Comments on: Disney on a Budget – Pin Trading

By: HighRollerMage

HighRollerMage — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 20:44:21 +0000

By: Pokerdombof

Pokerdombof — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 15:45:14 +0000

By: Vix

Vix — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 21:15:17 +0000

eBay bulk lots of pins are full of fakes which ruin it for all the people who spend money and time collecting authentic pins. $1 each is way too cheap for real pins. Please don’t do this! 🙁

Booster sets are my recommendation – you get 5 or 6 pins on a card at a discount rate over buying 5 or 6 separately. Best way to get started!

By: Louis

Louis — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 21:07:48 +0000

Please, dont buy lots at ebay, they are full of fake pins and make harder good trades!

By: Disney on a Budget: Saving on Souvenirs

Disney on a Budget: Saving on Souvenirs — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 18:26:25 +0000

[…] Pin Trading Makes for Fun Souvenirs: My kids love to trade pins with the Disney cast members. Buy a couple of pins for cheap, and your kids can keep trading and exchanging their pins ALL DAY! You can read more about trading pins at the Disney theme parks HERE. […]

By: Where to Stay when you Head to Disneyland

Where to Stay when you Head to Disneyland — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:49:52 +0000

[…] Costco Travel: Costco packages also include extras like one character meal and a $20 Disney gift card, so you will need to factor those into the costs. If you don’t have a character meal planned, then you may be paying a little extra for the package. We have compared Costco package deals to the hotel we had planned to stay at on a previous visit and the price was the same, so it’s as if we were getting the character meal and the $20 Disney gift card for FREE. Costco also sends along, luggage tags and coupons for a free lanyard and Disney pin, which came in handy to get us started on our pin trading. […]

By: mbf

mbf — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 22:34:01 +0000

You should also watch out for scrappers and fakes on cast member lanyards. A lot of them don’t realize that they are taking bad pins and then guests end up trading for those.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:49:59 +0000

Please be sure to check the linked Disboard thread for reputable sellers. There are a lot of sellers selling illegally made pins called Scrappers. It is frustrating for those of us who spend extra to buy truly authentic pins to have my son trade for a scrapper. Yes, you can tell the difference in the pin quality. Ebay is a great way to save but the non-scrapper pins are going to cost more than the scrapper ones. The scrapper sellers will tell you that their pins are trade-able and authentic since they will have the correct logo on the back. You need to do the research yourself and spending the extra money to buy from non-scrapper sellers will help prevent money from supporting this illegal practice. There is a good guide here:

https://reviews.ebay.com/FAKE-DISNEY-PINS-101_W0QQugidZ10000000001748045

By: Christy

Christy — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:37:29 +0000

Kelly – I agree, it probably would be best for older kids. My youngest just turned 5 when we went, and he did some trading, but it was only because he saw a couple of his older siblings doing it. I don’t think he would have done it on his own, he just followed along with them (they were 9 & 12). He was interested in finding Buzz Lightyear pins.

I think if this is his first trip, there will be more than enough to keep him busy, and he won’t even know he is missing out.

The first year we went (2 years ago), we weren’t even aware that you could trade pins. So, we didn’t do any pin trading at all on that trip.

By: Kelly Hickman

Kelly Hickman — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:34:20 +0000

We’re going in a few weeks for my son’s 5th birthday. Honestly, do you think he’ d be into this? I’d hate to invest in something and then have him completely ignore the whole trading business. It sounds like a lot of fun, but maybe for older kids? Thanks for the advice!

By: laura facenda

laura facenda — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:08:07 +0000

What a weird coincidence!!! Right before I check out your site me and my husband were looking on ebay for pins for our son for our next trip in oct. My husband and myself haven’t been to disney in over 10 years, and as children they never had anything like this for us! We took our first family trip to WDW last year and we were a little overwhelmed at all the pins and all the details of trading… infact we were a little boggled at the idea of “trading”! My son loved it, and we let him do a trade with a cast member, it drove me nuts that he picked a cheaper pin then the one he had traded… but I kept my mouth shut like a good mom! He was so proud he did it all by himself…I couldn’t break his heart!!!

I’m so glad people offer cheaper pins on ebay- can’t beat a $1.10 each! There isn’t a day that goes by that my 6yr old (or my 26 yr old husband) doesn’t mention something about WDW… I’m just happy i can do disney cheap! THANKS for all the GREAT info! 🙂

By: Angela @ Frugal Living NW

Angela @ Frugal Living NW — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:06:29 +0000

Christy:

Great suggestions! I linked this post to my facebook page!

By: Tina

Tina — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:57:07 +0000

Pin trading is SOO much fun we have a ton and didn’t pay “full price” for hardly any of them, except special ones we wanted to keep.
We also started out on ebay, buying lots for a fraction of the cost. It was also back when Disney’s “Dining Plan” in Florida was a point system and you could use those points for certain purchases…. pins being on of them. So we would see how many points we had on the last day and buy the rest out in pins. We ended up with a LOT that way.

Anyway…. its was so much for US I can’t imagine how excited the kids get, Kyla will start getting her taste soon… right now @ 4 she could care less. LOL

By: Terra

Terra — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:08:19 +0000

This was one of the highlights for my kids (ages 9, 6 and 4) on our last trip. We used ebay to get our pins. At the end of the trip we took the kids to the big pin gazebo to pick one that was special and reminded them of the trip.