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What made you start collecting pins?

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What made you start collecting pins?
Dolphin324

Dolphin324

Little Mermaid Lover
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For me, I saw the Little Mermaid again after not seeing it for several years, loved it, started collecting TLM stuff, including pins. :) how about you?
 
I watched Wall-E and that instantly was my favorite Disney movie. I saw the pins that came out and I instantly wanted them and the rest is history. :)
 
Paula made me start to collect. Kidding aside, it began with a trip to WDW and we wanted a souvenir and we choose
Pin 5225: WDW - Memorial Day 2001 (Donald Duck)
Hooked ever since.
 
My girlfriend kaitlyn and I were seeing our disneyland passes go to waste. We were getting tired of riding the same rides and seeing the same things. We decided to give pin trading a shot, and now it's all we go for! My renewal was up this last month, and I handed over the cash without thinking twice!
 
We wanted something to give my little boy something to fill time between meals rides and shows. Then we got into it as a family. Then I really got into it and sort of lead the charge in our family.
 
ave some neighbors who are big into trading, and they showed me all their pins and gave me a lanyard. When we visited DisneyWorld with our 10 week old baby, it gave me and my wife something to do while waiting for the other on a ride. And that was just cast member trading. Then I discovered table trading. Then I discovered DPF. Now I'm heading to an addiction recovery clinic... ;)
 
As bizarre as it may sound, I started because of mental illness. I've got a slew of issues; clinical depression, severe anxiety and agoraphobia. My doctor and partner both said having a hobby would help keep me focused and relaxed. Duo, my partner, collects old books, rocks, shells and figurines so she suggested a collection. The one constant obsession during the course of my life has been Disney so we researched Disneyana collections. I didn't have an interest in things like figures or guide books but I really got interested in pins (and pressed pennies, but I don't have much of a collection of those, sadly). She helped me get my first pins and we've been collecting since. She has a small collection herself, though her main interests are NBC, Goofy and Mulan.
 
Season passholder...I was getting bored waiting for my oldest two to get off of rides while waiting with the youngest. I'm a collector by habit, lol, and I started in on trading to kill time. I discovered pinpics and dizpins, found out why not to buy the huge lots on eBay and the rest is history.
 
It's my hubby's fault. Really! We were at our first visit to WDW. He asked if I wanted to try the pin trading scene. I told him no! He thought I meant maybe. Got me a starter lanyard as a surprise. He's been sorry ever since! LOL!!
 
A friend of mine , known as masamune on here got me started. We were out in Liverpool one day and we went in to the Disney store and she got out her trader pins to trade on to the lanyard. I looked and we started chatting to one of the cms, she gave us each a free pin because they had run out of the other pins from the set. It was the uk aliens 'love' pin, and so it started! I have yet to make it to a park for pin trading, have never actually been to a park but as I am going to work in Florida for 3 months I am hoping to finally get to do some mega trading and collecting while I am over there working! I am a pin-a-holic hehe
 
I got into it due to my other half also. I was still living in Manchester at the time and I was forever bored with nothing to do and he said you need a hobby. Well couldnt find anything and when he came over to visit we went into the disneystore and we saw the pins section and since I can flip from good mood to bad mood over the slightest thing he called me grumpy.

After he went back, me and my friend went to the disneystore and she bought me the grumpy pin for my birthday and I was told by a CM that they had a facebook group so I joined and it said they were having a meet up, so I decided to go and then it started as Lindsay (masamune) stayed and chatted with me after the pin meet and talked about pinpics, dizpins etc and thats how I found my hobby.

(Id say he regrets it now since my pins are quite expensive to get lol)
 
I have been collecting pins for a few months now...after seeing the wide variety of pins available online I decided to collect my favourite films - UP and Alice in wonderland....I was told how hard it would be to collect UP pins as theyre very difficult to get hold of, I think this spurred me on! - the great thing about pins for me personally is 1) They don't take up as much storage space for me as a lot of other items I collect such as dolls, postcards etc... 2) I think it's a fun hobby, although it can be expensive, it can also be affordable too, and trading is fun, and I've met some new friends through pin trading! 3) The thrill of the chase... I love seeking the 1 elusive pin, I'm a compulsive collector of many things,just walking around my house will tell you that, and I love trying to locate/trade for a highly wanted pin!! Nothing beats that moment when you get a grail and ur like Oh wow! :D

I decided after all these factors they would also be a cool thing for me to pass on to my kids one day, and they enjoy getting involved opening up Mummys maildays!! and asking me to track down such and such a pin...they spend ages looking at my collection, and I'm glad they enjoy it too.

I never realised until taking my pin collecting a lot more seriously, how many hard core pin-addicts there are!! I never realised it was such a huge hobby until joining some forums and seeing the number of people registered, it's good to know there are crazy people like me in the world! Although my nearest disney store selling pins is an 8-9hr round trip for me, and I do not live near any parks etc, this has not stopped me collected, it's more motivated me, and I mainly accquire my pins through trading and friends who help me out, occasionally from the bay too...I buy online from disney store uk when I can also. Pin collecting rules!!!!!!
 
I've always collected pins and buttons. When Pin Trading came out it was like a dream come true! Then I just had to buy extras to trade to find ones I never got or to get from other parks! My only problem was I collected too much in the beginning. Now, many years later, I think maybe, possibly, I have it under control until they come out with some other pin I want that doesn't fit into my "collections".
:fig::hatbox::phineas:
 
Back during Disneyland's 45th anniversary, my father and I purchased some pins to have a souvenir to commemorate the anniversary. They next year when we went back, I bought a few more and wore them on my Mickey ear'd Safari Hat (anyone else remember that hat? I miss it.). And the next year I purchased a few more, then the next year I purchased a few more, and on and on and on. I remember one year when we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, they gave us a small bag of 4 pins to trade or keep. Needless to say, this only fueled my pin collecting fire!
 
We started one evening in 2002 when we were staying in Disneyland Paris we decided to collect the hotel pin from each of the hotels own shops as well as a pin from each land actual bought in a store in each land and one for space mountain the first year we came back with 13 pins the following year it was over 150!
 
wow 14 people and 14 very different stories. For me i am not really crafty or a collector, but since 2000 on every disney trip i let my kids and i buy a pin a day in the parks--actually one of the more less expensive souviners and doesn't take up any room in the luggage OH I AM SO SMART HUH? Then last winter something happened:eek2: I finally wasnt on a tight budget and saw the aristocats booster set and peter pan and i got both and then my eyes opened wide, and SAW all the other pins and my hands shook and i drooled alittle and well im screwed. I started buying each day and traded with CM and came home to nj with like 15 pins and started on ebay, disney store....then i found pinpics THANK GOD because i was hand catalogging and did my first trade with a very trusting lady named......JUDY who suggested i come dpf and check it out. thank tiggermickey! Well as of last stupid count i'm somewhere at about 1400+ pins, and love each and everyone of them..like little works of art. I also hit the antique stores, aution houses and estate/garage sales, like a junky looking for a fix. BUT AS YOU ALL KNOW I AM NOT ALONE!
 
I've always loved collecting things (Pokemon cards, Star Wars cards, rocks, etc) and I've always been a huge fan of Disneyland. I've been going since I was a little boy, but I didn't even know pins existed until my ex-girlfriend of a few years back told me about them. The moment I started collecting I fell in love with going to the park and trading with cast members. It took me awhile to transition into trading with fellow guests and for LE pins, but after a year of hidden mickeys I knew I had to jump in head first. Now I'm hooked and I couldn't be happier. And ironically my ex-girlfriend doesn't collect anymore. :)
 
Amazing to see how different all these lovely stories are :)

I started out in pin trading the first time they arrived in the park and I was there :). I was only 10 years old and me and my Dad both loved them! He bought me and my brother a starter lanyard and some pins we really liked to keep. We also got a mistake pin that dad swore would "be valuable some day" lol.

I bought a box set with my holiday money as I loved one of the pins in it, then I traded some of the other in the set with CM's.

All of this is Paris trading as I'm a UK trader :). I loved trading and getting cute pins so I got a few more each time I went, relatives that went would bring me one back too. I'll never forget when my nan brought me back a "Shanti" pin from Jungle book too when I asked for a "Stitch" pin xD

I have around 60 pins now in my collection which is more than enough for me so I like to have traders that I cycle in and out for other pins and just try to get cute pins to have a sweet looking collection. Only got into DPF when I did some googling a couple of weeks ago, whilst preparing for my first Paris trip without my parents and also for my first Pin Trading Night :)
 
I have been collecting pins and buttons (not limited to Disney pins) for about 30 years now. They have been my main souviners from my visits to places or activities. They are releative cheap, fairly small and usually not breakable. This makes my collection generally representative of memories of particular events and trips. The few themes I have are again representative of things I like (Epcot, Disney Afternoon, etc).

kajtdd
 
I have always had a bit of a ocd collecting habit when I start to like something lol so that kinda helps.

When I was in WDW for the first time I was 17 and I got two pins, one I bought and one from my mum. I thought they was facinating as you dont get disney merch like this in the UK. But I was only 17, in my "I hate everything I hate my life I hate myself" phase so I spent most of my holiday money on band merch from the malls that I couldnt get in the UK.

Then in 2008 I was back in WDW (which happened to be the last time ive been there since) and whoa...did it kick off!!
I went straight back to staring and being in awe of the pins but I didnt buy any..until...
I was talking to a very lovely cast member who was saying that his sister lives in the UK and was talking about fish and chips lol and then he handed me one of these;
pin54034


And I was like..wow! that is so kind and amazing. so I then decided I had to buy more to go with it, it was only right!
And also I was there for my 21st birthday so I wanted to buy stuff that I could keep as memories that would last. As it was my 21st birthday I bought 21 pins lol

On my last day at down town disney there was the trader tables and I was talking to one of the ladies who had a stall. and she explained to me about pin trading and if I was interested to check out a site called dizpins. first thing I done when I got home in the UK I went straight online and found the forum :)

I then built up collections of characters that I love and was hooked on dizpins. Ive always found it hard fitting in everywhere and on here, I feel like I can be myself, sharing the hobby with different people of all backgrounds and ages without judging each other. It was really nice :) so I decided to carry on collecting :)
 
My wife and I bought our first pins on our pre-honeymoon, thats the one where you try marriage for a long weekend to see if you are really in LOVE! Several years later we took our 1st Son - YES, we were really in LOVE, for his first trip. I had found out a bit about these pins on the old dizpin board and that people traded them at the park. OK, harmeless enough, after 4 trips to the outlet mail to buy booster packs, we left our first week long trip to Disney with about a hundred pins. Mostly Hidden Mickey but did score a few really nice pins, remember the good ole days when there were really nice pins on lanyards. We have kept this up now thru 3 kids to help with social skills and manners. It has worked great, we now have a 13 yr old who can competently wait on customers in our shop, a 6 yr old and a 4yr old who aren't far behind.
 
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