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QUESTION Your Questions of the Month (July)

I am assuming you are asking more for WDW, given your location. Other Floridians will have to chime in, but as I understand it there will be traders who gather at

Magic Kingdom - In Frontierland
Epcot - Breezeway by Creations Shop
Hollywood Studios - Sid Cahuenga's

but not on any set schedule.

Otherwise, I'm not sure there is much etiquette or rules. Disneyland has rules that people can only trade at their Frontierland tables until 3PM, but WDW doesn't have those type of rules. Sometimes CMs will ask pin traders to leave. "Don't be a jerk." is probably what most people would say, but reading reports on Facebook, you could run into fair traders but also those that would take advantage or trade fakes. No selling on Disney property.

@Captain Fartbeard, @Randakinskywalker
 
Skylinebgrd said:
What are the rules or etiquette for pin trading?

Are there specific areas in the parks and/or specific times outside of any prescheduled events.


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Pin trading can occur any place any time. Just be courteous. If you are in line for a ride, don't hold the line up to trade. Coordinate to meet outside the exit. At EPCOT traders can set up in the breezeway between Starbucks and Connections. At MK they used to set up near the Christmas shop near Liberty Tavern. Haven't seen many traders set up at Studios, AK, or Springs. I have a backpack with a clear vinyl cover to display pins I am trading. Sometimes I get several requests, other times nothing. Pin trading has not returned to the pre pandemic level.
 
The basic DLR info was pretty much answered above - guest to guest trading from rope drop to 3pm daily at the tables in Frontierland at DL. And all day long guests can trade at pin boards or with cast members wearing neck or hip lanyards.

But to add some color: "trivia trading" with CM's was pretty big for the past year or two involving a higher level of pins being traded - aka all authentic and usually nicer stuff like rack pins or mystery pins or limited release pins as the CM's were given latitude to insist on "equal value pins" - but after some guests complained that CM's wouldn't take their trash scrappers for better pins, it's been pulled back a lot. It's now switched in some places to what the cast call "diamond trading" meaning trading only with pins that have that little Mickey icon jewel on the back of them indicating they are a newer, supposedly not-faked pin. Others have tried to pull what I absolutely hate: "blind trading". I immediately leave if the cast members try that. This form of trading is: all pins are facing backwards on the lanyard, you point at one, then hand your pin to the CM and they hand you whatever pin they have on their lanyard in return. THIS IS GARBAGE and I'm going to keep complaining about it to every lead I see trying it. FORCING a guest to give up a good pin for what could be complete scrapper trash they don't want is totally unacceptable and is the antithesis of a magical experience.

Sorry, rant over, but this REALLY upsets me and if it continues I expect it to turn a lot of people off the hobby. It's terrible for people with social anxiety or shyness already in interacting with strangers to basically have a CM demand/STEAL a good pin from you and you are mandated to take their bad pin in return without recourse. Just no. BIG NO.

I generally trade mostly at the parks these days, but occasionally at local events. I have mostly what locals refer to as "smalls" in my trade bag - open editions, hidden mickeys, mystery pins under a $30 value and generally under a $20 value. So I rarely find anyone willing to trade bigger pins but it keeps me refreshing pins quickly enough as I hunt for my ISO's - which ironically are more often Loungefly pins these days or other licensed stuff I'm missing. Loungefly pins trade pretty well with other guests in the parks, too, so I often intentionally trade for them to keep in my trade bag, but otherwise I seem to do well enough with hidden mickeys and mystery pins for the most part!

The only "downside" of trading regularly in the parks is my traders turn over so quickly I can't trade on Pin & Pop because I rarely have the same stuff week to week and I think if I could use Pin & Pop, I would find a lot of those Loungefly pins I'm missing! lol
 

So you just show up to the parks with your traders visible and it just organically happens?


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That’s kind of wild reading about the blind trading like that. I can’t imagine that would ever turn out good.

Trivia trading sounds like it would be fun.

What do you use to transport/show off your pins in the parks?


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I forget, somehow, that’s there’s more out there than just WDW lol. But yes.

Those locations are perfect. I’ll need to go check them out! I can imagine CMs probably only ask when the guests are either being disruptive or the crowd is just getting too large for the space they’re in.


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Trivia is fun. I recently ran into some WDW CM's visiting DLR and they said they do trivia at WDW, too. So you might find some there, too. Assuming it works there the same as here, look for a pin turned backwards on a CM's lanyard rather than showing outward. That's generally the sign here for trivia or diamond trading.

I enjoy it because I'm a trivia nerd about both the parks and the movies. At best, I show off my nerdy knowledge and get to trade for a nicer pin. At worst, I don't get to trade, but I learn something new!

Many of the regular traders at DLR bring large, heavy trade books or pinfolios as they grab a table at rope drop and stay till 3pm. I'm guessing they use lockers to store them or they just leave after trading.

I started with just a small bag of traders the size of the 25th anniversary ones currently for sale at the parks:


That's great if you're mostly just walking around trading. But if I want to stay and trade for a while, I prefer having a larger selection with me, so I tend towards a nice medium sized bag that carries more but doesn't weigh me down too badly when I'm carrying it the rest of the day.

I think this one is still for sale at the parks - it's odd because the pages are backwards, opening outward rather than inward, but it's a great sized bag:
 

Thanks for including photos of both! I’ve been eyeing the smaller red bag, but didn’t want to bring pins to the park if I had no idea what I was doing.

The bigger bag seems interesting. It’s actually made for pins?


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I thought it looked interesting too. Is it a backpack? @Jabberwocky
 
It's a sling bag, so one strap on the back. It has several medium sized pin pages as it is indeed a pin bag rather than just a general bag and the pages fit a GOOD amount of pins and it has an extra pocket in front where you can stick your phone or wallet if you don't fill up the space with more pins!

But it opens weird, as I said. The pages fold from zipper side out of the bag instead of from the inside seam. This is the best pic I could readily find of how the pages open outwards, outside of the bag:



It's actually pretty annoying but you could always cut the pages out of the bag and flip them around so they open inside. But otherwise, it's a great sized bag and I appreciate the extra pocket.

If it wasn't such a pain to have to use a third party site to post images, I'd post pics of mine so you could see how many pins it fits. But basically it can fit 3 across on big cards like WDI or DSSH carded pins. Or a lot more smaller pins not on card.
 

I’ll have to check it out and play with it a bit. See if the pages opening that way really bothers me.

Thanks for posting more pictures of it!


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