Old Skool Pin Trader
Hi,
My name is Lisa and I began collecting and trading pins in 1998 when I was 16 years old. I lived very near to Disneyland and my friends and I used to go to the park every Friday night after school. One summer night 1998 in tommorowland I noticed some cast members wearing lanyards with pins and I thought the tommorowland attractions pins were so beautiful. The cast members explained about this thing called pin trading and that it had been going on unofficially for years (since the 80's I think is what I was told) and that now you could trade with cast members.
So, I bought a lanyard and some ugly pins off the pin cart (so I would have to trade them away) and thus began my habit. Every friday I would buy a few pins for $6.00 off a cart to trade away that night. I remember at first you could only buy black lanyards. Then one day they had colored ones! Soon after that I remember seeing the first booster packs and pin sets that included lanyards with pins on them! After a few years I collected a few hundred pins and bought myself a large embroidered pin bag pretty near when they first became available I believe (It says Disneyland 45th anniversary on it).
When I turned 18 I got a job working in Innoventions (2001) and I got the opportunity to trade pins as a cast member. I would check in in the morning and in the lead office there would be a few lanyards hanging on the wall. If you wanted to wear one you could grab it and after your shift you would hang it back up. The only requrement was that there were 12 pins when you brought it back.
Later that year I decided to move away to college and pin trading experiances were few and far between. I visited WDW and collected a few pins there, I bought a few over the internet, and I collected some on my visits to see my family back home in California.
Last year I moved back home and got myself an annual pass. I'm so excited to have gotten back into the hobby but I'm finding it 's a much more complicated affair than it used to be. I'm trying to learn all I can about identifying scrappers / counterfits because trading with cast members is how it all started with me and I love the hunt!
I know a lot about what it was like in the beginning of pin trading, and I'm pretty up to date on pins from 2010 and 2011, but I still have a lot to learn about went on in the pin trading world while I was away. I do remember seeing the first counterfit pins and thinking they were really cheep and easy to identify reproductions. I'm sure I came across plenty of sedesma and propins. Now a-days though, the counterfiters are getting dang good and it's really made me sad to see this happen to such an awesome and fun hobby. I have lots of memories of "the good old days" when you didn't really worry about counterfits. Still, I feel like if I can really know my stuff about pins and learn as much as I can about spotting fakes, trading with cast members can still be fun for me.
My favorite pins are attractions pins and I also collect Aurora, my favorite princess. I have a few hidden mickey sets that I love and hope are real. I don't believe in collecting pins just because you have to have every single Aurora pin or every single Space Mountain pin, but in collecting pins that you find have a pleasing shape and color scheme. I apprechiate them as little works of art, just as I did that fateful summer night in 1998 when I got into the hobby.
So, that's a little about me. I'm here to learn as much as I can and to assist in any way I can to further the science of counterfit pin identification. I would absolutely love to make some pin-friends who can teach me what they know!
My name is Lisa and I began collecting and trading pins in 1998 when I was 16 years old. I lived very near to Disneyland and my friends and I used to go to the park every Friday night after school. One summer night 1998 in tommorowland I noticed some cast members wearing lanyards with pins and I thought the tommorowland attractions pins were so beautiful. The cast members explained about this thing called pin trading and that it had been going on unofficially for years (since the 80's I think is what I was told) and that now you could trade with cast members.
So, I bought a lanyard and some ugly pins off the pin cart (so I would have to trade them away) and thus began my habit. Every friday I would buy a few pins for $6.00 off a cart to trade away that night. I remember at first you could only buy black lanyards. Then one day they had colored ones! Soon after that I remember seeing the first booster packs and pin sets that included lanyards with pins on them! After a few years I collected a few hundred pins and bought myself a large embroidered pin bag pretty near when they first became available I believe (It says Disneyland 45th anniversary on it).
When I turned 18 I got a job working in Innoventions (2001) and I got the opportunity to trade pins as a cast member. I would check in in the morning and in the lead office there would be a few lanyards hanging on the wall. If you wanted to wear one you could grab it and after your shift you would hang it back up. The only requrement was that there were 12 pins when you brought it back.
Later that year I decided to move away to college and pin trading experiances were few and far between. I visited WDW and collected a few pins there, I bought a few over the internet, and I collected some on my visits to see my family back home in California.
Last year I moved back home and got myself an annual pass. I'm so excited to have gotten back into the hobby but I'm finding it 's a much more complicated affair than it used to be. I'm trying to learn all I can about identifying scrappers / counterfits because trading with cast members is how it all started with me and I love the hunt!
I know a lot about what it was like in the beginning of pin trading, and I'm pretty up to date on pins from 2010 and 2011, but I still have a lot to learn about went on in the pin trading world while I was away. I do remember seeing the first counterfit pins and thinking they were really cheep and easy to identify reproductions. I'm sure I came across plenty of sedesma and propins. Now a-days though, the counterfiters are getting dang good and it's really made me sad to see this happen to such an awesome and fun hobby. I have lots of memories of "the good old days" when you didn't really worry about counterfits. Still, I feel like if I can really know my stuff about pins and learn as much as I can about spotting fakes, trading with cast members can still be fun for me.
My favorite pins are attractions pins and I also collect Aurora, my favorite princess. I have a few hidden mickey sets that I love and hope are real. I don't believe in collecting pins just because you have to have every single Aurora pin or every single Space Mountain pin, but in collecting pins that you find have a pleasing shape and color scheme. I apprechiate them as little works of art, just as I did that fateful summer night in 1998 when I got into the hobby.
So, that's a little about me. I'm here to learn as much as I can and to assist in any way I can to further the science of counterfit pin identification. I would absolutely love to make some pin-friends who can teach me what they know!
