Not the best experiencewith a PRO pin trader

[Jennasmomma]

I want to start pin trading and so does my DD when we go back. Is Pro Traders at DTD a store? or is it for just traders? Or is it both?

We don't have any pins yet. I thought it was a store and we could buy some there to start. Thanks.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I want to start pin trading and so does my DD when we go back. Is Pro Traders at DTD a store? or is it for just traders? Or is it both?

We don't have any pins yet. I thought it was a store and we could buy some there to start. Thanks.

Disney's Pin Traders is the main pin store for Downtown Disney Marketplace, which also has a trading area set up for those guests who want to bring their pins to trade with each other.

 

[Jennasmomma]

Thanks. I plan to go there to get some pins my first day there. Whenever it is my trip is planned.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

You're welcome.

 

[pindecisive]

A couple years ago I was at DL with some friends.

One of my friends who was rather new to pin trading went up to a "book" trader as I call them (a pro pin trader). He fell in love with one pin wanted to trade for it but the trader had already said he didn't have anything that would work, so I pulled out a 1000 LE pin and said, "What would you trade for this?" And he said rudely back, "Nothing!" It really put a damper on my friends trip/

I personally now avoid all pin traders with books. Most are sharks who are in it for the money and will fleece children out of their rare pins. They're usually pretty rude too.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I personally now avoid all pin traders with books. Most are sharks who are in it for the money and will fleece children out of their rare pins. They're usually pretty rude too.

I agree with you 100% that there are the odd pin sharks at Disney World and Disneyland. However not all pin traders like myself are like that and it's horrible that a few bad pin traders give the good ones out there a bad reputation because we have pin bags with us.

 

[Steffiesunshine]

I have to add my experience...

I only buy pins that I really like. I don't care if they are limited edition, or first release....I buy what I love.

With that said, DH and I went to DTD on our last day on Tuesday. I saw the pin traders set up outside the pin trading station. I had left all my pins, which were nothing special anyway, in my checked luggage so had nothing with me.

The "pro" pin traders kind of intimidate me, so I was only looking at their boards for fun. However, I did spot 2 pins that I really wanted. I love Lady & the Tramp, and always sing the Siamese song. Well, I spotted the hidden mickey Si & Am pins. I mentioned them to my husband. He said we would ask the woman (kind of young, 40's maybe, with shortish blond curly hair) what she would want for them. I told him to forget it, because I thought "those people are crazy!"

Well, when I wandered away, DH did ask, and she pointed out 2 pins on the racks she would trade for. He just bought the other two pins, and traded for the pins I wanted. She was very nice and we actually wound up trading for about 10 pins with her. Granted, she had many pins in books and wrapped, that apparently were only very special trades, but she had 4 cork boards which she freely traded for anything.

So, I did have a good experience with my "pro" trader, but can say I did overhear and see some very poor behavior from some traders. Including an argument over some "fake" pins being traded. Scary!

 

[anonymousegirl]

Those traders are there for serious business. Many people go there for fun trading. I don't think the two mix well.

I have gone twice and both times I saw some very serious traders. But I also had someone do a trade with me for a pin I needed even though I had nothing of particular interest or value to her. She knew I needed the pin and at first said I had nothing she needed (not said snottily), but then sent her daughter over about five minutes later to do the trade.

But last time I went I got a serious one. I was looking for a particular pin (nothing very rare, just something I needed) and he had it but said I had nothing he wanted but if I would go in and buy a pin for him, he'd trade. So he tells me exactly what pin he wants and I buy it. Of course it is a LE for 12.95. So I asked him to throw in a common pin from his open board as well as the original pin. He said no way, this pin (the original) is rare (it isn't). So I just said okay, forget it and walked away.

It was his choice not to add the pin, and I showed him it was my choice to walk away. I kept the LE pin, and I found my original pin later so all's well that ends well.

 

[BigGreen73]

Those traders are there for serious business. Many people go there for fun trading. I don't think the two mix well.

I have gone twice and both times I saw some very serious traders. But I also had someone do a trade with me for a pin I needed even though I had nothing of particular interest or value to her. She knew I needed the pin and at first said I had nothing she needed (not said snottily), but then sent her daughter over about five minutes later to do the trade.

But last time I went I got a serious one. I was looking for a particular pin (nothing very rare, just something I needed) and he had it but said I had nothing he wanted but if I would go in and buy a pin for him, he'd trade. So he tells me exactly what pin he wants and I buy it. Of course it is a LE for 12.95. So I asked him to throw in a common pin from his open board as well as the original pin. He said no way, this pin (the original) is rare (it isn't). So I just said okay, forget it and walked away.

It was his choice not to add the pin, and I showed him it was my choice to walk away. I kept the LE pin, and I found my original pin later so all's well that ends well.

very nice and good for you. Looks like you made the right choice.

To most (I said most) of the "pro" pin traders, everything they own is rare and worth $$$$. I experienced this during every trip to WDW but after 2005, I don't even bother with the the traders set up at Epcot or DTD anymore.

When we first started collecting pins, I did some "trades" with them. Mostly in 04 and 05. We didn't have a ton of pins so I did the buy something and trade. My wife loves dumbo, so that's what we traded for.

But as I started to learn what pins could be bought for and got an idea of what the average pins could be bought for. I usually don't bother with them any more, I may ask what they want for something but I usually don't trade.

Example. May 07. A woman and her son I believe were set up at DTD. We glanced at there stuff and there were two Dumbo's that my wife wanted so I asked. Of course she wanted two LE $12.95 pins from the store as the pins were hard to find, rare etc.. I said sorry, I can't do that and left. These were pins that could be readily bought anywhere on line for $4. We ended up trading for them off CM's lanyards during our trip. Actually we could have traded for them more than once from CM's if we wanted to.

 

[agnes!]

The "I'll trade it to you if you buy something else for me" method is kindof iffy to me.

This is the way it can work.
Sometimes it seems that these "pros" get Lanyard/Hidden Mickeys for cheap (maybe they but them in lots, whatever) and maybe they're authentic, maybe they're not) and set up shop at DTD or maybe Epcot.
Then a Guest comes along who really really wants that (gotten cheaply) trader.
So the "pro" says "Well, I'll trade for a (more expensive) LE that's for sale inside."
The Guest goes in, buys the (expensive) LE pin and trades it to the "pro".
The "pro" sees it as they get to make money and trading up.
They can them turn around and sell the LE pin on EBay, after all it didn't really cost them $12.95 or whatever, it cost them whatever price they paid for the Cast Lanyard pin.
The psychology of pin-trading is fascinating to me. I sometimes wonder why some of the pros even do it. I'll have really good pins (LE, rare older) and some of them don't really want to trade. They want to have what they have and keep it, not improve their collection. Some of them aren't really traders at all, they're almost just hoarders.

I don't know, just doesn't seem right sometimes. Now, if everybody is happy, the Guest gets the pin they want, etc. then I guess it might be ok. But it still bothers me.

We usually trade LEs for LEs, a very few times a fellow Guest has bought an LE & then traded it to us for something they want, but I don't think I've ever asked for an LE in return for a (newer) trader lanyard pin. For the rare pins, for example WDW "Mickey through the Years" Filmstrip series, that's entirely different.

agnes!

 

[agnes!]

A couple years ago I was at DL with some friends.

One of my friends who was rather new to pin trading went up to a "book" trader as I call them (a pro pin trader). He fell in love with one pin wanted to trade for it but the trader had already said he didn't have anything that would work, so I pulled out a 1000 LE pin and said, "What would you trade for this?" And he said rudely back, "Nothing!" It really put a damper on my friends trip/

I personally now avoid all pin traders with books. Most are sharks who are in it for the money and will fleece children out of their rare pins. They're usually pretty rude too.

I guess I should be happy you said "Most"? My DH & I use books because we want to preserve the pins in as good a condition as possible. They'd get incredibly scratched and damaged if we just carried our traders loose in a bag.
And I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, you should know that many/"most" traders are not as rude as the one you ran into. As a matter of fact, one of my chief joys when I'm at WDW is giving pins away sometimes. A little kid comes up, they don't have many pins, many times I'll pull out a trader and give it to them. It's great fun and maybe when they run into Grumpy Gus "pro" traders, they'll also remember the lady who gave them a pin for *nothing*.

agnes!