This is a special topic for me because my during my Disney College Program I started to collect and trade pins. Before my DCP, I did not understand what pin trading was or why people bothered to collect pins. To be honest, before my DCP I thought it was a childish hobby. To be honest, now after my DCP I still think that it is a childish hobby but I know now that there is nothing wrong with childish hobbies. Pin trading is a fun activity for all ages! I love the interactions between cast members and guests and guests with other guests. Pin trading involves the entire family/group of guests and I am impressed by those who have been collecting for years. I have seen some of the guest's pin collection books and they are beautiful! I wish that I would have educated myself years ago about pins instead of being judgmental about them. However, I have learned the valuable lesson to not judge a book by its cover. In this post, I am going to be showing my pin collection, my favorite pins, and my favorite places to get pins!
As stated above, I began to collect and trade pins during my DCP. In previous posts, I have discussed how my job at Disney included pin trading. I loved this aspect of my job and it inspired me to start my own collection. I received most of my pins through trading. I would buy pins and then trade them with the cool pins I came across while working. At my location, the cast members were allowed to swap pins they received from guests at work with ones that they bought or had on their own. The only rule we had was to have the correct number of pins on our lanyard at all times and to not swap in front of guests. During my shifts I always had a few spare pins of my own in my pocket in case I came across a pin I liked during trading. Our leaders would also frequently refresh our lanyards to make sure that we had trading worthy pins for the guests to pick from. I am really glad that my leaders encouraged us to be active with pin trading for ourselves and for the guests! I even had a few times where a guest was looking for a specific pin that I did not have on my lanyard but I knew I had in my pocket from my own collection and I was able to trade with them that way, it really made these guests feel extra special!
My current pin collections are broken up into the categories of; Food, International, Pixar, Princesses, and Stitch. I chose these five main categories to start off with because they are what brings me the most joy. I do also have a pin board of miscellaneous pins and I believe that I will start a ride category in the future as well.
Food
My favorite pins that I have in this collection are the Pink Macaroon, Tinkerbell Dole Whip, and Sorcerer Mickey Candy Apple. A fun fact about these three pins is that they are all Hidden Mickey Pins. Hidden Mickey Pins are pins given specifically to cast members to trade and not available through retail sale.
International
Starting on the left side and going down the pins are from: Shanghai (Grand Opening - Limited Edition of 300), Shanghai (Grand Opening - Limited Edition of 300), Disney Vacation Club, and Tokyo Disneyland
Starting on the right side and going down the pins are from: Shanghai (Grand Opening - Limited Edition of 300), Cruise Line, Aulani, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Disneyland Paris
Pixar
This is my favorite overall lanyard because I love Pixar and I think that these pins are the cutest. My favorite pins are the Mike Wazowski and Sulley. The Mike Wazowski pin is a limited edition of 1,000.
Princesses
My favorite pins that I have in this collection are Tiana's Shoe, Pascal, and the Lantern. The Lantern pin took me forever to find!
Stitch
While I do not have a Stitch themed lanyard yet, I do have five Stitch pins to add to it when I do get it!
Where to Buy
Animal Kingdom
My favorite location to buy pins at Animal Kingdom is the DinoLand Cart. The DinoLand Cart is located on the outskirts of DinoLand U.S.A. heading to Discovery Island. I may be biased since I used to work at this location but I absolutely love it for pin trading. This is the place where I got captured by pin collecting and trading. You can buy all sorts of pins at this location as well as participate in trading. There is typically a pin board as well as the cast member working the cart available to participate in trading. My best advice is to be patient while trading because the cast member has to balance selling merchandise as well as trading with guests. My favorite aspect of pin trading was being able to ask guests to answer trivia questions about all things Disney. Make sure you brush up on your trivia because not all trades are a simple interaction, cast members try to make each trade a magical moment by adding some extra Disney fun!
Epcot
My favorite location to buy pins at Epcot is at the store underneath Spaceship Earth. I am unfamiliar with the name but this store sells loads of pins. During festivals, you can find festivals pins at this location! The boot pin on my Pixar lanyard and the hat pin on my Princesses lanyard are both Flower & Garden Festival pins.
Hollywood Studios
My favorite location to buy pins at Hollywood Studios is Sunset Ranch Pins and Souvenirs. It is located on Sunset Boulevard next to Anaheim Market. It is a one stop shop for all things pins.
Magic Kingdom
My favorite location to buy pins at Magic Kingdom is Frontier Trading Post. It is located in Frontierland and has lots of pins to shop and swap.
Disney Springs
My favorite location to buy pins at Disney Springs is Pin Traders. It is located in Marketplace and has a large variety of pins.
In conclusion, I hope you enjoyed learning more about the simple joys of pin collecting and trading. I hope that you learned from my mistakes to not judge a book by its cover. Lastly, I hope that you learned that it is okay to have childish hobbies as long as what you are doing makes you happy and does not cause harm to others.
Happy Trading!
Pictured on the left: Some of my miscellaneous pins featuring Stitch, The Great Movie Ride, and an Artist Pin of Dumbo
Pictured on the right: Some of my miscellaneous trading pins
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