8 Things You Need to Know About Pin Trading at Walt Disney World

Pin trading has become quite popular for thousands of guests visiting Walt Disney World Resort. What is pin trading, you ask? This is where you have an official Disney pin, and you trade for another official Disney pin. There are so many different pins that you won’t believe what all you could see in the parks. If you are looking into pin trading, here are eight things you definitely need to know.

8 – Purchase pins to use for trade.

Pin trading can get expensive, especially once you realize how addictive it is and just how many pins you will want! It is much more cost-effective to purchase pins specifically for trading. One way to save on pins is to buy the packs of pins at the parks. They end up being about $5 a pin, which is cheaper than the cheapest individual pin you can purchase. Check out the Disney outlet stores as well. You can also find various lots on eBay that make the cost per pins as low as $0.50 or $1.00 per pin, but you will want to be careful and make sure that they are authentic Disney pins. Read seller reviews and ask questions to make sure they are exactly what you expect to receive.

7 – Who you can trade with.

Editor’s Note: Guests can currently only trade with Cast Members at Disney Springs. Trading with Cast Members will expand across the resort in 2024. At other locations beyond Disney Springs, you’ll find Pin Boards, where you can trade.

Well, anyone! Anyone willing to trade, that is. All cast members with pins will trade with you. You can trade a max of two pins as a time with each cast member. Remember that cast members with green lanyards will only trade with kids, but all of the yellow/gold lanyards are fair game for everyone. You can also trade with any guest; just be aware that they aren’t obligated to accept the trade as cast members are. Even groups will hang out around pin trading shops and within Epcot that love to pin trade with other guests and show off their collections.

6 – Determine what you want to collect.

There are many, many collections, characters, attractions, movies, etc., that you can choose from to collect. Think about what your favorites are or what sparks interest in you to want to collect them. Maybe you want to collect all of the pins from a particular collection, perhaps you want to collect anything Donald Duck, or maybe you are like the rest of the nation with Frozen Fever, and you collect anything that is from the movie, Frozen. It should be something you are passionate about, and get excited about the hunt to find the next amazing find.

5 – Do your homework.

Many great articles and even books show pictures of the different collections and individual pins, along with their values. It is an excellent idea to do these reviews as you are deciding what to collect. This also helps give you background and education on what to look for when you are out in the wild.

4 – Know your pin locations.

Each park has a primary pin location, which is a great place to look for exclusive pins for the park and to run into other pin traders. Pin Traders in Disney Springs is by far the most significant pin location in all of Walt Disney World and the best place to start when looking for pins to purchase or something specific you have your eye on. This is also a popular place for pin traders to hang out in hopes of trading with cast members or with other guests.

3 – Look for special pins and exclusives.

There are limited edition pins that are released for various events and seasons. There are pins for the Halloween party, the Christmas Party, holiday sleigh rides, Epcot Food & Wine Festival, and many more. If there is a special event, you can count on pin(s) exclusive to the event. There are also cast unique member pins that are not available for purchase and are only found on cast member lanyards. They have a hidden Mickey somewhere on the face of the pin, which signifies that they are one of the exclusive cast member pins.

2 – Be polite.

Be sure to be patient and kind to the cast members. They may be busy interacting with other guests or completing other aspects of their role, so exercise patience when waiting to trade with them. Be polite and ask, “May I see your pins?” or “May I trade with you?” and have a pleasant exchange with them. It is amazing at the number of guests who will sometimes forget their manners or forget to treat them like the friendly people that cast members are.

1 – Get creative with displays.

So your vacation is over, you’re back home, and you have all of your pins that you are incredibly proud of. Now what? Now, you work on creative ways to display your collection so that you know they are safe and you get to look at them regularly. You can get tons and tons of ideas on Pinterest. One of my favorites is displaying them on a corkboard; even better if you cut the corkboard into a Mickey ear shape. You could also put them in shadow box frames to display on the walls. There are so many things you can do, and they are a great way to pay homage to all of your hard work!