Another Disney Question

I have bought from verified eBay sellers. We go to Disney a lot, my son loves trading the pins! Forget what JC is saying, do the pins and enjoy the experience!

Don't listen to the naysayers. I have bought pins from disneyfamily801 on eBay and they were all in good condition and tradable.

Although I would think twice about buying the pins from a seller in China or Hong Kong. I suppose I ASSuME maybe those are the bad ones? I have no data to back that up.

I can also say that you are looking at and inspecting the employee's pins and lanyards before trading and whether you trade is ultimately up to you. If it looks defective - don't trade for it.

My husband got the pin lanyard back when we had our annual passes and we were going a lot. I cracked up when he showed me, like "oh no you're one of THEM now!". But it actually turned out to be pretty fun. We never stopped to trade pins at an inopportune time, like when we were in line or something. We never worried about whether pins were authentic or what, because we were trading them anyway, not keeping them forever. We never bought any off the internet. He bought a starter lanyard at the gift shop for like $20-25 that had Nightmare Before Christmas pins on it. We started trading those out and there are other "sets"you can try to hunt around for, we'd get as many "villains" as we could, then start over with Tinkerbell fairies, then Alice in Wonderland etc.

I have to say though, when I look back on the pictures from that year, my hubs looks like a major Disneyland douche with his backpack, glasses, Disney shirt and rocking the pin lanyard. Don't tell him I said that ;)

It is true that the black market is pretty bad for Disney Pins. The best bet is to buy ones new on the cards, but sometimes even then you'll find one that is swapped out. Cast Members try to keep the fake ones out of circulation when they can, but even then it's not always a guarantee.

I was going to suggest the best book I have ever read on fake pins. It's called How To Spot Fake Disney Pins at Disneyland, Disney World, or Online for Kindle but from the looks of it, it's not available now for some reason. I'll put the link just in case it becomes available again. http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Disneyland-World-Online-eboo...

The big thing is to take a look at the pin, if the paint job looks sloppy or the colors look off then it's highly likely it's a fake. If it's attracted to a magnet it's a fake. An official pin will make more of a metallic ring like when you drop a coin, a fake might make more of a plastic rattling sound. The weight may be off on a fake pin.

Trading with cast members is much better than with random people. They do have areas set up for people to trade my a couple of the pin shops, I would be less inclined to go to those until you really know what you are looking for.

If you have a smartphone, iPhone or Android, I highly recommend the free App "Mousewait". There are a ton of pin collectors and they have a lot of information. One of the Mousewait members is the person that wrote the book I wanted to recommend.

But, in the end. Just have fun with it. Some people don't really care if it's a fake, it's something they liked and that is all that matters.

We love trading pins and have many for each of us. My "favorite saves" are all the holidays. We have been every holiday and I have the pin for it, it is so fun ! We buy new and keep. The kids buy a pack that they don't care about.........like pooh babies and then trade them through out the park for the ones they do like.........

It is so irritating to me when you are standing in a long line, finally you are up next but the kids in front of you want to exchange pins with the cashier so now you are waiting another 5 minutes. I just do not get the whole pin exchange thing. It seems like such a waste of time (and money) to me.
Have a great time though. Disney is so much fun!!

I would recommend getting a book to keep them in and not the neck holder (you will find different options in the parks). I find so many on the ground that have fallen off.

They are fun to collect and you can trade with most of the employees or other park guests. I have never looked into buying them on EBay since we are frequent visitors to the parks (we live local). There are stands that sell them all over Disney and they are priced differently (color coded). They also have mystery pins that you can’t see until you purchase and open the package.

Have fun on your trip, drink lots of water (it’s very humid that time of year) and always wear sunscreen and comfy shoes.

ekkk, my 1st thought was if your hubby is already cranky, don't bring him to Orlando in JULY! LOL

We bought an eBay lot of 25 pins before our first trip and our friends bought a lot of 50. We had a BLAST trading them!! I highly recommend it. My husband and I each chose a "theme" that we wanted to collect, our boys just traded as things caught their eye. The park staff is pretty good at giving you a heads up if your two year old is about to trade an expensive pin for a super cheap one :)
It is absolutely worth the risk to buy an eBay lot. It worked out fine for us, we had no problem trading them and they all appeared to be authentic with the proper patterned backs, official designs, etc.
Let me know if you find any good Figment ones that you want to trade via mail!! :)

Ok we collect them for fun. My daughter and I first got over the neck material to hold the pins on. When you trade them sometimes you get really bad backs and they will come off while walking. My daughter got tired of carrying the over the neck material so I end up carrying 2. Next time out we got the square ones that works so much better. So now we alway keep the good backs when trading and while we purchased a few nice ones we really liked. We then usually buy the cheap mystery ones and trade those for good ones of the employees. The hidden M's are fun to find.

So much fun!! Right before we went, I scored a set of ten pins from a Disney Store Outlet for $10. My daughter had so much fun trading them.

Just go ahead and grab some and buy a lanyard there. Or, if you are willing to spend some cash, buy some pins onsite when you get there. But that is really the expensive way to go.

And remember, when you kids see a pin they like on a Cast Member, the cast member MUST trade it with them. Have a great time!

I would not worry about trading pins. Between the heat, the crowds and a cranky husband, you won't have time to go around trading. Have fun!

We went for the 1st time this past August. We took the advice of others & bought the trading pins online prior to going. The online pins were fine. The problem was that my kids weren't interested for 3 days of our 6 day vacation, and they only started to get interested because my husband & I kept encouraging them, since we spent so much money on the pins! Once they got the hang of looking for them & asking to trade, they did enjoy it. And while they like having them (at home), I've only seen them pull them out once to show someone.

To sum it up, I wouldn't do it again. =) Disney is fun enough without those!