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When and Why did you start collecting?

When and Why did you start collecting?

PunkiePoo

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Do you remember?

I started because Disney gave us a free lanyard & a couple pins with our vacation package. My son liked it. Wore his. Bought pins. Encouraged me to buy some, so I did, to make him happy.

I enjoyed picking them out. Soon we were both buying pins everywhere we went.

He outgrew his love of pins. I have not, lol. I've been buying them ever since.
 
Oooh good question! For me it was last year when I'd only first gotten the Disney bug and was planning a WDW vacation for my family. The thing about me is when I learn about something that looks interesting, I agressively research it so when I saw pin trading on a planning video I kind of fell down the rabbit hole from there.

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Ooh, great question! I live within driving distance of DLR (I'm talking an average of a little less than an hour from doorway to main gate, depending upon traffic) and have had an annual pass for as long as I can remember. I recall seeing pins come into the park with the millennium and glancing at the carts on occasion with nothing more than mild passing curiosity. While I thought a few of them were cute, and I had received a few here and there from performing at Disney or attending AP events, I didn't feel any desire to buy one or even collect beyond the ones I had been given. Until that trip to WDW in 2003 (I think) when I was 'rained' into pin trading:

My family decided to take a trip out to WDW in July 2003. The timing was obvious as it fit into my academic schedule, but as far as why we picked WDW in July ... I'll never know. The weather was what you would expect: hot, humid, with predictable afternoon thunderstorms that lasted, on average, 1-3 hours. So on a Friday afternoon (old-timers will know why the day is important), we were at the Magic Kingdom when the sky just opened up. We took shelter in a store; after about 45 minutes, when it showed no signs of letting up, we jumped on the monorail and got off at the Contemporary. Somehow I managed to talk our way into getting seated at Chef Mickey's (we did not have reservations); we were given a pager and set off to wander around the concourse floor while waiting for our table.

As the old-timers will remember, the Contemporary used to host a pin trading night every Friday night, which we unknowingly walked into. After spending what seemed like the fastest 45 minutes walking around the event, looking at pins, talking to both the guests and cast members, and learning about trading, the pager signaling our table was ready. The next day, I bought my first pins ... and I've been going pretty much ever since.
 
I had always purchased pins as souvenirs, going back to my first trip to Disneyland in 2005 for the 50th anniversary. Mostly of the parks (Disneyland, DLP, and Tokyo Disney) or particular rides, namely 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Nautilus Gifts at Tokyo DisneySea. I was a fan of Jules Verne and Victorian Science Fiction before getting back into Disney as an adult. In fact, films like 20,000 Leagues and Atlantis are part of what drew me back into the Disney fold (that and the Goth cred of the Haunted Mansion). I didn't start seriously collecting until after my trip to Disneyland in 2012. I saw all these people wearing lanyards around the park and thought it was kinda' neat. They're such interesting and pretty little icons that linked people together in a shared identity as Disney fans while also showing off the diversity of what each person is into... What films, characters and rides they like, what parks they've been to, and so on.

So I kept up souvenir pins, but also started a particular collection of pins based on Jules Verne rides, films, etc. featuring Mickey and Co. It was a deliberately narrow collection, partly because that's the big thing I'm into and partly because it wouldn't have a tonne of pins to collect! I collect lots of things and don't have the cash to chase after a million pins. Since 2012 I've gotten to wear them at WDW in 2014 and Disneyland in 2015 (I didn't bring them to Paris when we went in 2013) and they were fun conversation starters. I remember one castmember in particular, in the shop in the Grand Floridian, who was also into Jules Verne/Steampunk/Victorian Sci-Fi and was totally into my pins.

I've thought about maybe expanding into other things I'm into, but it always falls short for lack of money and ambition. If Hot Topic up here in Canada actually sold those Fantasia pins from Loungefly I probably would have bought those, since that's my favourite movie. But they didn't, so meh. Thought about a Main St. USA collection too, but always pass up the pins when the opportunity to buy them actually presents itself (like the Dapper Dans set I saw in 2015). I think part of what hurts it is that we don't really go to Disney anymore, so I don't have anywhere to show them off and enjoy that community aspect of pin collecting. I haven't been to any Disney park since 2015. Is what it is.
 
June 2000 stood at the pin cart in Tomorrowland at Disneyland and told myself I’d pick just one pin...

My WDW CP in 2001 officially started the madness and ended my program with 7 full lanyards

moved back to Florida in 06 with a large book full

Now? Plausible deniability.. we have a room filled with atleast 10,000 if not more...
 
June 2000 stood at the pin cart in Tomorrowland at Disneyland and told myself I’d pick just one pin...

My WDW CP in 2001 officially started the madness and ended my program with 7 full lanyards

moved back to Florida in 06 with a large book full

Now? Plausible deniability.. we have a room filled with atleast 10,000 if not more...
10,000?!

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June 2000 stood at the pin cart in Tomorrowland at Disneyland and told myself I’d pick just one pin...

My WDW CP in 2001 officially started the madness and ended my program with 7 full lanyards

moved back to Florida in 06 with a large book full

Now? Plausible deniability.. we have a room filled with atleast 10,000 if not more...


Told wife you make my collection of 2800 looks small. She loves to tell pin people "Ask him how many he has..."
I too started in the Fall of year 2000. I blame my kids for giving me a Cruella De Vil pin from
Countdown to the Millennium Series at the Disney Store. They told me "we" need to collect these.(101 pins!)
Well Disney dangled the hook each week and I bit. The SF Bay Area had plenty of Disney Stores to scour. (No internet yet)
Living in CA, with relatives in Orlando, helped to fuel the hunt. Then came the Internet, Ebay, I meet a guy who only dealt in LE's
and the addiction was born. Moved to WDW in 2017 and well...
Did I say its Thursday?? time to head out for this weeks new pin release... retired life... bye...


 
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My first pins were bought at Disneyland around 2001. They were the bad boys and bad girls pins (villains). They were the perfect size souvenirs and I still have them. The next year my family and I went to WDW. Apparently, the leftover pins from the princess ball event had just been put out. I got all 6 prince pins, and now I have started a hobby and a collection. Now it’s 18 years and so many pins later, I still love it all.
 
Awesome idea for a thread. Great question!

Well, I've been to Disneyland Paris seven times and Walt Disney World, Florida once.

On my last trip, over Christmas 2018, I had gone with the intention of picking up a couple of lanyards and some pins. I can't remember exactly why this trip, and not all the other trips before it... I may well have found the pins on eBay while I was getting excited for my trip. That had got me intrigued in Disney Pin Trading to begin a new hobby as I've always loved collecting memorabilia and merchandise of things I enjoy.

To be honest, on a few trips several years ago, I had seen the pin trading stands and never quite got it. I was always interested by it but couldn't see myself getting into it. Pretty ironic now, I guess.

I'm yet to make a single trade. I've bought my entire collection either in Disneyland Paris or on eBay! I reckon I had collected that way for 10 months and then I discovered this forum in October...

However, I'm still yet to make a trade!

I plan on going on my next Disneyland Paris trip in November 2020 I reckon. I will be taking my Phantom Manor lanyard with some swaps I have and will be trading with a Cast Member, I'm sure.

I also wonder if I'll make a trade on this forum before I get to DLRP. Time will tell!

I'm loving the hobby though. Considering this is my first year collecting, I have them hung up on a wall, now in 8 frames. I've amassed six collections so far...

The main reason I do it is that it is a small way of bringing the parks home with me. I've since themed my bedroom to Phantom Manor/Haunted Mansion. But the pins are a beautiful souvenir from trips or a great way of expressing my lifelong love of all things Disney.

They're also something of a fun investment. haha
 
Ohh I really had to think about this.

My aunt invited me on a Disney cruise with her and my younger cousins when I was 19 or so. We were flying into Florida to leave from there, and stopped at the Disney Store in the airport. It was the same year that Tangled came out, and something about that little OE Rapunzel pin spoke to me. My aunt encouraged me to buy it... so then it begun. In the airport on our way home, I ended up buying all the OE single princess pins they had.

I had started collecting Disney DVDs a few years prior with the release of TLM platinum edition, and pins just seemed a lot more accessible and inexpensive (LOLing now at that thought.)

I have no idea what keeps me into the hobby. I’ve had a few sporadic years where I really wasn’t checking new releases, and I live no where near the parks so pins didn’t cross my mind. And then I have years where I’m adding dozens of pins to my collection all of a sudden and at once XD

Ah well. Cool topic and I’m loving reading everyone’s story.


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Started on a family trip to WDW in 2000. Would buy a few each trip. But have really got into the hobby over the past 2 years.
 
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