The Walt Disney World Resort Celebrates 10 Years of Disney Pin Trading

October 4, 2009
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October 1st, 2009 marked a monumental event at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.  It was the 10 Year Anniversary of Pin Trading!  I was a cast member back in 1999-2000 and remember this promotion starting. The theme that year was “Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand” and Disney cleverly started a promotion where guests and cast members could trade collectible Disney pins “hand to hand”. Well the hobby caught on and spread like wildfire across the globe and to every Disney Park.

10-Years-of-Pin-Trading

Last Thursday there was a special Pin Trading Event held at the Contemporary Resort to commemorate such a monumental event.  Everyone in attendance was able to participate in special games designed just for the 10th Anniversary.  Here are some photos…

2000_Pins

Disney-Pin-Jar

Disney_Pin_Game

The two fellas that make all of this Disney Pin Revelry possible are Steven Miller (Project manager for Disney Trading, as well as Disney Pin Event MC) and Jim Matthews (Head of Pin Merchandising).  The Disney Charm in both of these Cast members is infectious!

Jim Matthews and Amanda Tinney

Jim Matthews & Amanda Tinney

I’ve had the unique opportunity to be a part of this special community for the past 10 years and have made some wonderful friends!  I’ve traded pins with Cast Members as well as other Guests.  I’ve many many trades, and friends, from other countries by setting up trades via the mail on a site called PinPics.  And talked with my Pin Trader friends on the furums on DizPins. And then was able to meet these other Disney Pin Fanatics Face to Face at countless Disney Pin Events hosted by the Walt Disney World Resort.

If you think pin trading is just a Flash-in-the-Pan hobby, you might reconsider after perusing eBay.  Some of the pins that have been released in the past have appreciated in value so much that some pin traders have amassed small fortunes in their collections.  Here’s one such example of a Chip and Dale Disney Pin that originally sold for $15 in April 2003. It is a Limited Edition of 100 total pins, and here is an eBay screenshot of a recent sale in 2009…

Chip-Dale-PinOf course, pin trading can be a lucrative hobby, but it is also one in which friendships are forged and special Disney moments are experienced.  My hat goes off to Steven Miller and Jim Matthews for weaving Pin Trading into the fabric of our Disney Life Experience!  To another 10 Years of Disney Pin Trading!

Until Next Time,
Amanda_Tinney_Signature

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  • TikiTommy1960

    I have done everything I can to avoid collecting Disney pins but still have many in my collection of DSisney and Disneyland stuff. Its difficult because I collect everything Disneyland and so much more thatis not. I have been in the business for decades and remember Beanie Babies that also sold for hundreds of dollars. I wish everybody would collect pins so I could buy up everything pre 1970 Disney that I can find LOL. Pins are cute and compact but anyone investing thousands of dollars in them better thing again and again. They are a bunch of pot metal made in China. I’ll stick with the stuff they arent going to ever be able to make more of. Have fun and goodluck , if I am wrong 20 years down the collecting road then I wont regret a thing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/chrissygrotepagnotti Chrissy

    I am so glad that the 10th Anniversary of Pin Trading is being celebrated!!! While I loathed wearing the lanyard while I was a CM (some Guests became, ahem, too close to my personal space…those lanyards lay right across your chest)…I would not have met my husband if it weren’t for Pin Trading. He worked at the Pin Trading Station at Disney-MGM Studios. A girlfriend and I spent Christmas Night at the Studios (before the Hat even existed), and I decided to pick up a “1999 Monorail” and a “2000 Monorail” pin up for my younger brother to send back home to him. My future husband helped me find the pins, and we talked for a little bit, mainly about working for Disney and what we thought of the whole Pin Trading thing (he loved it, I was okay with it). A couple of weeks later, I happened to pick up some overtime shifts at Head to Toe at the Studios, I was trained in engraving at WOD, and they needed someone to help out. All of the older ladies who worked there kept going on and on and on about this nice guy who worked in the area…very family oriented and down to earth and just plain nice. They thought I should meet him…lo and behold, it was the pin guy. :0) We had lunch together that afternoon and the rest is history…we are coming up on our 6th wedding anniversary (this weekend). Just had to share!!!

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