Well, our 4th trip to disney has me tempted to start a pin collection for my dd and myself. Actually more for her. Where do you start? How do you start? What do we do first? I know I'll go wild when buying. What's a lanyard pin? How do you get CM to give you a pin? Oh soooooo many questions. Just looking for the basic beginning. Thank you so much!

[noahsark45331]

Welcome to DC!

Pin trading is easy and easy to get carried away with!:love:
A pin lanyard is a strap worn around the neck to attach your pins to. Like a name tag holder worn at convention. CM will trade with you all you have to do is ask. For our upcoming trip, I went to the Disney Store and bought pins for $2, they were on clearance. I didn't really care which ones I bought because I knew they were for trading. If you buy them at WDW, they are $6 and up. If you can't buy them at the Disney Store before you go, try to buy the less expensive ones to trade. Most guests aren't interested in trading with other guests, everyone is looking for something unique. I have heard that one of the harder ones to get from a CM is a training pin that they receive. You might also visit the official WDW website and do the viritual tour for the certificate for a free internet collectors pin. You have to print the certificate, take it to the big hat at MGM and buy one of the special moments pins to get one free. Trading is not hard, just fun!:)

[brumcg]

aprincessesmom,

A few things in addition to noahsark45331's excellent advice...

Cast members will trade - in fact MUST trade - any one of their pins for any one of your pins as long as they don't already have the pin you are offerring and it is a Disney pin (you can tell by the marks on the back). There are also Super Pin Traders who wear vests instead of lanyards; they are great. Normally they hang around the pin station in Epcot.

One note about cast members that surprised us... A cast member in the MK told us that they have a huge bin filled with lanyards. If the cast member wants to wear one, they take one and return it when their shift ends. That makes sense because several of the cast members we traded with knew nothing about the pins they had.

My best advice on trading is to trade for pins you like. You'll drive yourself nuts if you try to remember what your pins are worth and if you are getting a good deal or not. It's a great way to meet people (especially cast members); have fun with it.

The Disney store sales are great. Another great place to buy pins cheap is Ebay - especially if someone is selling a collection. Most Ebay buyers are looking for very specific pins for their collection and ignore the larger lots. We purchased 4-5 small collections between $2-3 a pin; even better, these lots almost always had a few limited edition pins.

Last (before Mickey gets to this thread!), it's best to pick some specific things to collect. Everyone in my family has a few themes (mine are anything related to Mulan and anything related to villians). It's impossible to collect every pin.

Happy pin collecting!

Bruce

[dab]

I too am new to pin collecting/trading. We started on our last trip in Sept. My daughter was given about 4 CM lanyard pins while at Downtown Disney just for being sweet and talking to the CMs. They told us to make sure we get something good if we trade them because they are supposedly not available for purchase. You have to be given them from a CM. That got us interested and then we purchased a few others as well as a lanyard for our daughter. She never wanted to trade them as she was attached to the ones given to her and really liked the ones she picked out. So, if we are ever going to get into trading we are going to have to pick up some on sale at the local Disney store. It is really fun though!

[mickey]

Bruce, you took the words right out of my mouth. Definitely pick something that you are interested in, and try to stick with pins that fit in that group. Personally, I collect pins that have to do with Disney resorts or restaurants. It is a small enough group that I can find every pin. Of course, I always find other pins that I just have to have, like the one pictured below. I may have to check ebay this afternoon. :D

There are a couple of great Disney pin sources on the internet. The first would be Dizpins. They feature daily updates of pins being released, and have great sections of past pins and pin sets. The other would be PinPics. They have a database of every pin available from Disney. So, if you are interested in all of the Tinkerbell pins, just search for tinkerbelle, and you will get over 400 pins show up.

Have a great time collecting and trading. It is a great way to enjoy Disney year round.

[noahsark45331]

Okay Mickey! I give! Is this a Disney pin? And if so, what and where is it from?:dazed

[mickey]

Originally posted by noahsark45331
Okay Mickey! I give! Is this a Disney pin? And if so, what and where is it from?:dazed

It is Dr. Finklestine from only the best Disney movie every made, Nightmare Before Christmas! It was released two days ago at the Disneyland pin stores.

Thank you Noah, Brum, Dab, and Mickey, hope I got everyone! My dd and I can't wait to start. We're heading to the Disney store in the mall this weekend to see what kind of damage we can do. Since we have many days before our Disney trip, we can pick some cheap pins up and save them.

I see that some of you are soon on your way. :D
Have a great time!

We're still deciding on whether we are staying on or off Disney, since we're going spring break, and it's sooooooo expensive!

I LOVE this disney central! ty ty ty ty ty

[MickeyMac]

We're still deciding on whether we are staying on or off Disney

Can I make a recommendation? Purchase an Annual Pass for one of the kids and use the AP discount to stay on-site. Our rooms for the All Stars for the first week of December are $49 a night. Peak season, mid-summer, we paid $69 a night (I think - I'd have to check). The Moderates and Deluxes offer much cheaper rooms too. Plus, there are all kinds of other perks for the Passholder, like special Passholder pins...

...and how do you like THAT for getting back on topic!! :D

[Amethyst]

Also, don't forget to check out Yahoo auctions for Disney Pins. It has lost its popularity (the auction site that is) so often you'll be the only one bidding on a pin. Check out the Dizellaneous section of Dizpins. There is a link for a store that sells many Disney pins at great prices. Since I haven't been to Disney World in over a year it's where I buy most of my resort pins. I collect Sorcerer's Apprentice & Bandleader Mickeys, Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland and WDW restaurant and resort pins. That's as far as I can narrow it down to. :laugh