I Miss the Old Disney Pin Trading Days

dizfan0134

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 24, 2010
So I went on my first trip back in 2004 and absolutely fell in love with pin trading. The types of pins I could trade for and the amount of fun I had doing it really was incredible. It seems as if disney doesn't market pin trading like they used to and it really sucks. On top of that, you have people buying the cheap lots of fake pins on eBay for $.50 each and that's all these cast members end up having any way. Maybe its just me, but pin trading is nothing like it used to be and I wish more people were into it the way they were 15 years ago. *sigh*
 
My kids are only into cast member hidden mickeys. We buy the packs to look for hard to find pins but man oh man it hurts when they trade some of the new pins for a hidden mickey that they already have at home! They love it though and they have developed some cool relationships with cast members at our resorts. This last time my oldest had a cast member trade her a an old MGM pin that was a limited edition from 2007 before the name change. My daughters would find her every day to trade with her and her last shift of our trip she brought special pins for each of my girls. They were so excited and that to me was what pin trading was about.
 
man it hurts when they trade some of the new pins for a hidden mickey that they already have at home!
I collect pins and still trade to this day. I did study up on "scrappers" but here's what I do: take a picture (on your phone) of your collection. I have a few specific pins I like to collect and having my picture helps prevent an unnecessary trade. Good luck!
 
My kids love to pin trade. I am sure the quality and legitimacy of some of the pins is suspect at times and not what it was originally years ago. I consider it something for the kids now and am glad Disney still does it. We haven't had a bad experience yet, other than my kids trading pins I would never trade for, lol! The most expensive pins and valuable ones I keep for myself (any Mickey, Minnie, Donald or Daisy pin). The kids have 15 to 20 each and me a few more.
 
We love trading! We did some Ebay starters so they had something to trade with, and we did have to pull about 5 out for being scrappers, but we got some good ones too!
We love the interaction with the CMs and finding what each of us like. I have all the pennants and have been collecting the old school Epcot icons :) My son trades for all things Star Wars.
I hope it makes a comeback...I actually started my own because the kids traded ones I liked, so I bought myself a set for this last trip! We ended up with an extra FP because one of the CMs we traded with gave it to us after we told her about our ruined day at DHS.
 
I think, sadly, more pins than not are scrappers/fakes in the parks. The ones sold on ebay can't be authentic at 50 cents per pin when they sell for over $10.00 each on average at the parks. The only way anyone is making money off of 50 cents per pin is if they are phonies.

It is too bad, I enjoyed pin trading until I started to notice the extremely poor quality pins I was getting off of cast members (not their fault).

I have noticed serial numbers starting to be a more common indication of an authentic pin. This is helpful to me when trying to decide whether trading for a pin is a poor decision or not
 
I like Disney pin collecting, but not so much pin trading, for those same reasons.
 


I liked it when I started out but that was already late to the game. I haven’t traded much lately because I keep seeing the same ones everywhere: figment chasers, the ones with footprints, and Epcot logos. I can never find anything Orange Bird, Haunted Mansion, or Disney cats.
 

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