I'd seen a few pins floating about on the internet that looked like they would be perfect to jazz up an outfit, as some of them are really pretty. I hadn't intended to pin trade, just buy a few to inject a little Disney into my everyday outfits. But once I got into the park and laid eyes on the pin trading board... Well it just kind of happened. Oops!
So today I thought i'd talk a little bit about pin trading at Disneyland, what pins I got on my trip, how much it costs and other little tips I picked up.
You can buy a themed starter set, that comes with pins and a lanyard, and although I was tempted by the Princess set, I decided to mix and match my own choices and buy a lanyard (9.99€) with a booster set (19€) instead. There were lots of different lanyard styles to chose from, and although I liked the Villains and Spring Thumper ones, I went ahead with the brightly coloured Dreams one because it had Simba on it. I'm sure I mentioned somewhere that The Lion King is my favourite Disney film of all time, and I don't often spot Lion King merchandise these days. There's always the occasional Simba plush around, but unlike the Princesses things like mugs and other bits and bobs don't often appear.
I also picked up a Disneyland Paris clear pocket (5.99€) to go with it because I thought it would be handy to keep things like park tickets, and the hotel easy pass where I could easily get to them through-out the trip. It was a little difficult to get the hotel easy pass in there, but once in, the lanyard made it easy to find in my messy bag every time I needed it.
To get myself started in the world of "Pin Trading:, I bought a 'booster set' of Princess pins. There were four pins in this particular set, and I chose it because I quite liked the Ariel pin. I think these sets are pretty good value if you plan on pin trading and only like one pin. You can trade away the rest for more interesting pins and it works out less than 5€ per pin, so it's even a bit cheaper than buying regular pins. Personally, I thought the Rapunzel pin was kind of terrifying, so I was more than happy to trade that away for something a bit nicer.
Before this trip to Paris, I did a little research on pins. I spotted three that I knew I wanted before we set off, two of which I managed to grab on the first day, one of which (Ursula) was a limited edition! The last pin however (Thumper), took me an entire four days of searching before I finally got my paws on it. I saw lots of gaps, so it seemed to me like it had sold out. After I finally finding the last one in one of the Frontierland shops, I managed to find a bunch in other places. I guess Friday is fresh merchandise day!
Elsa - 7.99€ / Orange || Limited Edition Villains Pin - 14.99€ || Thumper - 6.99€ / Green
Our last day in the Parks was also my birthday, so mum had sneakily popped this birthday Stitch Pin into her shopping while I wasn't looking the day before.
Trading with Cast Members was really easy and actually quite fun. As I had that pin in the set I bought that I really didn't like, it was a mission for both me and mum trying to spot pins I could swap it for on other lanyards. I don't think i'll ever be a serious pin collector or trader, but if I ever found another booster set that I only liked one pin from, I definitely wouldn't mind doing it again. It was really easy to trade with cast members to get more interesting ones, and my personal experience in the parks was that staff were really friendly and happy to trade.
It's also handy to have a few spare pins on hand from booster sets, so if you spot a pin you really like on a cast member that isn't on sale anymore, then you will have no problems trading for it. I also think its a good thing to have an idea of what type of pins you'd like to collect, as there are so many pins you may find yourself wanting to just buy them all! On my visit, I traded with a cast member who had some really cute pins for trade, and then an entire lanyard of awesome Snow White pins too! I guess we know who her favourite character is! :p The pins I collected in Paris from my trades are a bit of a mismatch, but I was most excited for the limited edition Quasimodo pin I traded from a pin board for.
If you'd like to know more about the 'rules and etiquette' of Pin Trading, the Disney Parks Merchandise has a page dedicated to Pin Trading that covers pretty much everything you need to know. If you want to grab some pins before you head off to Disney, they have a small range on the Disney Store website... That is more or less all there is to it!
Are any of you out there pin collectors? What type of pins do you collect?
See you next time! :)
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