Disney Pin Trading Archives - Living a Disney LifeLiving a Disney Life

If you’ve not tried Disney pin trading – It’s a great big bunch of fun! Disney pins make great (and affordable) souvenirs that don’t take up much room in your suitcase. Once you get the hang of trading, pins take on a whole new meaning – they’re not just souvenirs anymore! They become a vacation activity that allows you to meet new people, treasure hunt, and discover new and exciting things about Disney through the enormous variety of pins available.

Once upon a time The Fam and I were new to pin trading and at first we were a little intimidated – especially at our first pin trading event – there are some very serious pin collectors out there! If you’d like to give Disney pin trading a whirl, here are my top five tips on getting started:

It doesn’t have to be expensive. You’ll need some starter pins for trading, but you don’t have to buy them at a Disney store. There are several sellers on eBay and Amazon that offer pins in lots of 25, 50 and even 100 for very reasonable prices. As with any online purchase, you’ll want to buy from well-rated, reputable sellers. Pin purists may argue that you might end up with counterfeit, bootlegged, or “scrapper” pins, but there are plenty of authentic pins for sale on eBay and Amazon. I have also found the Disney pin guides on eBay to be very helpful. A great article here offers other tips for saving money on pins.

Lanyards are optional. A lanyard allows you to proudly show off some of your favorite pins and display pins you’re interested in trading. For little ones, it’s great to purchase a pin trading starter set – a lanyard and pins sold together. Wearing a lanyard is very convenient, but not absolutely necessary to pin trading enjoyment. Joseph’s a good example of someone who trades pins from time to time, but does not wear a lanyard. He just carries a few pins in his pocket so when he sees a pin he really wants, he’s ready for trading action.

Cast Members have some of the best pins for trading! If they are wearing a lanyard, it will have pins displayed that are all available for trading. You may need to be a bit patient if the Cast Member is performing some important job – there may be a wait for a moment when the pin exchange can occur, but it’s worth it. Cast Members often have unusual pins from other locations (like Disneyland Paris) that can add new variety to your pin collection. As long as you have an official Disney pin to trade that is not already on their lanyard, the deal is good! Disney World Cast Members wearing green lanyards only trade with children (age 12 and under) – take advantage of this if you have little ones!

Find and try out a pin trading event. Even if you don’t want to trade any pins, it’s pretty cool to see the collections of pins people bring to these meet-ups for pin trading superfans. You can find event locations, dates, and times at the Disney Parks Merchandise website.

Trading is not just in the parks! Pins available for trading can be found at Disney resorts – check with the resort’s main giftshop for information. Disney Cruise ships are also a fun place for pin trading and collecting – Cast Members have pins for trading, onboard pin events are scheduled, and the giftshops have pins to buy and for trading (ask at the counter). Finally, you can ask your resort bus driver if he has any pins to trade – you might be surprised at the great stashes of pins some of the drivers keep!

Resources:

Here are some great Disney Pin Trading articles and tips from others you may find helpful:

Guidelines for pin trading straight from the folks at Disney Parks Merchandise.

Disney Insider has these Perfect Pointers for pin trading.

Disney Pins Blog – everything Disney Pins in one place!

Pin Trading Basics from Laughing Place

Pin Trading Tips from Disney Tourist Blog

Pin Trading Tips for Children at WDW Hints

A page from our pin collection

Oh, Boy, can Disney devise devious ways to separate you from your money! One of their most successful efforts has got to be Disney pin trading. How can you not get swept away? Even if you don’t actively trade them, those pin kiosks are everywhere and the pins make great souvenirs. Princess pins, Disney Pixar character pins, park pins, vinylmation pins, Muppet pins, ear hat pins, pins to commemorate holidays and special occasions, pins for every year, pins for everybody!

We started pin trading when we took Megan and Joe on their second visit to Disney World. We bought lanyards, lanyard “charms”, and starter pin sets. At first it was hard to part with freshly purchased pins, but once we got rolling…we were like sharks in a feeding frenzy. We traded like crazy with Cast Members, bus drivers, other guests – at the parks, on boats, trains and buses, at the hotel front desk, at pin trading events and then we even traded pins on Disney cruise ships. This may be hard to believe, but we are not hard-core collectors who try to find rare or valuable pins or complete sets (with one exception). I think if we took it to that level, it wouldn’t be as much fun for us. We trade for pins we like or that have special meaning to us in particular. On a couple of trips we didn’t do any pin trading at all (but still bought a few to add to our collection). Last year our pin-trading love was rekindled simply by taking along a couple of friends who were just getting their Disney pin collections started.

Meg and Ashli! Lanyards on, Pins ready!

Megan’s friend Ashli and Joseph’s friend Jason were able to join us on our trip to Disney World last May. Ashli was celebrating her recent graduation from nursing school and Joseph and Jason were both celebrating finishing their junior year of high school – excited about becoming seniors in the fall. Ashli and Jason got swept up in pin mania just like we had in the past- starting slow at first and then gaining momentum – finally trading with gusto! Their enthusiasm was contagious! I wanted to collect the Orange Bird pin set and that was my main focus. Jason jumped right on in and started collecting his own Orange Birds – we all worked together to help each other find the pins we wanted. It added another layer of fun to an already great vacation!

Pin collecting and trading is fun! Over the next few weeks I’ll post tips and advice for making the most of this great Disney opportunity to part with your hard-earned money, while having a heck of a good time doing it. If you have any questions or particular aspects of pin trading/collecting you’d like to know more about, please let me know.