[MissDisney]

Does anyone know where I can get in touch with people regarding three pins that my little ones werehoping to find at WDW? My little daughter watned a bright-colored giraffe pin and a bright-colored hippo pin (we saw them at AK on a CM, but never saw them again...) and my son wanted to get all the roller coasters, but we never fuond a BTMRR pin at all...
Is there a place where I can go to find these? We tried the "collectors" by the Marketplace Pin Traders, but they seemed to be there just to take advantage of the kids!

[darthspiderman]

best thing to do about the rollercoaster pins is this: ask the castmember that operates the ride where you can get one of those pins. 95% of the time, they themselves will be wearing a pin that is related to the ride. If your kids ask reeeeal nice and are willing to part with another one of their pins, castmembers will most of the time be willing to trade their pins off to younger guests- and when I say your kids I mean it, they are more reluctant to trade with adult or older children as they are mandated to prioritize the little ones over the older. So if you ask on behalf of your kids, the trade possibility may not happen. If your kids ask, well, it's hard to say no to kids...

In any case, just be on the look out for castmembers with pins. The store for the particular ride should also have the pins for the ride. E.g. the Rockin' Roller COaster store has loads of pins pretaining to the coaster.

[Park Hopper]

Cast members aren't allowed to refuse a trade for a pin that's on their lanyard. If your son or daughter sees a pin they want, all they have to do is trade one of their own pins for the one they want. Your son or daughter gets to choose which of their pins to give up, and they get to choose the specific pin they want on the CM's lanyard.

For help in identifying the pins you're looking for, go to Pin Pics.com and use their search function. Their database includes a picture and info on just about every Disney pin ever made. You can narrow the search field in many ways, i.e. choose WDW pins and type in giraffe, or hippo, or roller coaster.

And, yes, be wary of the pin sharks that hang around at Downtown Disney and Pin Central in Epcot. Most of them are fine, but you do run across some who will take advantage of an inexperienced trader -- young or old.

Hope this is helpful.

[downsouthtigger]

I don't see how any CM would refuse anyone let alone a child.
The only time we can refuse is if we already have 2 of the same pin, or when people try and trade free pins. (i.e. the ones American express used to give out when you used your american express card at check in)
Big Thunder should be no problem to find as thats an attraction pin, but the brightly colored hippo/giraffe might be a lil tough. I think those 2 may be discontinued as I haven't seen them in a while either. You may wanna check AK for them though as they sound more like they came from that park.
As for cms having particular pins, we have pre-made lanyards so it's always luck of the draw as to what pins we get. before open managers will just randomly distribute them, so even we never know what we'll get.
I do know one thing, there's not a TL indy speedway pin! The one attraction that I work at!
:(

[MissDisney]

Just wanted to clarify about the Animal Kingdom CM I mentioned who had the pins... she didn't refuse a trade... we didn't even ask her! It was the day before we decided to launch into this new activity... the next day when we finally got lanyards, etc., we decided that we'd try to get our little one some of those bright animals because they were so cute! There were lots of them around, but we never found the giraffe or hippo again...

[Park Hopper]

If the pins you're looking for are indeed discontinued, you might want to consider checking out eBay for them. There usually are tons of Disney pins offered on eBay, and most of them sell for reasonable prices. I've bought quite a few myself this way and have never had a problem.

[lawwin]

Ditto the vote for Ebay. We have bought pins for myself and my DD and the Disney company even sells surplus pins of their own on there in multiple lots for very reasonable prices. This is a good idea if you aren't in the parks anymore, and also to build up your collection to take back to the parks to trade the CMs for more desirable CM only pins. They also sell some CM only pins on ebay. Just check to see if someone that you buy multiple items from combines shipping. It saves money.

[Mari annie]

;)
off topic and pin collecting....
Both my dd and ds started collecting pins 4 years ago.
We just buy them for fun and what we like.
We all have so many now.

There's just soooo many (too many) it's a fun hobby, but it's now gotten to be only on our trips to Disney we buy them.

The last time we went to the Pin Traders Place in DD, the people who are really* into the trade this for this, don't even let you look* to see what they have anymore, they are very rude, so I told my kids, this is just a fun thing to do, so we collect what we like from time to time.

What's wrong with people?!
:laugh
When people act like that it ruins the day at a great place!!!!

[lawwin]

I told my DD to only look and talk to CM about pins and pin trading because I noticed that when we were there in Oct. 2003. That was before she even had the first pin. The first pin was given to her by a CM at POR after I got hurt at Blizzard Beach. Her day had been pretty much ruined by the fact that mom had gotten hurt after one hour and was confined to a wheelchair and her DGD was talking to the CM who was helping us at POR to get me a scooter and change our room, and she noticed that the CM was wearing a pin on her lanyard that was piglet and that was her favorite character. The CM asked her how was she doing with everything that happened and my DD said she was OK and mentioned that she liked her pin and that piglet was her favorite character and that she had met him the day before at England in EPCOT. The CM took the pin off her lanyard and pinned it to Meghan's collar and said maybe he will help your day get better. Meghan gave her a big hug and said thank you. I'd like to thank that CM for spreading a little magic and making my DD's first trip and her really bad day when mom got hurt a little better. She also says that she will never trade that pin to anyone for anything no matter what. That is her special pin, thanks to a caring CM who went out of her way to make a bad day good.

[Aggie96]

Thanks for the pin pic link! That is too cool! I agree with the ebay recommendation. We got tons of pins off ebay before we went two years ago and were able to trade them for the ones we wanted. We had so much fun! We didn't take our pins at Christmas last year because we were worried about the plane, but we are taking them for MNSSHP in that we are driving! Pin trading here we come!!

[sjpurple]

I have also bought many pins off ebay. Cast only pins, Cast Lanyards and just pins my DGD and I like. Some are to trade but alot are just to keep.

[Thia327]

I started with the pins too but my problem is I always forget to bring them with me when we go :D