Pin Trading?

[EmptyCinema]

So, reading through here, I've noticed that CMs don't think too highly of pin traders... Is it ALL traders, or just the ones who live and die pin trading?

My GF and I have a few pins between us and we have traded with CMs before. That being said, we try not to interrupt CMs in the middle of doing things to ask to trade. (I know, CMs always have work to do...) We try to only do it when (for example) there's a character attendant standing at the end of a line, or on the monorail platform between trains. And we really appreciate the CMs letting us do it.

One of the things I hope to do on this site is try to make life a little more bearable for CMs. I honestly would never want to end up being a SG (at least, more so than I have been).

[Big Wallaby]

I have no problem with pin traders, except the ones that want me to pin trade while going down the road, and pin trading takes both hands like driving does. However, I have only had that one once or so.

[EmptyCinema]

I have no problem with pin traders, except the ones that want me to pin trade while going down the road, and pin trading takes both hands like driving does. However, I have only had that one once or so.

Somehow I was briefly surprised reading that. But given the rest of this site, why should I be? I'm just glad guests don't hold unfolded park maps in front of drivers asking for directions to a ride....

I'm fairly certain most of the bus drivers I've seen don't even wear lanyards... though one had a guest try to trade with him while he was operating the wheelchair ramp...

[mechurchlady]

I was a pin trader but am retired.

CMs at DLR were not to wear lanyards if it was not safe. Not sure about the east coast though.

Some CMs love the interaction and pin trading while others do not want anyting to do with pin trading. I got the raw end of the pin trading war in DLR. It was so that there was one group of managers who hated pin trading and wanted to go back to the old days when there was no pin trading. My CM friend got fired because of pin trading. The manager accused her of stealing pins. She finally got back and asked to be moved but instead got fired for refusing to work for that manager.

There were cliques and the worst one had members that stole from the racks of pins, were into name calling, insulted other traders, cheated people, lightened other peoples' pin bags, and made life a living hell for those of us who stood up too them.

To help CMs you should say specifically which pin. Not all CMs know pins by their names. I would hear people say "I want the mickey pin" but there were 10 mickey pins on the trader vest. A good trader can look at a lanyard and read it like a book, knowing if there is anything they want. I rarely ask to see a lanyard unless I had read it and knew what I wanted. Study pin trading so you know what is good and what is not, The first pin in a series is most valuable because people miss it and finally around the third pin they start getting the pins and need the first one.

[Ansem]

The only pin traders that I HATE are the pin sharks. You know, the ones who trade crappy Disneyland Paris, fake (no official stamp on back), and non-Disney pins for the rare/'hidden mickey' pins. Then if a little kid wants one of theirs and the kid has nothing they want, they tell them to buy a rare/expensive pin to trade for it. The worst was when I was working in Tomorrowland at the TTA greeter position and some a##hole wanted a 'hidden mickey' pin and shoved a Brickyard 500 (auto racing, nothing to do with Disney) pin upside down in my hand so I didn't know what it was till I turned it over and he was gone. :mad:

[EmptyCinema]

Yeah, some of the pin traders take it way too far. People who can't follow the rules really bother me.... but then, the rules don't apply to THEM, do they? ;)

[mechurchlady]

During Red Shirt Day those 6 evil people had two guys who were crud. They saw some Gays go by so they started doing some obscene acts, trying to immitate Gay love. Insulted them also. I was called a wetback and every nasty name in the book.

There were though so many nice people who I miss like Judy, Howard, Roger, so many. Most of them are very nice.

I got taken more than once by sharks and the kids were the worse. One kid got an LE 100 pin that I could not get because I was not a kid. Them kids could play every card from sympathy to stupidity. Gee gosh golly I only have these pins.

There was the boob boinging men and the lanyard yankers. The SGs who would flip book pages and you would see you pins cracking and clanking. I had pins damaged which is worse than stolen. It is gone so I will not trade it, right. Damaged meant I traded it to someone only to find out it is damaged.

Sorry but I got a lot of venting to do because Disney Management allowed that group of 6 people who had a female CM with them, to destroy pin trading for many people.

[Conservative Hippie]

I'm a pin collector, not trader. I have never tried to trade any pins. BTW, are the coveted "hidden Mickey" pins the solid black ones? Cuz there is a whole basket of them at Company D and I'd love to p*** off the pin nazis by buying a whole lanyards worth of them!

[Main Streeter]

are the coveted "hidden Mickey" pins the solid black ones? Cuz there is a whole basket of them at Company D

I'm at DLR & know for a fact if there is a basket full of pins @ Co. D or @ The Team Centers these pins are not coveted! They are usually freebies which are overstocked. If I'm wrong plz let me know. :)

[Conservative Hippie]

I mean I keep hearing about these Hidden Mickey pins from people on other Disney boards that are supposed to be sooooo special and they get mad if someone gets one by doing something other than finding a special hidden Mickey. And since I have never seen one of these special hidden Mickey pins, I am not sure what they look like. And since I have seen these little solid black classic Mickey pins, which seem to be appropriate, I would like to know if those are hidden Mickey pins or not.