Stupid Guest Tricks

After finding a whole bunch of unwanted duplicate pins in a dusty ol stash of my CM sister's stuff, I have decided to embark on the popular Disney tradition of pin trading. I know all the basics of it - 2 pins per CM trade in the parks, green for kids 12 and under, and be nice (obviously). But what are some other pointers (pun not intended), that seasoned pin people can give me. Fellow CM have said that the SG die hard traders and collectors will just go up to you, grab at your lanyard and rip off the ones they want - without even asking!

Should I be aware of aggressors?

Should I trade based on value of pin or the ones I like?

How DO I find the value of pin?

Should I wear only the ones I want to trade?

Any help would be welcome!

Well, you could just mail all your pins to me! :twisted:


Just kidding! It does sound like you might have more than several hard to get ones. I would say that if you want to trade with the pin traders, try to do an even trade for something you like, not to trade several of your pins for one unless you are sure it is worth it-different pin traders have equally different styles.
You might go around with your pins hidden and secure and just ask questions for a while, and Dizpins.com does have info re: pins origion and edition numbers. Find a Buddy who knows LOTS about pin trading and go with them to the Parks...
I wear my favorite pins to Disneyland and do not feel I need to trade them, never had a problem with anyone grabbing, but Jeez, even the 7 year olds are little Pin Sharks anymore and will try to snag you into giving up a good one for an ordinary common trader. Don't be lulled by cute little kids!
They are being coached by their pin-hungry parents. ;)

DisneyMom wrote:Well, you could just mail all your pins to me! :twisted:

If you wanna buy em off me, that maybe can be possible. But I don't give things away for nothing. Speaking of, how would I find the worth of some of my pins. I have a bunch of 2005 Cast Lanyard Series. I'd honestly love to sell them if they were of any monetary valuable. I have 5 sets of the same 6 pins.

Go to http://www.pinpics.com and do a search. Their search feature is fairly intuitive, especially in categories.

When you find the pin(s)( you are looking for, near the bottom of the statistics are "members wanting" and "members trading" fields. Look at them to get a ratio. Some pins I have (especially the older Figment pins) have 200 or more people wanting them and zero or one willing to trade. These have very high value and can be sold on eBay for over $150 each. Others have more people willing to trade than those looking, and obviously have a lower value. This can give you a good relativer value.

Another is to use http://www.tomart.com and get one of their publications.

I have never paid much attention to pin trading at all and wasn't planning to get into it right away but had to as it is required of merchandise CMs apparently. It's even in our contract but I've seen a number of merchandise CMs without their lanyard so that rule isn't enforced strongly it seems.

I still don't know a whole lot about it though, pin trading just isn't my thing. I've been meaning to ask my managers about getting a hip lanyard to replace the standard one. The standard lanyard is just plain annoying and gets in the way.

Cheshire Figment wrote:Another is to use http://www.tomart.com and get one of their publications.

We sell the 6th Edition of Tomart’s DISNEYANA Guide to Pin Trading in Uptown Pins.

Shorty82 wrote:I still don't know a whole lot about it though, pin trading just isn't my thing. I've been meaning to ask my managers about getting a hip lanyard to replace the standard one. The standard lanyard is just plain annoying and gets in the way.

If you're talking about the blue lanyard with the "DisneyParks" thing on the end, trust me, they won't let you (I have my own lanyard, which I asked if I could use, they wouldn't let me).

You could try asking if you could wear the blue belt clip though. I find it less intruding than the lanyard.

On a side note, do they make you guys engage in pin trading (i.e. they give you a lanyard and you have to buy a bunch of pins with your own money) or is it like in DLR Foods, where they just stick a bunch of lanyard-only and limited edition pins on one lanyard and give it to whoever's manning greeter.

DW and I did it, but realized that the pins that we bought for each trip, we wanted to keep. so now after each trip we put them in small shadow boxes with the year we went.

The other ones we give to the grandkids. After the first trip where we got the "free" lanyard and pins, we realized that it is very annoying to have them banging about when we go on the attractions. We did notice that they are now selling the "belt lanyards" at some of the locations.

And since we observed some rather "rude" pin traders at several parks and DTD last trip, we are kind of put off by all that. (SG's in training running up and interrupting a conversation we were having with a CM, and other similar SG tricks!)

Sarah Magdalene wrote:After finding a whole bunch of unwanted duplicate pins in a dusty ol stash of my CM sister's stuff, I have decided to embark on the popular Disney tradition of pin trading. I know all the basics of it - 2 pins per CM trade in the parks, green for kids 12 and under, and be nice (obviously). But what are some other pointers (pun not intended), that seasoned pin people can give me. Fellow CM have said that the SG die hard traders and collectors will just go up to you, grab at your lanyard and rip off the ones they want - without even asking!

Should I be aware of aggressors?

Should I trade based on value of pin or the ones I like?

How DO I find the value of pin?

Should I wear only the ones I want to trade?

Any help would be welcome!

Collect for the subject or meaning. A shadow box of pins from a trip or a place you worked or something dear.

Merchant skills are needed if you are in it for profit and i got park ban because of the horrid people in pin trading. I have seen pins and books stolen, theft from stores, had racist remarkst against me, gay hate speechm, and every vile thing on the earth while pin trading. most are descent people thouhg.

collect only for love and memories not values.

Well, I'm back after a day at MK doing my rookie round in trading! I got 16 pins for the ones I exchanged out. I now have some lovely Princess, Tink and Minnie pins - and I just could not pass up this great Pirate Stitch one. It sure was fun and I can't wait to do it again. I had to buy a lanyard, but may get the Pincess Sash and Crown later on.

Thanks for the heads up on the evil PinHeads, Churchy. CMs have horror stories and they did scare me off from it. It seems like the only safe thing to do is just trade with other CM's. And you are right - it's better to just trade for themes ones likes than worry about value.

glendalais wrote:If you're talking about the blue lanyard with the "DisneyParks" thing on the end, trust me, they won't let you (I have my own lanyard, which I asked if I could use, they wouldn't let me).

You could try asking if you could wear the blue belt clip though. I find it less intruding than the lanyard.

On a side note, do they make you guys engage in pin trading (i.e. they give you a lanyard and you have to buy a bunch of pins with your own money) or is it like in DLR Foods, where they just stick a bunch of lanyard-only and limited edition pins on one lanyard and give it to whoever's manning greeter.

The belt clip is what I meant. I've always heard them called hip lanyards. I saw one of my managers on my way out tonight and I traded in my regular lanyard fora hip one.

While merchandise CMs have to pin trade (it's in our contract) they provide us with the lanyard and pins. We also have Pin Replenishment, a window in the tunnel (I assume the other parks have one somewhere) where we can go and trade up to 6 pins a day for better ones and get rid of fakes. No way would I spend my own money on pins to trade. I only trade because I have to and any pins I buy because I like it and plan on keeping it.

Sarah Magdalene wrote:Well, I'm back after a day at MK doing my rookie round in trading! I got 16 pins for the ones I exchanged out. I now have some lovely Princess, Tink and Minnie pins - and I just could not pass up this great Pirate Stitch one. It sure was fun and I can't wait to do it again. I had to buy a lanyard, but may get the Pincess Sash and Crown later on.

So you're in the area now? We have to meet up sometime soon.