QUESTION How long have you been collecting Disney pins?

This is a thread we've had a couple times over the years, but it's been awhile. Hoping to get responses from our lurkers, newbies and old time posters! Knowing what stage our members are in, will help me figure out how to prioritize content. Feel free to post how long, and how you got started, in addition to your poll answer.

I got my first pins in 2005, when I took a trip with some college friends to DLR around my birthday. One of my friends got some pins through her travel package, which back then was just picking out some pins from a cast lanyard, and one of the ones she picked was a little Timon GWP pin for me since she knew I loved him. So for those who are curious, this was my first official Disney pin:


I bought a few other Lion King pins on that trip, and my boyfriend at the time got me a few as well for my birthday present.

Fast forward to when I became a passholder in 2009, I started off small with trading with cast members. (Back then I did the dreaded cheapo fakes from ebay, regretfully, but I think I probably traded for about the same amount of fake pins that I put onto lanyards. And once I learned about the problem with fakes I stopped sourcing them from ebay and went fully legit.) Back then I was just trading to complete sets I liked, and Lion King.

I don't recall how I learned about DSF/DSSH, probably from either a google search or from trading with someone in the parks who told me about it. But my first pin release was in January 2014, for the Valentine envelopes, since there was a Lion King pin and I hadn't gotten any "fancy" pins at that point:



Back then I thought that $18.95 for one pin was a LUDICROUS price to pay for one pin! If only I knew, LOL...

From that I learned about PTD pins, and found DPF though googling about them. I was lurking this forum for months to keep an eye on the PTD thread to see when flips happened. I finally joined the boards in April of 2014 so I could keep up with the thread and also see what other pins people were talking about.

I think it was 2001. I was at WDW and there were folks doing pin trading and the pins were so amazing. I particularly remember pp#5467 and how amazing it would be to have that (and how there's no way I ever would). While we ere there they were doing a release for Monsters Inc opening day so we got on line and got wristbands to get them (yup, that's how they did those back then) and that was the start of collecting and trading. Opening day pins was my first collection.
Oh, and I did eventually get 5467. Took a while, but got there.

Been collecting since that first trip to DL in 2000. Didn't really care about trading then since I was 4 but liked the shiny things in life, ha! Ever since then I've been hoarding every chance we get during a park visit or with online trading. Oh and don't get me started on the unfortunate convenience of online shopping from different retailers/licenses... Covid really (um..) caused the collection to explode. Earliest pin I can remember receiving was for my birthday in '04

10504 - Happy Birthday Princess Series - Snow White​

I started in November 2014. I learned about pin trading from someone in line for California Screaming. The next trip we did some research for pin trading and I set off on scrapper trading. (I am surprised if people avoid scrapper trading at the beginning...)

I discovered DSSH pin releases in 2016. My first release (which I arrived way too late for) was the 2nd villain cutie pin release.

Started finding ways to get some WDI and DEC pins. This happened in 2022.

"Officially" 2002. But have pins from before pin collecting became "official".

Mike S.
Figment919

I think you missed an option - not before the beginning, but at the beginning - in 1999 in the mall stores buying what I needed (Wonderland) from the weekly pin releases as cast members were trading from lanyards in the stores (though maybe they weren't trading until 2000 when the parks started up the whole trading thing). But I didn't start with park trading with cast members until 2006 and online trading with others probably in 2007.

I love the qualifiers attached to the years. I started only a few years ago and feel like I dove in really fast. Quite often I look around at all the pins and wonder, am I crazy?? And, what's the psychology behind collecting in general? I'm trying to learn focus and patience.

I got started by researching tips and tricks for a trip to DLR and stumbled across a little blurb on pin trading. I did a lot of buying and later started trading. I attended the last DSSH pin event and the Expo, and can't wait for more!

Jabberwocky said:

I think you missed an option - not before the beginning, but at the beginning - in 1999 in the mall stores buying what I needed (Wonderland) from the weekly pin releases as cast members were trading from lanyards in the stores (though maybe they weren't trading until 2000 when the parks started up the whole trading thing). But I didn't start with park trading with cast members until 2006 and online trading with others probably in 2007.

Click to expand...

It allowed me to edit. I was thinking the 2nd to last option, but hopefully it is more clear.

Also, this poll is interesting and probably has more to say about where people seek out pin info vs how long they have been collecting. Lots more long time collectors here on DPF. When this question was asked before there were always a lot of people who would be less than 5 years.

hopemax said:

It allowed me to edit. I was thinking the 2nd to last option, but hopefully it is more clear.

Also, this poll is interesting and probably has more to say about where people seek out pin info vs how long they have been collecting. Lots more long time collectors here on DPF. When this question was asked before there were always a lot of people who would be less than 5 years.

Click to expand...

Yay for a few of us oldsters still hanging in there! lol

Pinatic said:

I love the qualifiers attached to the years. I started only a few years ago and feel like I dove in really fast. Quite often I look around at all the pins and wonder, am I crazy?? And, what's the psychology behind collecting in general? I'm trying to learn focus and patience.

I got started by researching tips and tricks for a trip to DLR and stumbled across a little blurb on pin trading. I did a lot of buying and later started trading. I attended the last DSSH pin event and the Expo, and can't wait for more!

Click to expand...

Patience is absolutely key IMO. All pins come around eventually (knock wood!) Focus is good too. There are literally hundreds of thousands of pins you could collect. Gotta narrow that down some how. And stick to it! (Again, IMO)

I started collecting pins in February 2004, just a month shy of 21 years. Although I did find an older Disney pin when cleaning out my childhood room before my parents moved.

Since the craze started in 1999. My husband and I were walking around the grounds at the Disneyland Hotel and a CM was selling lanyards. We each got one and the CM explained the new hobby. We actually attended a class about it on Main Street. It was right before our honeymoon to WDW. A guy at the class showed us a light up pin. I was hooked! I found the same light up pin at WDW and I still have it.

Let's see. I first heard about it taking a trip to WDW in '98-'99, and then seeing a Roger Rabbit pin I had to have because I didn't see much Roger Rabbit anything (which I had no clue he was common in the nineties). And thus began a money-eating habit to which I owe some of the best times of my life so far, for without it, I wouldn't have made so many friends and gained so much experience, to which I'm still learning! It is such a privilege to trade with others and I know I'm better for it not just for collecting pins but to be apart of this fun and awesome community.

My first pin was a small Tinker Bell from the Disney Store in the mid 1990s.

And despite collecting pins in the Parks and such, I managed to completely miss years and years of the online sales AND PTNS! I came to trading in late 2005/early 2006...so I just barely missed Disney Auctions completely!

I started collecting pins in 2016. I was completely oblivious to the hobby until I watched a recommended pin haul video on YouTube. I remember the first set I completed were the mystery nesting dolls.