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View Full Version : Pin Collectors... How much money?



snappy
02-13-2007, 09:07 AM
I refuse to begin another hobby, but wanted to know how deep does pin trading go for YOU???

1. How long have you been collecting and trading?
2. How much do you think you've spent to date on pins?
3. How addictive is it?
4. Is there ever an end?
5. Is it ok not to make a trade if you don't like theirs?
Just curious....

cakeunit3
02-13-2007, 09:23 AM
We just got back from DL, I have been looking at this hobby for years and trying to not get involved, but it happened this year......We spent enough on pins this time to get 6 free pins......(every $25 you spend you get a free one) So I am in deep for this trip, the kids had a blast trading though, made a few new friends and ended up with several pins, I came home and ordered one of the "binder" type pin holders.

yenko427
02-13-2007, 09:32 AM
We bought probably 20 pins during out first trip down there and made some trades. You do not have to trade if you do not like the other persons pins. We are started to get into it and it is a bottomless pit..........but we are having a good time doing it.

Vegitabeta
02-13-2007, 09:34 AM
I just buy ones I like and put them on a lanyard, I don't trade, although I did once in DLP. The CM couldn't understand why I didn't want a princess pin lol. It does get expensive though, I bought 5 pins once and it came to $50 something...

samsma
02-13-2007, 09:35 AM
We are going to DL tommorrow, and have not done pin trading before. This time we have pre-purchased some sale pins from the Disney store to start us out. One question about the spend $25 get a pin thing, does that count on the Lanyard sets too, as we need to purchase one to put our pins on.

Mickeygirlforever
02-13-2007, 09:40 AM
I started about 3 years ago. It wasn't supposed to go very far, we just got a few pins and a lanyard because we'd booked through a travel agency. I decided that I was going to buy 1 pin each time I went to Disneyland, something special to remember the trip by. I don't know what happened but it got out of control. When people say it's addictive, it really is. I now have 3 lanyards full (which reminds me next time I go, I need to buy a new lanyard), and have 35 pins total. It's probably close to $350 - $400 worth. It's not rude to not trade, I do it all the time. I don't collect just to collect though, each of my pins has a story behind it, why I bought it. I don't see an end to mine, it's just something I'll treasure doing.

Gone2Disneyland
02-13-2007, 09:46 AM
I'm like Vegitabeta, buying pins I like and either putting them on ears or on a shelf. Just bought a shadow box to display most of what I have.

For the 50th celebration, I have those pins on my gold Mickey ears. I have an older blue Mickey ears with a variety of pins all over it. I have a lanyard I got in the mail from Kellogg's with a few exclusives from them. And lately I just pick up the annual passholder exclusives, if I like the design, or if I've spend the minimum $30 for one of the boxed restaurant pins series.

So lately I spend about $30 a month, generally only when cool annual passholder pins come out, and on average I usually just buy one or two pins.

charpaul
02-13-2007, 09:49 AM
The $20 for a free pin os ONLY good for the "pin with purchase" deal that is on the 1st Sunday of the month. If you spend over $20 dollars in pin mercahndise you get the "free" pin that they are handing out this time. When those are all gone you will not get anymore free pins. Some of the free pins are gone in a single day... other linger for up to a week.


I have been collecting for about 4 years now.... I REALLY don't know how much I have spent and REALLY don't want to know....
I DO have an almost complete set of the "50 Milestone Pins" that I am STILL trying to complete. That set alone has over 50 parts (extra pins for special days, attractions, etc...) at about $10 each.... you do the math!!

It CAN get expensive. But it is a hobby now. NO - it never ends, ther is always a "new" pin out there.

NO - you do not HAVE to trade. Some pin collectors are sharks that do for the pins with the most collectable value... Try to stay away from those if you can (the people - not the pins:D )

CM's with trading lanyards on DO have to trade. That is part ot pin trading at the resort. You can ask a CM to trade anything on their lanyard for anything that you wish to give up. That is how I have gotten a LOT of great pins for my collection.

snappy
02-13-2007, 10:16 AM
All I can say is WOW!! I've seen people with these huge cases full of pins and can't even begin to think of the cost. But like you guys said it's a hobby and if you have fun doing it, that's what counts.

Vegitabeta
02-13-2007, 10:19 AM
All I can say is WOW!! I've seen people with these huge cases full of pins and can't even begin to think of the cost. But like you guys said it's a hobby and if you have fun doing it, that's what counts.
Just think, if you ever became homeless, you could sell them all!

Mr.Abominable
02-13-2007, 10:20 AM
We are in really deep. My family has over 300 pins which I guess means we have spent over 3000.00 bucks since we started almost 2 years ago. We buy a lot of limited editions and new pins that fit into our respective themes. We try to buy cheaper pins from the Disney Outlets to use for trading with CMs. We take a trip to DLR or WDW evry 6 weeks or so and probably buy 20-30 pins per trip. Scary huh?

charpaul
02-13-2007, 10:31 AM
It all seemed so INNOCENT a few years ago.....

I really like this Mikey Pin - I think I will buy it and wear it.....
Now I have more pins than I know what to do with (I have started framing them like scrapbook page art to dispaly in my house...) and I see no end in site.

Take my advice - IF you want to start collecting - decide up front what you like. That will at least narrow your focus and make it more like making a collection from the beginning.

mommy-san
02-13-2007, 12:13 PM
I personally am just a collector, not a trader. But last trip we saw a family with 2 kids (one maybe 5 and one maybe 3) with lanyards so full the kids couldn't wear theirs. The Dad spent the entire time we were in line at Peter Pan putting the screw on backs on all of their new ones. Then giving the little boy a hard time when he didn't want to wear it. It weighed like 10 pounds!
At that age I'm sure the kid had no concept of real sharing, let alone trading for keeps!

Tinker Bell
02-13-2007, 12:57 PM
I am with Charpaul mostly

1. How long have you been collecting and trading? I have been at it since 2002 when I got a free pin at an event I was attending with my Sister.

2. How much do you think you've spent to date on pins? I do not know and do not waht to even think about how much I have spent.

3. How addictive is it? I narrowed down what I liked to 3 Characters. Plus I really do have to like what the pin looks like. I know alot of people who chose Characters and have to get every pin that Character is on. ( meaning 1,000s of pins) I am up to 730pins and I have a bag full of Traders. I try to limit how many I buy a month. It helps that I trade on line at PinPics.com so i can get ones I miss.

4. Is there ever an end? No

5. Is it ok not to make a trade if you don't like theirs? I will look and always sat Thank you. I never feel bad if there is nothing there for me. I think because I am so picky and harldy trade it works for me. My Sis loves to trade and will trade her max 2 every time.

My DD is 4 and has been trading since she was 2. We do not make her wear a lanyard unless she wants to. I think it is sad if some one does.

I hope this helps even a little

Pirate Princess
02-13-2007, 01:00 PM
So I was thinking about getting into this and went to disneyshopping to check it out.. and whatta know... it is there semi-annual pin sale.. up to 50% off.

Hmmm...

yenko427
02-13-2007, 02:52 PM
Free shipping on pins at the disneyshopping.com on Mondays too.

hbquikcomjamesl
02-13-2007, 03:18 PM
I can't recall the last time I've spent so much as a dime on a pin, except as noted in the bottom paragraph.

On at least one of my WDW vacations, I kept getting handed "freebie" pins that were part of my package deal. My 2004 trip, I was given 2 pin lanyards, each with 2 "starter" pins on it, and I might have gotten them before leaving home. One of them became a thank-you gift to my travel agent.

Lately, most of the guided tours I've taken, both in DL and in WDW, have included a pin of one sort or another.

I occasionally get pins for being a DL passholder.

On at least two occasions, while videotaping figure skating competitions, I've been handed pins that had been commissioned to commemorate the competition itself.

And I have at least half a dozen of the "DL main gate handout" flag pins from many years of celebrating American Independence at DL.

One of these days, I may frame an arrangement of some of these pins. But the only pins I can ever remember buying are an IDIC and a combadge (neither of them in cloisonne, nor in any form of false-cloisonne) I bought at the Lincoln Enterprises table at some Star Trek convention.

yohomama212
02-13-2007, 03:41 PM
I refuse to begin another hobby, but wanted to know how deep does pin trading go for YOU???

1. How long have you been collecting and trading?
2. How much do you think you've spent to date on pins?
3. How addictive is it?
4. Is there ever an end?
5. Is it ok not to make a trade if you don't like theirs?
Just curious....

1. We started about 2 and a half years ago, originally just for DS, but then realized that we like it too. We've really started picking it up more now that we have APs.
2. Probably more than we should have, but not nearly as much as we could have. Around $200 in just pins, but we buy one new pin each on each visit to the park this year.
3. It can get bad at times. We actually considered ordering more food than we were going to eat just so we could get a second dining with character pin on our anniversary!
4. You really can stop any time you want, but how well that sticks depends on your own response to question 3.
5. I've only ever traded with CMs, so I can't specifically answer that, but it's my understanding that all trades between guests must be mutual!

I like pin trading because it doesn't add to the clutter. Can you imagine what my place would be like if I bought a different kind of souvenier every time I went to the park... ears one day, a plush the next, then maybe another toy, then a t-shirt I will wear once, a sweatshirt I fool myself into thinking will fit DS for more than a year! Eventually it will get broken, we'll grow out of it, misplace it, give it away, and it's wasted money. I can say no to my MIL wanting to buy something attrocious for my kids by telling her we only do pins. We can turn down many impulse buys. And I don't get a house full of overpriced DL junk that is wasting more space than money! That's my two cents!

Liz :cool:

IdahoMike
02-13-2007, 03:56 PM
We started in January when I won the pin/lanyard set from the YOAMD team. My 2 oldest boys each got a starter set with the Cars lanyard, and the Pirates lanyard. They have about 18 pins between them, and I have 7 on my lanyard. We got 14 of those 25 pins for free, from the lanyard I won, the starter sets they bought, 3 pin pack for staying at the GCH through getawaytoday, and we also got the free pin on the first Sunday of the month (merlin).
My kids did a lot of trading the last couple of days they were there, as the 6y/o collects Chip n Dale, and the 4 y/o collects Piglet

WITron
02-13-2007, 08:27 PM
I started collecting pins in 2002. The first pins I bought were just souveniers. Then in 2005 before my Christmas trip, I started doing some pin trading online. Last year I started going to a few of the pin meets in my area and trading with them. I have over 100 pins currently and that is continualy going up. There are so many different types of pins that you can collect, it all depends on what interests you and you can collect as many or as few as you want. Like others have said, if someone wants one of your pins and you don't see anything you want, you are not obligated to trade.

Here are some websites that are a good source of pin trading info: http://www.disneypins.com, http://www.pinpics.com, and http://www.dizpins.com

If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me.

Disneymademoiselle
02-13-2007, 09:26 PM
I refuse to begin another hobby, but wanted to know how deep does pin trading go for YOU???

1. How long have you been collecting and trading?
2. How much do you think you've spent to date on pins?
3. How addictive is it?
4. Is there ever an end?
5. Is it ok not to make a trade if you don't like theirs?
Just curious....


1. I started collecting pins in April of 2001 on my first trip to DLR after California Adventure opened. I feel like it was around this time when pin collecting really started to get big.

2. I have close to a hundred pins, with the 50th anniversary pin case to hold all of them, so I'd have to say over a thousand dollars. Dear God, that's scary!!!

3. "Hi, I'm Lauren and I'm addicted to pins." "Hi, Lauren. Remember the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem."

4. There's a 12-step program to "the end."

5. I never trade with other traders because they can refuse to take my hideous pins. Castmembers can't really refuse to take your pins, unless they have several of the same pin, so I just trade with them. I trade very rarely though, because I just buy the pins I like.

JohnGar
02-13-2007, 09:40 PM
1. How long have you been collecting and trading?
2. How much do you think you've spent to date on pins?
3. How addictive is it?
4. Is there ever an end?
5. Is it ok not to make a trade if you don't like theirs?

Funny I should I find this thread: I just bounced over from the DizPins boards to see what's going on here. :D My wife says we don't have kids; we have our pins.

1. I have been collecting pins and buttons for as long as I can remember (mid- to late-70s). I have various Union76 pins for the Rams and Dodgers and a 7-Eleven pin celebrating the Irwindale Raiders. My wife and I started collecting Disney pins when we went for our honeymoon in 2000. I saw they had an AP pin and the limit was 5 per person. I thought, "Who would buy 5 of the same pin?" We joined the pin trading madness on Halloween 2001 by getting this pin (http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=7714). We've been hooked since. :cool:

2. Hard to say. I have more than 1,000 pins in my collection and the wife has more than 200. Maybe with an average cost of $10 a pin. Some I got for free as gift with purchase (yeah, but how much was the purchase), some were for events (more money), many are jumbos (ranging from $25 to $70) and a couple cost hundred dollars because of edition size (http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=39928)and there are framed (http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=39929).

3. You decide that. I used to get every LE (limited edition) pin that Disneyland released that dealt with a holiday. We have now cut back to just certain characters: Chip & Dale and Jiminy Cricket for me. My wife has her characters and will only collect LEs of them. She started collecting Minnie Mouse, but will get the pin if it Minnie BY HERSELF and no one else.

4. You decide that too. I know some traders who took a break to step back and see what they had and regroup. They came back and had pins that some folks thought they would never had a chance to trade for. New traders are born all the time (just look at this thread) and they might want a pin that was released years ago. In fact, I just traded with a woman tonight who has been in it for just six months. The pin I traded to her was released October 26, 2003, while she traded me a pin that came out last summer.

5. DEFINITELY. You both should be happy to make the trade. They are a commodity; you wouldn't buy something if you weren't happy with making the purchase, would you? :confused: I'll stop CMs to see their lanyards, but I don't NEED to trade with them. I'm just seeing if they have anything I MIGHT be interested in. And I follow proper ettiquette when making trades. Yes, there is is ettiquette involved.

If anyone has any other questions, send me a private message; I'll be glad to answer them. I could go on and on about pin trading, but I need sleep.

I can say that I helped two members of Mousepad with pin trading on Feb. 4 when they were visiting from Arizona. You know who you are. :D

cakeunit3
02-14-2007, 11:20 AM
Just as an afternote to the above post....My oldest child took her lanyard and pins (10 total) to school yesterday......Her "friends" are now the proud owner of Disney pins......Off to web shopping......