Pin trading

[Beachgirl71]

Pin trading turned out to be a huge hit with my kids! We bought a bunch off of ebay, and spent the extra on the lanyards at Magic Kingdom. Now my kids are teens and they still want to do it!

[Sneeks85]

Are there set areas for pin trading in each park? I can't say I've ever paid much attention, but think this would be a fun addition to our trip!

[caj]

Originally Posted by loves2plan

We're a family of traders, but tbh, last time we were there (Oct 2019) the boards and CM's lanyards were full of scrappers as so many people buy bundles from eBay - not just here but in the US too. It's so saturated that I think they just let it go now as it would be too hard to fight back against. It's harder to find original ones on boards and lanyards now, but you do get a few. These mainly seemed to be from people who have bought blind bags in the parks and possibly got duplicates. You can spot the real ones as they seem to be thicker and the enamelling is better quality. It's still really good fun to do, but I just wanted to make you aware so that you don't spend good money on real pins and then end up swapping for cheap scrappers that you could buy 25 for £15 or so on eBay.

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I think it must be really hard for those whose reason for trading is collecting in its purist form.

And I probably didn't play my part in helping them. My reason for doing it was for kids fun and socialising my son. They picked a character each and swapped away!

[caj]

Originally Posted by Sneeks85

Are there set areas for pin trading in each park? I can't say I've ever paid much attention, but think this would be a fun addition to our trip!

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In 'normal times' every cast member has a lanyard for swapping. There are boards in many shops that are swap boards.

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by caj

I think it must be really hard for those whose reason for trading is collecting in its purist form.

And I probably didn't play my part in helping them. My reason for doing it was for kids fun and socialising my son. They picked a character each and swapped away!

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Oh, don't get me wrong, on our first couple of trips we didn't know the difference and bought pins off eBay too. It was just about some fun for the kids when they were younger. We have plenty of scrappers in our collection, but don't mind because we like the design or it's a favourite character and it's pretty much impossible to get the original. Now we're just more aware and selective, and noticed a huge difference in the amount of scrappers on the boards and lanyards last time.

We've met some real purist collectors too when waiting for trading events and we have swapped with them on occasion, but they're not shy about scrutinising your pins and even using their phones to look them up for reference.

It's still great fun for kids, even with the huge quantity of scrappers as all they're really worried about is if they like the pin or not, not whether it's genuine.

[All-smiles]

I think we are all going to do some pin trading of some sort. I think the kiddies and I will be happy with pins for what they look like but I have a feeling Hubby will take things a bit more seriously. He is a bit of a collector of some things anyway!

[Rose89]

I think when it comes to Pin Trading in the parks you have to accept that there's a likelihood that you may get a 'fake' but if you're of the mindset that you're just doing it for the fun, and don't notice or mind when a pin is not 100% legitimate (a lot you can barely tell but some are bad) then you'll be perfectly fine. If you'd rather not get any fakes in your collection you're best just buying the pins you want and not trading at all, unless you know how to spot every fake, and it can be really difficult!