Just got home from WDW...pin trading report :)
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- 489
- Location
- Nashville, TN
Hey everyone,
We just got home from 6 days at WDW and I thought I would give my overall opinion on pin trading right now. This might be long as we traded a lot, but thought it might be helpful for those going who are true collectors like us
We got to Disney on Thursday morning and decided we would start out doing our first trades at the Disney store in Orlando's airport. We walked in around 10:30am and found that not a single CM was wearing a lanyard. We were a little surprised as there were 5 people working, so I finally approached a cast member behind a register doing nothing, and asked if anyone had pins they could trade. He looked at me and said, "nope, guess you are out of luck" I wanted to smack the little smirk off his face and was so disappointed (luckily, this was pretty much the only bad experience we had!)
We stayed at Port Orleans and it was awesome. We decided on the first day to skip the parks simply because we were only there half the day and had only bought 5 day park hoppers. Plus, J had to get registered for marathon and we had dinner reservations. We did, however, trade all day from Downtown Disney to Beach Club/Yacht Club (ate at Beaches and Cream), our resort, and then at Animal Kingdom Lodge where we ate dinner. Overall, I don't remember the kids getting anything exciting, other than about 5 scrappers. The majority of scrappers I noticed were older hidden mickeys. Most of the newer hidden mickeys (shirts) were fine.
Friday morning, we decided on Magic Kingdom. We got there at rope drop and had a great day. We got to see Scoop (my second time, kids first time) He as usual was amazing and we took lots of pictures and we traded. I got an AP pin from the Florida Project and two of the kids got AP pins. He gave Anna a pin for using good manners! He also gave Isaac a pin as he was the only one who didn't get an AP pin. He is seriously the best, if you go to Magic Kingdom, you have to find him. We also went to Animal Kingdom Lodge and traded with King Pin (he's in gift shop Monday-Friday at 3pm for about 15 minutes). He is AMAZING with kids and although we didn't get any amazing pins, the experience was so worth it. We actually stayed and talked with him for a while and he's just a super nice guy. That night, we did the monorail resort pin hopping thing. It starts at Polynesian at 5pm where you can trade on their board, then you take the monorail to Grand Floridian where they pull out a board at 6pm and then last stop is Contemporary where they pull out two boards at 7pm. By this point, Isaac was collecting the postcards that are the $2.95 pin with a $30 purchase. We did find several more on these boards (these were pretty hard to find). We ate at Chef Mickeys and went home. I forgot to mention that we decided to pick one person a day and give them a lanyard with pins on it to get them started. Today, we gave it to the most adorable little girl. They were in front of us checking out in a store in MK and she was wearing her daddy's 5K marathon lanyard and the CM asked her if she wanted to trade (thinking her race lanyard was a pin lanyard). The girl looked at her mom and her mom explained to her about pin trading and that maybe they would do it next trip. We pulled out the lanyard and surprised her. She was SOOO excited and it was an awesome moment.
Saturday morning, it was half marathon day. We started bright and early at 4am to get to the Magic Kingdom (they start at Epcot but run through Magic Kingdom). We almost didn't take our lanyards, but we did see several managers with pins on and the kids got some great pins. Daddy did great by the way (shaved 18 minutes off his time from last year!). Went back to the room and rested and then hit Epcot. It was so packed that we ended up just pin trading at the tables for a couple of hours. Now, I might step on some toes with some with this next part, but again, it's my opinion so here we go.
The lady with the cork boards was there. I think I have seen her mentioned on here before. She smokes a lot and has long blonde hair. For the most part, her cork boards were filled with scrappers and when we got there, she was SURROUNDED by people. She had a wheelchair with her, which I thought was odd as she didn't appear to have any issues that would cause her to need one AND it was one of the oversized ones and this lady is tiny. I quickly realized why she needed the wheelchair. As people would freak out about the one pin they needed to finish a hidden mickey set, she would convince them how rare and valuable the pin was and then walk them in the shop and would pick out items for them to buy to trade for her "rare and valuable pin" I was literally stunned. I walked over, introduced myself and told her I was setting up at the next table.
We had a lot of wonderful people come by the table. Luckily, we only had one family with "the scrapper bag" but we still traded with the kids because they were enjoying it so much. I think we literally traded with every person that came up. We didn't have amazing pins to begin with, plus to us, that's what it is all about. We did get some great pins....I traded two of my LE disney shopping pins for two LE WDI Haunted Mansion pins. I also traded for some of the new pins (the new Alice and Pirates). Overall, I think we traded for about 50 pins and had a great time. By the time we left, two hours later, smoking lady had a wheelchair full of purchases that people had bought to trade her for her pins. This is the part that was most discouraging to me. I walked up to one of the CM's and told her thanks for letting us hang out and that I was sickened by what I had just watched. The CM had this shocked look on her face and said, "oh we love her, our sales are great when she is here" So there you go. We found that overall, 90% of CM's new nothing about pins, even the ones that worked in stations that focused mainly on pins. Example: we collect the larger vinylmation pins and when I noticed none for sale and asked, no one had a clue what I was talking about. We ate at Yacht Club that night and traded there as well.
On Sunday, it was Animal Kingdom day. We had a great time and did lots of trading here. By this point, Isaac was still working on postcards, Luke was going for the 40th D hidden mickey pins and Anna was just looking for Tink. Here, we ran into an older couple who had a vest full of pins and traded with everyone. They were so nice and we enjoyed meeting them. We left from there and went to Hollywood Studios and again, kept on trading. Here, Luke found a 2011 AP pin on a lanyard. I would definitely say we found the best pins from managers throughout the parks.
Monday was our Magic Kingdom day and we again traded with Scoop. Gracious as always. He told us the 2012 HM's had hit, so we spent the day looking for those (we found five) We found one manager here that had some awesome pins...we got a WDI Figment pin and a few others that were pretty unusual for WDW. Tuesday, we finished up at Epcot where I traded at a table for a while. Met a great guy from CA and traded with him and then Bob from Beach Club came by. Bob, in my opinion, is a hidden jewel at WDW. He's an older gentleman who works at the bellman station on Wednesday and Thursday. When we started trading four years ago, he was the second person we ever traded with and it was just so wonderful. He wouldn't let my kids give him pins, he just gave them the pins they wanted. I was so excited to see Bob again and we did some great trading. It was one of the highlights of this trip.
Overall, I will say, trading seemed to be a bit better this time in terms of not as many scrappers. Of couse, we weren't picking pins off lanyards that were easily knocked off, but even still I would say we came home with about 20. Of course, we will keep them or donate them, but I didn't think it was that bad considering how much we traded. If you are going and plan to set up at Epcot, I will tell you the majority of people that will come up to you are only looking for Hidden Mickeys. I never had one request for Haunted Mansion which surprised me, but lots of requests for Ariel and villians. We did the best trading for the hidden mickey tshirts...every time we had them in our book, someone immediately wanted them. One thing I did notice was that there didn't seem to be as many LE pins for sale and when they were for sale, they were behind glass and you had to ask for them by number at the register. Guess they were having a problem with theft, huh? It was a GREAT trip and I'm happy to answer any questions you guys may have that are planning a trip...we already can't wait for next year!
We just got home from 6 days at WDW and I thought I would give my overall opinion on pin trading right now. This might be long as we traded a lot, but thought it might be helpful for those going who are true collectors like us
We got to Disney on Thursday morning and decided we would start out doing our first trades at the Disney store in Orlando's airport. We walked in around 10:30am and found that not a single CM was wearing a lanyard. We were a little surprised as there were 5 people working, so I finally approached a cast member behind a register doing nothing, and asked if anyone had pins they could trade. He looked at me and said, "nope, guess you are out of luck" I wanted to smack the little smirk off his face and was so disappointed (luckily, this was pretty much the only bad experience we had!)
We stayed at Port Orleans and it was awesome. We decided on the first day to skip the parks simply because we were only there half the day and had only bought 5 day park hoppers. Plus, J had to get registered for marathon and we had dinner reservations. We did, however, trade all day from Downtown Disney to Beach Club/Yacht Club (ate at Beaches and Cream), our resort, and then at Animal Kingdom Lodge where we ate dinner. Overall, I don't remember the kids getting anything exciting, other than about 5 scrappers. The majority of scrappers I noticed were older hidden mickeys. Most of the newer hidden mickeys (shirts) were fine.
Friday morning, we decided on Magic Kingdom. We got there at rope drop and had a great day. We got to see Scoop (my second time, kids first time) He as usual was amazing and we took lots of pictures and we traded. I got an AP pin from the Florida Project and two of the kids got AP pins. He gave Anna a pin for using good manners! He also gave Isaac a pin as he was the only one who didn't get an AP pin. He is seriously the best, if you go to Magic Kingdom, you have to find him. We also went to Animal Kingdom Lodge and traded with King Pin (he's in gift shop Monday-Friday at 3pm for about 15 minutes). He is AMAZING with kids and although we didn't get any amazing pins, the experience was so worth it. We actually stayed and talked with him for a while and he's just a super nice guy. That night, we did the monorail resort pin hopping thing. It starts at Polynesian at 5pm where you can trade on their board, then you take the monorail to Grand Floridian where they pull out a board at 6pm and then last stop is Contemporary where they pull out two boards at 7pm. By this point, Isaac was collecting the postcards that are the $2.95 pin with a $30 purchase. We did find several more on these boards (these were pretty hard to find). We ate at Chef Mickeys and went home. I forgot to mention that we decided to pick one person a day and give them a lanyard with pins on it to get them started. Today, we gave it to the most adorable little girl. They were in front of us checking out in a store in MK and she was wearing her daddy's 5K marathon lanyard and the CM asked her if she wanted to trade (thinking her race lanyard was a pin lanyard). The girl looked at her mom and her mom explained to her about pin trading and that maybe they would do it next trip. We pulled out the lanyard and surprised her. She was SOOO excited and it was an awesome moment.
Saturday morning, it was half marathon day. We started bright and early at 4am to get to the Magic Kingdom (they start at Epcot but run through Magic Kingdom). We almost didn't take our lanyards, but we did see several managers with pins on and the kids got some great pins. Daddy did great by the way (shaved 18 minutes off his time from last year!). Went back to the room and rested and then hit Epcot. It was so packed that we ended up just pin trading at the tables for a couple of hours. Now, I might step on some toes with some with this next part, but again, it's my opinion so here we go.
The lady with the cork boards was there. I think I have seen her mentioned on here before. She smokes a lot and has long blonde hair. For the most part, her cork boards were filled with scrappers and when we got there, she was SURROUNDED by people. She had a wheelchair with her, which I thought was odd as she didn't appear to have any issues that would cause her to need one AND it was one of the oversized ones and this lady is tiny. I quickly realized why she needed the wheelchair. As people would freak out about the one pin they needed to finish a hidden mickey set, she would convince them how rare and valuable the pin was and then walk them in the shop and would pick out items for them to buy to trade for her "rare and valuable pin" I was literally stunned. I walked over, introduced myself and told her I was setting up at the next table.
We had a lot of wonderful people come by the table. Luckily, we only had one family with "the scrapper bag" but we still traded with the kids because they were enjoying it so much. I think we literally traded with every person that came up. We didn't have amazing pins to begin with, plus to us, that's what it is all about. We did get some great pins....I traded two of my LE disney shopping pins for two LE WDI Haunted Mansion pins. I also traded for some of the new pins (the new Alice and Pirates). Overall, I think we traded for about 50 pins and had a great time. By the time we left, two hours later, smoking lady had a wheelchair full of purchases that people had bought to trade her for her pins. This is the part that was most discouraging to me. I walked up to one of the CM's and told her thanks for letting us hang out and that I was sickened by what I had just watched. The CM had this shocked look on her face and said, "oh we love her, our sales are great when she is here" So there you go. We found that overall, 90% of CM's new nothing about pins, even the ones that worked in stations that focused mainly on pins. Example: we collect the larger vinylmation pins and when I noticed none for sale and asked, no one had a clue what I was talking about. We ate at Yacht Club that night and traded there as well.
On Sunday, it was Animal Kingdom day. We had a great time and did lots of trading here. By this point, Isaac was still working on postcards, Luke was going for the 40th D hidden mickey pins and Anna was just looking for Tink. Here, we ran into an older couple who had a vest full of pins and traded with everyone. They were so nice and we enjoyed meeting them. We left from there and went to Hollywood Studios and again, kept on trading. Here, Luke found a 2011 AP pin on a lanyard. I would definitely say we found the best pins from managers throughout the parks.
Monday was our Magic Kingdom day and we again traded with Scoop. Gracious as always. He told us the 2012 HM's had hit, so we spent the day looking for those (we found five) We found one manager here that had some awesome pins...we got a WDI Figment pin and a few others that were pretty unusual for WDW. Tuesday, we finished up at Epcot where I traded at a table for a while. Met a great guy from CA and traded with him and then Bob from Beach Club came by. Bob, in my opinion, is a hidden jewel at WDW. He's an older gentleman who works at the bellman station on Wednesday and Thursday. When we started trading four years ago, he was the second person we ever traded with and it was just so wonderful. He wouldn't let my kids give him pins, he just gave them the pins they wanted. I was so excited to see Bob again and we did some great trading. It was one of the highlights of this trip.
Overall, I will say, trading seemed to be a bit better this time in terms of not as many scrappers. Of couse, we weren't picking pins off lanyards that were easily knocked off, but even still I would say we came home with about 20. Of course, we will keep them or donate them, but I didn't think it was that bad considering how much we traded. If you are going and plan to set up at Epcot, I will tell you the majority of people that will come up to you are only looking for Hidden Mickeys. I never had one request for Haunted Mansion which surprised me, but lots of requests for Ariel and villians. We did the best trading for the hidden mickey tshirts...every time we had them in our book, someone immediately wanted them. One thing I did notice was that there didn't seem to be as many LE pins for sale and when they were for sale, they were behind glass and you had to ask for them by number at the register. Guess they were having a problem with theft, huh? It was a GREAT trip and I'm happy to answer any questions you guys may have that are planning a trip...we already can't wait for next year!