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PTN Last Friday Night

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PTN Last Friday Night
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charlesu

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My family and I attended our 3rd ever PTN last Friday night. We get down to Disney 2-3 times per year and when we can include a PTN it's a great treat. We had a good time but I have to share a couple of things that were disappointing.

One, we heard that PTN is going to quarterly instead of monthly. If that is the case, it's another nail in the pin trading coffin. I'm not sure what Disney is up to but I think someone is being short-sighted there. For us, a PTN is better than months of online trading, buying and selling and it's why we spend hundreds on pins on each trip.

Two, my 12 year old son really wanted to do some trading on his own and he got badly taken advantage of. Unfortunately, it was a very popular set of pins he traded away for a single pin in exchange (nothing that remarkable but something he thought I would like). He was very upset when he realized what he had done and even more upset that he thought he had let me down. I pretended to really like the pin he got me (it's a decent pin) and so he's ok there. But my concern is a bit bigger picture.

What kind of adult would go home from such an event pleased with themselves that they took advantage of a 12 year old kid that was trying to do something nice for their dad?

I know it's a big bad world out there but I would never let a kid make such a bad trade with me (or an adult for that matter).

Is this why Disney seems to be closing down trading? First the tables at Downtown Disney and now eliminating 66% of the pin trading nights?

On the whole we really enjoyed the event and we got some great trades (fair ones) and met some great people. And I think my son learned a good lesson (and not too expensive) that might serve him well later in life.
 
While I sympathise with you about the shark, I disagree about having less PTNs is a bad thing. When there are PTNs more often, it becomes too much like Sundays at the park and you see less people, and they're all the same. Now that disney is restricting PTNs to a smaller amount, more people are planning trips around them, and the nights are bringing more people and more pins. These are people that travel in from out of state, and even from out of country.

Personally, I feel that restricting PTNs to 4 times a year is a benefit to our community. But nothing less than that!
 
This is the main reason why I do not normally attend pin trading night. There are so many people that are ready to take advantage of anyone, including children. It is absolutely disgusting. On the few times I have attended I will usually walk around and look at pins and maybe try to make a trade. What I do is act like I really don't know values of pins and see what the person wants out of my book for the pin or pins I am interested in. And for the most part they go after the most expensive pin in my book. Theirs would be a $20 pin and they would go for my $100 pin. I can't tell you how many times this has happened.

But to be fair, some are honest and will ask for a fair trade. But most are not.

I would suggest staying away unless you are strictly looking, trading with cast members, or have a trade already set up.

I also see this kind of behavior at the pin trading tables on a daily basis. People are being taken advantage of all the time. I think it is just despicable. But once again, it is not everyone, but it is very common.

I did not write this to anger anyone. But that is what I have seen personally. So I just have learned to stay away.
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OH! And yes, I think this is why most of the pin tables have been removed at the parks. There have been many complaints about bad traders.
 
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Someone also told me they were changing PTN to every 3 months. I for one will miss the monthly meet. And I agree Charlesu it seems like another nail in pin trading. Thank goodness for pinpics!
Sorry your son was taken advantage of that is awful.
 
Sorry to hear your son got sharked, but unfortunately a lot of the "regular" traders at PTN events are that way. I went to two events and stopped going after four traders in a row tried to get me to make unfair trades. I made the mistake of admitting I was new, but they assumed that meant I was stupid too. There are a LOT of very wonderful people who trade on these boards and at the big PT event at WDW, but you see the same folks all the time at monthly PTNs. I would go to a quarterly event just because there is a good chance that new traders would plan their trips around the event. I think it would be a good thing and maybe weed out some of the sharks.
 
I'm sorry for you too, Charlesu, that your son got sharked. My thought in that situation is that I really do hope that "what goes around, comes around." (I know it's happened to me, but in the positive way.)

Seems like whoever is running pins these days (no one?), they are determined to taper off the trading aspect of the hobby. Too bad.

Also, at DLR, I've never noticed a greatly reduced crowd of people when they were every month. And maybe because it's just that I'm an experienced (enough) pin trader, but I very rarely run into any outright sharks at PTNs, and if I do, I just walk away and don't trade with them (I can usually tell by watching them with other traders).

And finally, my policy in trading with kids is that unless they are teenagers, I don't trade with them unless they have their parent's permission for a particular trade (unless it's something like a rack for a rack).

Hannette
 
I agree that Disney is making a mistake. I can already feel myself pull away from pin trading, and with no new releases, I'm literally spending thousands less at ds.com (think $300 a week a week after you consider the sets and such). It's great for our bank account, but not for my hobby!

Disney might always have new families and kids and casual collectors, but those of us that get addicted spend more money when we have constant activities/releases. I also have the hobbyist version of ADD- if you bore me, I'll usually drift into a different hobby...heh.

Sucks about your bad trade experience- it happens everywhere. Once, a guy took advantage of my sister and bought all her Barbies at a garage sale for almost nothing. You know, it's easy to get angry about these people, and yeah, they would deserve it. But I've gotten to the point where I just feel sorry for them. It's like this- if material possessions are SO important to them that they have to abandon personal honor and consideration for their fellow human for them, their lives have got to be pretty miserable. I mean, I can get caught up in the collectible thing, too. But I would never steal, and I would never try to pull something over on someone. So while I understand the sometimes maniac nature of the hobby, there's really no excuse for losing your head. Sad.
 
I'm not terribly upset at what happened. After all, it's a small cost for my son to hopefully learn an important life lesson. That's the key. If he really learned something from this then that's worth a lot, much more than the Christmas train.

Hope we can continue to make it to a couple of PTNs going forward.
 
While I had a great time Friday, and enjoyed hanging with JAllenWood, Lucan, and Dented, I did have my own experience with jerks.

Here's my stories of the people that are ruining trading:

Friday, during the day, I was trading at the Epcot tables. An older lady (60s) came by and looked at my books and liked one of my Vinylmation pins. I don't collect them, so I trade them rather easily, but this was a newer pin that hadn't been scrapped. She asked if I would trade anything off her lanyard for it. I pointed to 2 HMs that I didn't need, but was just going to be nice. She said she was saving them for certain people and if there was anything else I would take and I politely said no thanks. She then goes, "Come on, anything?" I still politely decline. She leaves, talks with a CM and then buys a box of vinylmations from the set and luckily gets the one she wanted from me. She puts it on her lanyard, walks over to me and says "Look what I got no thanks to you!" walks a few steps away and says rather loudly "A@#hole!" I was shocked, especially since a father and his little kids were standing at my table.

At PTN, I was sitting down and a family of 4 came by and looked at my pins. They said they were really interested in NBC so I showed them some that I had. They saw I had a PT52 Zero and asked me to look through their book. I didn't see anything I wanted, but was willing to accept the DLR Surprise Mansion Fastpass (even though I already had one). They told me "Are you serious!?! No way!" I went to explain that the Zero is one of the few that HASN'T been scrapped in the set and it had sold for $50+ a while ago and still sells for about $20. I also said the Mansion Fastpass only sells about $12-$15 (both are current of today completed sales). Their reply was "yeah, we know and knew about zero." If you know the values of your pins, don't overvalue and get upset when someone offers you a fair trade.
 
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We went to the PTN and I was shocked as to how others treat people. We have never been before and did not feel really welcomed. I did not know what to expect and there were some really nice people there. We are passholders and go to Disney atleast 2 times a week. At Epcot my son got ripped off by a guy at the tables. It is a shame to scam children, makes me wonder how low some people can get. Like I said we are new to this hobby and have spent a lot of money so far. I hope to see more PTN.
 
Regrettably, there a parties that have no compunction about taking advantage of others. After my first trading event, which my daughter got taken advantage of, I seriously boned up on what I was collecting and make sure that the kids lanyards are loaded with pins that I don't care about. The kids can focus on having fun and I'm not a hovering mother. Now if my daughter finds something nicer she wants to trade for, I come into the picture with my pins - muuuwhaaahaaahaa
 
::shakes head::

That's a great example of why I...

A.) Don't set up at Parks anymore
B.) Walk at PTNs

The first (and only) time I set up at EPCOT, I was caught in the situation that everyone who wanted to trade only had a lanyard full of scrappers to trade. I had a couple of people I suspected were sharks that were trying to push me to trade when I didn't really want to, playing the guilt-trip, etc. At least when we were doing this at DtD, we had *some* traders that would bring their whole bags, instead of baggies full of scrappers.

It's really sad that we basically have to trade with our "shields up"- some people are doing this sort of stuff on purpose, and some by accident (unknowing scrappers). But regardless as to whether or not we can make a trade or not, the rudeness is totally uncalled for. People like that one woman are just trashy. It sucks that it's so hard to just brush off what they say. Logically, we know we should...but emotionally, it's a little harder than that.
 
Ouch I am going to a conference in orlando and booked to go a day early in may in order to go to ptn as I thought it would be and now it looks like thereisnt going to be one I feel like charging disney for the extra hotel night!

Jacqui
 

My heart almost stopped when you said a lady in her 60's at Epcot. That's where this little old lady was on Friday and I tried to be very friendly to the traders. Only one had anything I needed and she made the trade with me. Wish I had seen that rude lady. I'd have run her down with my scooter and crushed her
 

the little old lady was nice and I traded with her too.

Why didn't you stop by my table!!! I was there a good portion of the day (white hat, WDI shirt).
 
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