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Welcome back to another Disney Stuff. It’s been almost 4 years since this column debuted here on MousePlanet and I’d like to think I’ve hit upon many, many different collections and accumulations of Disney memorabilia. Somehow there always seems to be something else to write about. There are plenty of things I haven’t touched on yet and considering how much is out there, I may never get to it all. One of the things that really surprised me that I haven’t written about yet is really one of the most popular Disney collectibles there is—and that’s the Disney pin.
It’s hard to believe that I haven’t covered Disney pins. They’ve become such a ubiquitous collectible in the Disney universe. Pins are certainly everywhere in the Disney parks and resorts, as well as on the Disney Cruise Line. I have plenty of them. My daughter has more. My wife has a few select choices and this past summer, my twin boys got into pin trading at Walt Disney World. So, I have an abundance of Disney pins to talk about.
I’ve always thought of them as a great deal. Think about it. For $6.95, you can get a solid, well-made, and quite often beautifully designed Disney souvenir. That’s a rarity these days. Obviously, some pins are more expensive, and once you get truly immersed in the world of Disney Pin Trading, you can empty your wallets rather quickly. Obsessive collecting aside, all you really have to do is wander into most gift shops in one of the Disney parks or resorts and for less than $10, snap up a little piece of great Disney stuff. There’s a Disney pin for everybody, no matter what your preference or taste.
Take my wife for instance. She likes her Disney stuff to be subtle. No words or logos, just a simple classic design. She is a huge fan of Tinker Bell and thus her rather small collection of pins primarily features everyone’s favorite pixie.
My wife's pin board. Photo by Chris Barry.
My daughter has run the Disney gamut from her Princess days, to her High School Musical days. Now she seems to be pretty specific in what she’s looking for and likes to find as many unique pins as possible. See if you can spot Meg from Hercules, Webby from Ducktales and Gadget from Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. You won't find those three everyday, I guarantee it.
My daughter's pin board. Photo by Chris Barry.
The boys have just gotten started and their pin board has plenty of space for more.
My son Casey's pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
My son Alex's pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
My taste in pins varies. I started out buying only the classic animated characters in their simplest fashion. It was my goal to get as many of the classic characters as I could and I’ve done pretty well in this quest.
A handful of classic character pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
Then, when these classic characters began to get scarce, I began to stray from the classics a little like, for example, these Mickeys in some different costumes…
Mickey in costume. Photo by Chris Barry.
…or these park vehicle pins.
Two great vehicle pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
Soon, I was into buying the mystery packs like these Star Wars and park attraction sets.
Three from the Star Wars mystery pack. Photo by Chris Barry.
Part of another mystery box set. Photo by Chris Barry.
After that, the floodgates pretty much opened.
My pin board. Photo by Chris Barry.
I was still always on the prowl for something classic, but my tastes expanded. I’m still not much for pins with words or sayings on them. I have pins for each of the parks. When I heard rumors that the MGM name was going to disappear, I made sure to buy a pin with the Studios' original name.
Two of my park specific pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
A few years back we started buying pins for each of the hotels that we have stayed in. I'm still searching for Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarter specific pins if anyone can help me.
Our resort pin collection. Photo by Chris Barry.
Once I became a VIP member of the Disney Movie Club, I began receiving special VIP pins with movie purchases and have gotten some great ones that way. It's not too often you see anything with Archimedes from The Sword and the Stone.
Some Disney Movie Club VIP pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
These are some of my favorite cast member pins; the special Hidden Mickey pins that only cast members receive and can trade with you. I especially like the 5-legged goat from Mary Blair’s famous mural at the Contemporary Resort.
Some great cast member pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
There are other cast member pins that were given to them by the company for certain occasions like these two examples I found online. The first one is especially poignant to us because we were there when Hurricane Charley came barreling right through Walt Disney World. I picked up the 2nd one because it's a pin commemorating the start of…what else…pin trading!
The "2004 Hurricane Season Thank You" pin. Photo by Chris Barry.
The "Millennium Celebration Thank You" pin. Photo by Chris Barry.
Some pins are just really cool and have no story or history behind them. I just liked them or traded them with a cast member when I came upon them. Here are some random favorites.
A set of Walt Disney World 40th Anniversary pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
Various Mickey shaped pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
Some unique character pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
A pair of very unique Disney pins. Photo by Chris Barry.
Pin collecting and trading is one of the most popular things to do when you visit the Disney parks. We have a lot and we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of this world. There are thousands and thousands of pins out there and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. I’ve collected pins from D23, pins from the Disney Store, and from the former World of Disney on 5th Ave. in New York City. I have pins from pre-ordering movies on DVD. I have pins from eBay and from antique stores. I even have a pin from Sotheby’s when they auctioned off those Mickey statues a few years back.
Disney seems to love producing these things as much as we seem to love snapping them up. Some I wear. Some I just display. Some I’m looking to trade when I head back to Walt Disney World. Some I’ve given to my kids. All of them, I enjoy. I think they’re a very cool collectible and every time I look at any of these pin boards hanging in our basement, I’m taken back to a specific memory. I remember when we got that pin, or where we were or the great cast member that traded with us. It’s fun. It can be relatively inexpensive. (Although, I’d hate to add up the dollar amount that all five of these boards represents!)
Most of all, just like all the other Disney stuff that we have and love, it makes us think of magic and wonderful family times—and that’s the real purpose of having all this stuff in the first place…isn’t it?
So, the next time you’re in Walt Disney World or Disneyland, venture into a pin store, pick out your favorite character or attraction, and get yourself started on your own pin collection. Or, pick up a few inexpensive ones that you probably wouldn’t be so interested in keeping and trade them with some cast members for something really unique. It’s a fun thing to do, it could get you talking to some interesting cast members or guests and, of course, it helps to build more, great Disney memories.
Thanks for reading, let me hear about your pins and I’ll see you next time with some more of that great Disney Stuff.
 
Comments
My DB started collecting pins, and decided he would only collect them from rides we had been on, or shows we had seen (Fantasmic, Osborne Family Lights etc), parks we had visited (but only dating from years we had actually BEEN there), park anniversary pins, and resort hotels we had stayed in. Not many then - oh wait, YES THERE ARE!!!
I have a few that I really like for no other reason than they are cute, plus the resort ones as above. It is so easy to collect hundreds of these things without realising it!
Neither of us trade, and I have bought some nice pins from eBay if they are meaningful to us. As you say, it is a cheap and easy way to pick up Disney souveniers!
I LOVE to collect the Disney Pins. I have a lot of them and in different set. I love trying to find the cast member pins. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing your pin collection with us Chris. It is so much fun to see what other people have collected and your family has quite the collected there. My favorite was the hurricane one, I remember following Mouseplanet during that event while you guys were there.
My own pin collecting started out of the necessity of find a cheap souvenir one trip and I liked it so much that I buy one pin for each trip we make to Disneyland now. Each pin has a special memory of a trip, which is why I don't engage in pin trading; I can't bear the thought of parting with my pins.
My favorite pin in my collection is from the trip when my Tigger-loving husband finally agreed to go to Disneyland with us. The trip was so special to me because not only would I get to celebrate another birthday in the park, but I would finally get our first family photo at Disneyland. Magically, I found a pin that trip of Tigger holding a picture frame of his hundred-acre wood family.
For years I resisted the urge to collect pins. I figured I had enough Disneyana cluttering up my small apartment. Then I saw a cast member with an attraction poster pin on her lanyard. Since I collect attraction posters, I absolutely had to buy a pin so I could trade her for the one she was wearing. That opened the floodgates. I now collect attraction poster pins, patriotic pins, Stitch, Halloween costumes I've worn, Disney resorts I've stayed at, and a few miscellaneous pins that I like.
Let me know if you find someone out there that knows of a POFQ pin. Its my home there and I have not been able to find a pin specific to that resort.
I dont trade, as I typically only buy the pins I like/want. I think the only ones I have that I might trade are the mutipul sets I have from Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
I have plenty that I wouldn't trade. I actually don't trade all that much, but the kids do. This past summer, I would look for the least expensive set for my boys...provided it was something they definitely didn't want...and that became their trading pins. I think it was Club Penguin this summer. We got a set of 8 or 10 Penguin pins for around $40. That started their wave of trading and at least that way they were doing better, financially speaking. It worked out to around $4 or $5 per Penguin pin...whatever they traded to the cast members was certainly worth more than that.
The cast member pins are a favorite for sure. I have a friend that's a seasonal employee and a former College Program participant. He came homw with the entire cast member collection one year on a pin board. It was pretty awesome. I tried to offer some trades, but he wasn't taking.
The cast member pins are a favorite for sure. I have a friend that's a seasonal employee and a former College Program participant. He came home with the entire cast member collection one year on a pin board. It was pretty awesome. I tried to offer some trades, but he wasn't taking.
The hurricane pin is probably my personal favorite. That was quite a trip for us. As weird as this may sound, I loved it. As long as no one was hurt, the whole thing was actually pretty exciting and makes for a great story and great memories.
Glad you found the Tigger pin. Sounds perfect for you.
All it takes is one!
The funny thing is, I feel like when we stayed there the gift shop had one. I may be wrong, but I feel like I passed one up from both French Quarter and Riverside. Maybe it's wishful thinking because that means they're out there somewhere.
We have stayed at both the POR and POFQ, and I think I remember seeing a resort pin at POR. Shame on you, Chris for writing this article. Now instead of cleaning the house, I am going to take a trip down memory lane looking at all our WDW pins!
Collections can become overwhelming. I am in the antique/collectible business and know first hand that without a narrow focus it can spin out of control.So because of Hopper I look for villain pins. Pins only, though I do have the villain monopoly y game!! I also collect vintage Disneyland items pre 1970. Items that have Disneyland as a word or very rare souvenirs. I have a Donald Duck plastic snow globe, the globe is his belly, made in hong kong, have never seen it on ebay!!!
I'm a huge pin collector and trader. I collect Dormouse, Fox and the Hound and Tinker Bell mostly. I have close to 3000 pins in my collection.
If you're looking for Port Orleans pins I have some information for you. There are a little over 30 pins for Port Orleans that I know of. None seem to be specific to Riverside or French Quarter but they do exist. Take a look at this link to see the Port Orleans pins that have been made over the years. http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/group.cgi?group=4066
I took my first trip to Disney World in 2010. Before we went my brother was telling me about "pin trading". I thought, "oh that's cool.. for kids". Little did I know that once I got there and saw all of the cool pins they were trading for, I would get hooked! My brother had gotten a large pin lot off Ebay and had split them between his kids, a really economical way of getting starter pins to be able to trade for what you want. Me, I had to buy all my pins at Disney World and at our resort (Port Orleans), so I think I spent $120 just getting a few starter pin sets and a lanyard. I collected nothing but Mickeys, and had a blast doing it! We're planning another trip for fall of 2013, and I'm looking forward to more pin trading. One other area I collected after I got back was Disney Star Wars pins, so I'll be hoping to find a few of those next trip. I'm 45, and I'm definitely hooked on pin trading!