[MissDisney]

Chuck -- There are lots of options for buying pins. There are Pin Carts at the theme parks, as well as little stands in a lot of the shops. A few of them offer a wider selection -- Pin Traders at Marketplace, the Sorceror's Hat at MGM and also a Pin Traders by the fountains at Epcot. World of Disney has an entire room devoted to pins. The pin carts are spread out all over the place, and the resorts and water parks have pins too. Each resort has a little selection of pins that are associated with that resort, too, which is nice.

Usually, there are some local themes happening with the pins... like, at the Pirates of the Caribbean shop, you will find lots of pirate pins. At the Lights Motor Action cart, they will be sure to have pins for that attraction...

Some of the pins are $6.95, and the prices go up is they have extra stuff on them, like crystals or moving parts. Sometimes, there are whole sets of pins, which can be fun to collect. We bought a few Sparkle Princess pins once, with the intention of trading for the others. We never were able to finish out the set and I had to buy the last princess on eBay! So now I buy a whole set if I have the $$$.

On eBay, you can find all kinds of pins, current and older. You can spend hours looking at all of them and maybe fall in love with a pin. I always look at the seller and I only buy from sellers who have 100% positive reports and who have sold lots of pins in the past. eBay is good for finishing a set.

eBay prices are wacky! You can get pin lots for good prices sometimes, and the price per pin can be only a couple of dollars. But I was also recetly watching a pin that sold for hundreds! Huh???

If you are at a pin traders shop at WDW, you will see some adults outside the shop with huge books of pins, trying to trade to people. I think now it may be mostly trading with adults. But it used to be that they'd trade with little kids, when they saw a hard to find pin on a kid's lanyard. And they will not trade just anything from their books, especailly anything rare. I boycott those traders, just because I have seen them try to rip off kids in the past.

Once you have purchased a lanyard and some pins for it (there are also starter sets with a few tradable pins already attached), trading with CMs at the parks is so much fun. They are infinitely patient as you look at their lanyards, and they will trade any of their pins. So if you see one you like, go ahead and trade for it!

Hope this helps...