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Quickly Expanding Traders

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Quickly Expanding Traders

Delanie

New DPF Member
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Location
Ventura/Santa Paula CA
Hey guys, I've been thinking lately, quite a lot, about the small number of traders I have at the moment. I usually always get pins from dsf, but I trade them away so fast for my collection that I'm left with hardly any traders, and then my large pin book is totally empty. I've been wanting to save pins for a long period of time and then only trade when I'm at DSF or disneyland. I've only been collecting for about a year, but I feel like I should have a larger collection of traders. I feel so inferior when I'm trading with other people that have pin books :anxious: Maybe I should just get a smaller pin book?

How do you guys hold on to your traders? Any thoughts? Or is it just a matter of how long you've been collecting pins?
 
It depends...

i have a lot of traders from disneyshopping.com. I usually would pick them up when they had a sale. It was usually in Feb and in Aug. the deals were very good in my opinion.

I also go through my collection before a pin trading event or a trip to Disneyland which helps me find additional traders.
 
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the disneyshopping.com is a great idea, I haven't even thought of that haha
 
I started out with only a handful of traders. Usually I buy pins in sets and then break them up since I only want a quarter to half of the set and the rest become traders. Sometimes I buy a set to be traders but I only do that for sets I don't mind being stuck with. And sales are good way to get a bunch of traders too.
 
At first, I only had a few traders but over time, they began to grow. If you go to GSF releases, you can get pins for trading. You may not collect the pins being released but others will. Check the sales threads on here. Sometimes, people will sell small traders for a cheap price. It does take time to build up the nicer traders.
 
It takes a lot of time to build up your traders, or you end up spending a lot of money. Be patient. Btw, there is nothing wrong with trading pins as soon as you get them if you are adding quality pins to your collection. That is why you have traders in the first place. Just make sure you get fair trades. When I first started I had a bunch of cast pins that I traded for whatever I saw I liked. Most of them were open edition pins that I way over traded for. The most important part is to have fun!!!
 
By pins for traders that are not in your collection, and also ones that are quite popular. As that way you can trade them away and have no worry in keeping them as they are not for your collection.
 
By pins for traders that are not in your collection
Click to expand...

I actually like to buy pins for traders that are duplicates of ones that are in my collection. This way I am not likely to get tired of seeing them in my trader book and will be more likely to only trade them away for a pin I want for my collection rather than just trade them away for just another trader because I grew tired of looking at them.
 
Since you're in CA, the easiest way to get traders in the world is just going to GSF :lol: If you live by there, you can take advantage of it so it's relatively easy building up great traders for pretty much any pin you want for anyone who in CA who is by GSF (meaning you can make it to every release without driving 12 hours). I'm not sure how close you are to GSF or the parks though but if you aren't close, you're really just at the mercy of anyone who is :lol: Like David said, it's all about patience since you have to hope you can get a pin at a great price that is a good trader or somehow miraculously get pins at cost (perhaps through DS.com, etc.).

If you are away though, I find that my traders just come from having great friends and then, once you get the pin, being 100% clear what pin(s) you want for the pin you have (make sure the pin you want is a fair trade). That way, if I don't get the pin I had in mind for it, I don't accept the offer. I do find it hard to keep traders the second I get them and an influx of requests comes it haha
 
I'm only an hour away, so luckily I get to go there often, it's just a matter of keeping them all! I've decided not to list my gsf pins for trade online and keep them for in person trading so I won't be so impulsive haha
 
So since you are so close to Disneyland, did you see we are throwing a pin trading party in April? Great way to meet a lot of local and not so local traders.
 
I dont have many traders right now only have about 10

I have alot of Lilo & Stitch pins but there not for trade

Will ne going to Disneyland around April will stop at the DSF than stop at My Disney Pins & Collectables and get traders from there
 
GSF, WDI, DLR, Disneyana, My-D Pins, Frank n Sons. You have WAY more ways to get trader pins than most people. You just have to open your wallet and shop smart. I know a lot of people who watch for Disneyshopping / Auctions pins on eBay and buy low. Try to get characters that are popular that you don't collect. You never know what people will want.
 
Another good way to build up general traders for the park are the old year lanyards. The Disney outlet sources used to be a great place to pick them up for a large discount. Before they got more serious about it you could pick up 6-8 pins for about $10-20 and get a lanyard to give away too.

Not sure where to find those bargains anymore if you don't happen to live near the parks.
 
I would love to be able to get rid of my traders faster, but my "wants" list isn't very large these days, so I think it's great that you can! I don't believe the majority of my traders are in high demand either, so it's easier to hang on to them! If you are close to GSF and such, you should be able to continue to get great, in-demand traders. Maybe you just need to get more of them so they're not gone so fast? I wish you luck!
 
Yeah, I've been wondering how I should start building up my trader collection as well. I avoid those cheap lots after reading about how bad they are. And since I don't live near any Disney stores or parks, I just don't know. Figure maybe snagging deals off websites (that are legit) can help?

If you buy a set off the Disney store site, are people usually wanting to trade for singles off of the sets?

I would guess the best sets to buy for trading would have multiple movie/characters to fit different kinds of collections?
 
I find myself more inclined to buy LE traders since I want LE pins for my collection so that's where I get so stuck with buying lots on this site and even on the Disney store, but I've been looking around after reading all of this and the Disney store seems to be the way to go. Recently I've picked up buying pins from the Disney outlets, though they only get shipments in once a month from Disneyland/world and they're open edition.
 
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