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Let's take a trip down memory lane: your first pin?

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Let's take a trip down memory lane: your first pin?

LiliMay

Little Mermaid Collector
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So I was randomly wondering if anyone else remembers their first pin? Is it what you still collect today? Let's hear some stories!

________

My first pin my mom purchased for me the day it came out. It was a little mermaid pin (813). Within a few hours I remember looking down and starting to cry because it fell off my little red lanyard. (this was back in the day when the pin backs weren't thoes mickey rubber stamps like we're use to now. It was a very lose metal circle when squeezed even lightly it would have fallen off) Being a heartbroken little kid I was so upset the entire time. So my mom took me home, ( which was no big deal since we live so close to the park). When taking off my shoe I remember being so excited because she was pinned under my shoe!! Even though it has some stratches I keep it on my lanyard. It's oddly one of my favorites because of the story. She's still my favorite after almost 11 years later!

I was wondering if anyone else has any stories about your first pin. Just was curious
 
My first pin was:

Pin 7660: DLR Monsters Inc - Sulley


Here's the story, which I stole directly from the "About Me" section on my DPF Profile.

I've been a loyal fan of Pixar movies since 1995, but I've only been collecting Disney pins since 2009.

Before that, I had never even heard about Disney pins. I worked at a movie rental store at that time, and thought it would be nice to represent my favorite movies at work, by wearing a related pin. So I searched ebay for "Sulley pin", and was VERY surprised to see that there were so many for sale!

I checked for some of my other favorite Disney/Pixar characters, and that's when I realized there was an entire world of Disney pin collecting, that had been just waiting for me to discover it! I was instantly hooked, and the rest is history.


To answer your other question, yes, I have kept the focus of my pin collection the same since I started: all of the Pixar movies and Pixar shorts. My love of Pixar far exceeds my love of Disney in general, so I doubt I would ever replace my Pixar pins with another theme.
​
 
Pin 818. I still vividly remember standing at the pin cart in Tomorrowland at Disneyland thinking I would get just one...

12 years (almost exactly) and 8,000+ pins later..
 
I visited WDW in 2000 and because we stayed in the Disney Hotel we all got this pin for free

But of course, I traded it. I found a pin trader in Magical Kingdom who had a massive pin bag and I flipped through and fell in love with Aurora, so she is my first pin -->
 
My first pin was Pin 417: DS - Countdown to the Millennium Series #101 (Walt Disney and Mickey) and this was a totally by chance pin I bought. Then I found out that there were many going to be released up until the millenium. So I got all of them and then had no idea what to do with them, until one day when I walked past a Character Premiere Store and saw what I thought was a party. I went in and realized you could trade pins. :eek2: I had gotten a few extras, and went down the following week and started trading. It was then that I realized I could buy a keeper trade bag to put my pins in and another to pur traders in. From then on, there was no stopping me. I was hooked! :shock:

I liked just about every pin I saw, as long as it was made well and was pretty. Obviously, that had to stop. When Stitch came out, I decided to focus mainly on him, and being a huge animal lover, added Pluto to the mix. I still have every single Mickey and every other character I collected when I started. They bring back a lot of memories of the people I met and the great times I have had. Because I bought my first pin to wear and did not know about pin trading, I cannot say this was my most memorable pin though.

I love your stories!
 

This also was my first pin for the same reason, but i didnt know there were pin collectors, over a few other trips i and my 2 sons would pick 1 pin a day off a cart as a treat (and cheap souvenier) back in the day they were all like $5-6, then one trip we learn of trading in the park and did some light trading--lost half our pins cause the backs fell off....BUT THEN i went with my boyfriend last jan and on my last day in Epcot the Peter Pan starter set caught my eye (fav movie) and the aristocats set (love it) and that was it!!! instant addiction..Now i have 2100 pins YIKES, OUCH, UGGG, YEH!

Moral of the story ------dont do drugs.
 


A friend at the time had purchased this for me, because of my birthday when we went to go hang out at Downtown Disney. It was, and still is my absolute favorite pin because it's my favorite scene from my favorite movie. (Though I always wondered Why Aladdin's hat was pink... it wasn't pink in the movie, haha)
 
My first pin:


Pin 589: DLR - Club 33 (Members Only)
I bought this pin back in 2002, though I don't really remember why. It went into my drawer, and then into a box, and I didn't find it again until last year. I didn't start collecting until May of last year, so it was pretty fun to find a pin that I had purchased 9 years earlier.
 
Though I went to WDW with my kids in 1971, I didn't get into pin collecting until 2000. I went with my best friends and my hubby (who discovered he doesn't really like WDW). I had an amazing time and the thrill of walking through the gates to the Magic Kingdom was indeed magical. I had goose bumps and even cried a few times when the castle lit up at night. I was like a 12 year old again. That feeling hits me everytime I go and it never gets old. My first pin purchase was this one:

Pin 2: Celebrate The Future Hand in Hand - 2000 Dancers (Resort Flex Pin)

Now over 5,000 pins later I'm still collecting and loving every minute of it.
 
On my first trip to WDW this past Christmas, I bought a bunch of pins as souvenirs for my family, and a couple starter sets just to trade with cast members (we were looking for a certain hidden mickey set to surprise a friend with)... but the first pin I bought to keep for myself was this one:


One of my hobbies is art, and I just thought it was so cute how he was coming off the page!

Once I discovered pin trading and the OMG wealth of pins that are out there, I started collecting other characters/rides that interest me; Mickey isn't my favorite character, so I recently traded this one to Tiggermickey for a Small World pin (my favorite attraction). It might be silly but I said a little goodbye to him before I packaged him up.
 
My first Disney pins, my Dad bought for me when he attended a Microsoft conference at the DL hotel in 1990. The year earlier, I had decided that I would collect lapel pins as my souvenir when we traveled, so that's what he brought home for me from his trip. They were these 2 pins:



I already had a small collection by the time Disney announced pin trading, so you can imagine how excited I was when that news came out. I couldn't wait to get to the park to trade. I brought about 50 pins with me, and most of them were gone by the end of the first day.
 
I ordered a bag of 50 pins on ebay that came in individual bags and was so excited.... Yup.... A year later I had two boards filled with scrappers. It was a heartbreaking day taking down all my completed hidden mickey sets.
 
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