Finally.
Scott Powers writes at the Orlando Sentinel’s Tourism Blog that Disney has decided to scale back its support of pin trading at its resorts.
Is pin-trading on the way out? If so, it’s likely to be a long, slow
decline. Disney pins are everywhere. It seems as if Disney produces
them for everything. And everyone buys them. Trading is omnipresent.
And Disney promises big, new pin-trading activities associated with the
upcoming Year of a Million Dreams campaign.Yet some Disneyana collectors say the thrill is not what it used to
be for pin collecting. If there are 30,000 different Disney pins out
there, and millions of people have them, the novelty might be getting a
little thin.
Disney’s official pin trading rules ended up creating a new genre of Disney fan. The Pin Shark. A busy pin shark can make a good(?) living trading and selling Disney pins. Disney is more than willing to satisfy this market. But in the end, that edges in on the fun the rest of us more casual pin fans have and many thousands of us have turned away from the craze. For those reasons and about a dozen more Pin Trading needs to be scaled back.
The only question is what will replace it? Those $7 and $8 pins make great souviners for those on a small budget and Disney isn’t going to just give up that income. WDW tried trading cards, but that craze never materialized. The new trend of unique mouse ears is cute, but those are a little harder to carry around and trade.
Any one have an idea of what should be next?
I don’t see Pin trading fading away and I certainly don’t see Disney dropping that market. I think they are simply going to no longer encourage “Pin Sharks”. Many people buy pins, not to trade, but as souvineers. My wife and I get at least one or two pins every visit (in addition to everything else we buy) and they are a nice, inexpensive item. I think that Disney could probably scale back on the sheer VOLUME of pins being produced though. It seems that there are THOUSANDS of different pins at any given moment.
I think the Disney Stores, while still a part of Disney, tried to launch collectable coins, but they didn’t take off. The advantages to the pins are: they are affordable, small, and can be worn/easily shown off. I think any alternatives to the pins would also have to include those three aspects.
I have the next generation in Disney pin trading, I just don’t know the contact person to present it to . . .does anyone know?? I’m a professional toy designer, experienced in presenting new concepts. Would love to know who to present this one to . . .
I love the pin trading thing! I have over 40 from the past 5 years from both Disney World and Disneyland! I would hate to not get to collect them! I hope it doesnt go away!
I agree that if Disney pins are indeed on the way out, the replacement product will have to have the three characteristics listed in Kola’s post. If not, then I doubt the new product will be successful.
The only thing that I see that could replace the pins is the penny. It seems that every single ride has a machine where, for around $1.25, you can get your own penny stretched and flattened, with a design from that ride implanted on it. These are affordable, small, but unfortunately, you cannot wear them.
The pressed pennies are 50 cents. My sister and I LOVE them. They now create little books to put them in, but aside from that they are not something that can be worn.
I don’t see how putting weight on ‘official’ pintrading has to put pin merch on the outs. as someone else mentioned, official pintrading isn’t the ONLY reason why pins are popular. Since pins are beautiful, inexpensive, and easy to wear/show off, they’ll always be a great souvenir choice. And even if they completely nixed the official trading, there would still be a tremendous aftermarket for collectors and traders.
As far as ‘replacement’ – I don’t see that they need one. Pins aren’t going anywhere, for one. And for another, do we really need another sharkable trading gimmick?
Has nothing to do with pin sharks. They have been around since before 2000.
Has to do with all the lanyards filled with sedesma pins and mass produced Disney pins.
The 2000 dancers pin
The kodak pin
United way pins
Mass produced cast member pins
Stolen pins from the warehouses (TRUE)
Cast members stealing lanyard series pins
There is junk on the lanyards. It is simple start STOP cast members from being able to trade for Sedesma pins. They will be very happy to turn these people away. It is a rip off to the tourists.
to michele DeGrace — Any idea submitted to the Walt Disney Company – either from a Guest or Employee (CM) immediately becomes the sole property of the Walt Disney Company. You might as well post it, you wouldn’t be getting any payoff or royalties on the idea anyway…
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