM while we are down there and like Mase said we usually try to complete some of the hidden mickey sets or get ones from the cast members that we like

This is the perfect thread for me right now: I am thinking about Pin Trading

As of this moment, I own exactly 0 pins Which probably seems crazy to the avid pin collectors. I never even looked at pins until the last year! Pin trading didn't sound like anything I would be interested in, and I didn't know what I would really do with a bunch of pins, so I never bothered looking. Since I've starting looking at pins recently, there are SO MANY I want!

I've read the rules about how to "technically" pin trade. I am more interested in your own experiences of pin trading. For example, Do I just walk up to any CM and say "can I trade for that pin?" Do I have to have my pins on a lanyard? Do the pins I trade have to be comparable to the pin I trade for(i.e., can I trade a little, older pin for a bigger, much newer pin.) And anything else you'd like to share about how you personally pin trade. I think I'd like to try it but it still seems like a strange concept to me. Any insight would be interesting and helpful!

Yes. If the CM isn't busy doing his/her primary job, then yes, you may ask to look at his/her pins (if he/she is wearing his/her pins on lanyards or those hip thingy) and then trade for it.

No.

With CM, they will accept ANY valid Disney pins as long as it is not something they already have on their lanyard. With other pin traders, that's a different matter.

Pick a theme that you want to collect. Narrow it down as much as you can, such as you'll only collect Chip N' Dale-with-food pins, or barefoot Mickey, and then stick to it! Otherwise, if your theme is too broad, or you don't have one, you will get sucked in into buying everything that you like, and you'll realize that you've spent way more than you want to. You can make exceptions such as buying special event pins, etc., but stick to your theme as much as you can.

If you wish to get into pin trading with other pin traders, then that's a whole different college level course!

Zz.

oh Zz how right you are about being sucked in to buying stuff you like and spending a fortune. I have no theme and buy what I like, I haven't really traded as I like all my pins so hard to let go. Really good advice

True story. I started out trading for pins that were "pretty". Then I started collecting World showcase pins, then Stitch, then Alice in Wonderland, then Star Wars, then Chip & Dale, then Princesses...1600 pins later...see where I'm going?

Thanks for the advice. I just bought my first lot of 25 Disney pins off of ebay tonight(from a top rated seller, and they are definitely official Disney) If I like pin trading, it can become a fun new hobby, but if I don't, I'm not out very much money at all for these 25 pins.

The pins that I want above all others are The Nightmare before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland. I'll trade for any others that I really like, but those are the ones I will hunt for