[MickeyMcFizzle]

Ok, for the longest time, I really thought it was super weird to collect and trade pins. (No offense to those pin lovers out there!)

But for some reason, the last 2 times I've been to WDW, I find myself strangely drawn to those pretty, shiny little pins I see everywhere.

And last weekend when I was there, I bought 2!
I couldn't resist! There was this cute little Wilderness Lodge pin that I had to have. And somewhere inside my head, I also heard a voice saying "you better by that Happiest Celebration / 50th pin! That celebration is almost over!"

So I did. I bought both, and I have now officially started my pin collection. And I'm saying it loud and proud... I love pins!

Since I know nothng of pin collecting, I was wondering... are there sets and groups of them that go together? Where can I go on the web to find out information like this? Is there a way to track when new ones come out?

Please - fill my head with wonderful pin collecting information!

[Dana]

My DD is the pin trader in this family. She is totally into it. At first it was a fun thing to do while at WDW...interacting with all the CMs were a highlight of each trip for her. Now, it's a collecting thing. She just tries to collect as many series as possible and has quite the collection going on now. She has filled an entire pin book and now we need to get her another one this trip. I only let her trade with CMs however...I don't like her going up to guests....I don't know if they would trade fairly with her and I don't like her talking to strangers to be honest with you. The cms have told her that pins she suggested trading were to rare to trade and that she should hang on to them...I like how they take care with her. Good luck with the trading and enjoy...it's loads of fun and a great conversation starter when approaching a cast member.

[dhoughton]

This should help you out a little:
Official Disney Pin Trading
Welcome to the addiction! LOL!

[poohs_hotstuff]

It's an addictive hobby and there are sites all over the net selling them, but trading & collecting tips are a little harder to find. The best and most useful ones I have found are Pin Pics: Home and it's sister site, DizPins, which you can reach from PinPics. There is a lot of info there and, of course, pins too. I have made use of these sites for years now, and still haven't made it to any of the parks, lol....but my pin collection is doing just fine anyway. I see you are also in Canada; there are some of us up here too, but harder to find, lol. If you make contacts in DizPins, they do have meets in the parks occasionally and will make special efforts to meet some of their friends dropping in from far away if notified in advance, so it doesn't hurt to chat with them, as some live in the area down there, and have a lot more insider-type info than we do. Oh, and if you do search in the right ways, you can occasionally find people to trade other pins you might have lying around for Disney ones you would much prefer. I still do some of that, so you never know what you might have that could help with your addiction. If you have any questions, I can always try to help...if I can remember what it is I am talking about, lmbo.

TTFN,
Poohs_hotstuff@yahoo.ca

[chappell333]

congrats, I started 5 yrs ago and I am up to 96 , not much but its a start, I don't just buy any pins only ones that mean something to me.

[The Goof Father]

Pins are cool...

At first I was thinking the kids would dig trading a little... I saw one pin with Goofy on it that I had to have. Next thing I know I was hooked FAR more than the kids were. At the parks my eyes are always darting, looking for my next pin trade. I usually try to get as many Cast Lanyard Pins from a set as I can. My last conquest was the super hero set from DL.

[thevandusens]

We bought out DS a starter set but didn't really know what we were supposed to do. That was 5 years ago and now between the three of us we have atleat 1,000 pins. We ended up absolutely loving to trade. We go to NYC World of Disney every chance we get since we can't get to Disney World as much as we want to. We even go to meets in New Jersey with the Central Jersey Disney Pin Traders. It is sooooooo much fun and a really great family hobby.

[chastmastr]

The biggest piece of advice I would give is to have fun with it. Cubby and I have seen some genuinely scary pin traders at Disney who are kind of aggressive and show-offy and not very friendly, and there doesn't seem to be much childlike wonder or fun in their attitude (or Disney niceness, for that matter). We love pins and trading them but we like to have certain ones which appeal to us rather than whether they are rare or "worth" anything financially, and I think that's kept us with a healthier attitude about the whole thing.

David

[Goofballorama]

I have 22 pins, and frankly, I don't like to trade them. They are all pretty and shiny, and I am VERY protective of them . It's actually kind of sad. I need to buy ones that I don't like, but I end up spending all my $$$ on all of the cool ones. All I can say is, .

[chastmastr]

What we did this last trip is this. On eBay we got a bunch of pins affordably -- and many of them were "special" pins, cast member or limited ones (hidden mickey ones too), but in bulk they were not expensive per pin (cheaper than buying the cheapest set of starter pins in the parks). We kept the few we really wanted and then traded them with cast members. This meant we could get a lot of cool pins we really wanted that way and spread around the ones other people might really want (rather than getting the cheapest kind), which made the cast members very happy since we weren't deforesting all the rare pins in exchange for very common ones.

David

[MissDisney]

Originally Posted by Dana

The cms have told her that pins she suggested trading were to rare to trade and that she should hang on to them...I like how they take care with her.

I love this post! There are some rockin' great CMs out there! A ton of them!