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Is the WDW annual pin trading event worth it?

Is the WDW annual pin trading event worth it?
spunky-squirrel

spunky-squirrel

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I've been debating whether or not I want to try and go to the Coronado Springs annual pin trading event. Have any of y'all gone before, and if so, do you recommend it? Do you think it's worth flying across the country for? I'd love to hear about your experience.
 
I love it! I fly down from the NYC area every year and wouldn't miss it. That said, I do use points on the flight and the hotel and might feel differently if I was paying.

I always get at least a couple really good pins off the boards (knock wood!) And even when not extra special, they are usually AP/PP which is a lot of fun. Even just monitoring the line and trying to guess when the board will flip is fun. And there is no describing the feeling when the board flips right in front of you.

I like being able to get the pins from the RSP and usually keep many for myself. And enjoy being able to do pickups for other people for the others. They can have some very nice pins some years.

And there is no place where you will have as many people to trade with all at once. I actually find it a little exhausting to try to get to everyone and always end up with some good trades.

And that's not mentioning being able to meet the artists and get your pins signed by them, seeing the new pins coming up, getting to try for the pins in the onsite RSP, etc.

And don't forget the fun of seeing your fellow DPFers in person!
 
Ajk said:
I love it! I fly down from the NYC area every year and wouldn't miss it. That said, I do use points on the flight and the hotel and might feel differently if I was paying.

I always get at least a couple really good pins off the boards (knock wood!) And even when not extra special, they are usually AP/PP which is a lot of fun. Even just monitoring the line and trying to guess when the board will flip is fun. And there is no describing the feeling when the board flips right in front of you.

I like being able to get the pins from the RSP and usually keep many for myself. And enjoy being able to do pickups for other people for the others. They can have some very nice pins some years.

And there is no place where you will have as many people to trade with all at once. I actually find it a little exhausting to try to get to everyone and always end up with some good trades.

And that's not mentioning being able to meet the artists and get your pins signed by them, seeing the new pins coming up, getting to try for the pins in the onsite RSP, etc.

And don't forget the fun of seeing your fellow DPFers in person!
Click to expand...
Now I want to go!
 
Ajk said:
I love it! I fly down from the NYC area every year and wouldn't miss it. That said, I do use points on the flight and the hotel and might feel differently if I was paying.

I always get at least a couple really good pins off the boards (knock wood!) And even when not extra special, they are usually AP/PP which is a lot of fun. Even just monitoring the line and trying to guess when the board will flip is fun. And there is no describing the feeling when the board flips right in front of you.

I like being able to get the pins from the RSP and usually keep many for myself. And enjoy being able to do pickups for other people for the others. They can have some very nice pins some years.

And there is no place where you will have as many people to trade with all at once. I actually find it a little exhausting to try to get to everyone and always end up with some good trades.

And that's not mentioning being able to meet the artists and get your pins signed by them, seeing the new pins coming up, getting to try for the pins in the onsite RSP, etc.

And don't forget the fun of seeing your fellow DPFers in person!
Click to expand...
AJK post is spot on...

The hardest part will be getting a ticket.. struck out in 2025.. after going the previous 3 years
The chance to see what pins will be released in 27 is worth it, also the the traders in person.

If you luv to trade this is the place..
 
The short answer is Yes.

The long answer is that it used to be *really* worth it, until they started having 2 level of packages that splits people into 'haves' and 'have nots' based on what queue number a person pulled, and cutting back things like food cards, event games and the level of the gifts. In addition to extra board hours and a priority queue, the 'have' group gets RSP priority, so if there are 200 expensive packages and an LE 300 pin, you can guess how many are left for the other 1000 attendees. Vs, when all 1200 people were equal in the chance to obtain that popular LE 300 pin. Then if that wasn't enough, they also get to queue earlier for any leftover / returned pins when they become available. If you arrange pre-trades, meet up with DPF people, are generally an extroverted trader it is hard to find as many trading opportunities as you will have at the event.

Last year, they made a massive improvement to the queuing for the board trading experiences. One queue to feed a dozen boards instead of a different queue for each board which made it easy for a small group to cheat the system by stalling, waiting for a board refresh or outright cutting. But the result was the line moved quickly, didn't grow that much beyond an hour. I collect a lot, so even on a stale board I could find a pin or two for my collection. Hopefully, they will do that again. The boards are full of AP, & PP pins. And apparently there are buttons which stand-in for boxed or booster set sized items.
 
I got a buddy who's been to every event since 2020 and she would kill me if I didn't say "IT WAS WORTH IT". So much trading goes on (even if you don't trade with other guests, you get to see next year's pins in great detail and hear about the upcoming event theme. You can trade for AP, PP, and sometimes never fully released pins on the Disney boards. Get your hands at those event pins at cost and do a lot of fun trading with new folks/make new friendships while in line. I've never officially been to an event but did sneak into one by accident (funny story). It was awesome and I highly recommend you try for tickets. IF you don't feel like going to that or it turns out you aren't able to get tickets there will be a crud ton of other events being hosted that weekend at various shops and hotels for you to attend and you could do some epic trading there as well!
 
dznycrzyfmly said:
I got a buddy who's been to every event since 2020 and she would kill me if I didn't say "IT WAS WORTH IT". So much trading goes on (even if you don't trade with other guests, you get to see next year's pins in great detail and hear about the upcoming event theme. You can trade for AP, PP, and sometimes never fully released pins on the Disney boards. Get your hands at those event pins at cost and do a lot of fun trading with new folks/make new friendships while in line. I've never officially been to an event but did sneak into one by accident (funny story). It was awesome and I highly recommend you try for tickets. IF you don't feel like going to that or it turns out you aren't able to get tickets there will be a crud ton of other events being hosted that weekend at various shops and hotels for you to attend and you could do some epic trading there as well!
Click to expand...
Ok. I want to know the story. 🙂
 
Let me set the scene. Picture it: May 2019 - as fresh faced recent college graduate, I was on my "congratulations" trip going to Disney World for the second time. We enjoy hotel hopping for food and pin trading so when we got into Orlando on our first night we decided to hop on a bus and visit Coronado Springs as that was a hotel we'd never been. After we ate dinner, my family explored the hotel with small pinfolio products in hand with real but mostly common pins available for trade. Well, unbeknownst to us, Coronado was hosting the "Celebrating 10 Years of UP" pin event and we just stumbled upon the event. We did ask cast members what was going on and if we could go in and trade... the Cast members working the doors were folks about my age (but I look much younger than I actually am) so I guess being kind and have an adorable face gave my family a pass to go into the event and trade with other folks. I don't remember seeing any giant pin boards but we were able to buy pins that dropped for the event, get some pins signed by Jess Willis and I asked her some questions about being a pin designer, and traded with a crap ton of people. That evening we introduced a lot of mature traders what Loungefly was and I feel like that was the moment when Loungefly really kicked off in popularity... I actually think we met @TiggerSue now that I think about it because the lady we talked to was dressed in cute Tigger ears, a shirt, and was obsessed with trading for what Pooh and friends pins we had on hand. I think this is where we actually heard about the Forum as well... we bought a lot of the Character Connection pieces and several of the other event exclusive pins that weren't purchased on RSPs AND then those pins made it to the parks on our trip days later so we could get more!! It was AMAZING to "sneak" into this event and makes me want to get tickets and become an official event goer one day. Still one of my favorite Disney memories of all time.
 
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