What's your favorite pin?

Mine have been the Movie collection ones with the film cells. BEEN LOVING THEM!

That one isnt specifically mine... but its close. But thats probably my favorite one behind the Tangled one I got. Still trying to get a Steam Boat Willy one.

I am more of a pin collector - just random ones that have meaning to them - special events etc. I dont collect series or things like that.
This is one of my favorites as it commemorated our first WDW family vacation. All the "grown up kids" treated our parents to their first WDW vacation and first family vacation in years as well.
We planned a Magical Gatherings dinner/dessert held at EPCOT. As part of the dessert, you got to watch the Illuminations fireworks from a roped off area.
I am not sure if they even have this specific event anymore. We did this in 2005.

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A while back, I mentioned about the Chinese New Year Hong Kong Disneyland pin set that I got that made my jaw dropped. It turns out that there's a related open edition pin of that set. I don't know the circumstances of this pin (whether it was released at the same time or what), but during last month's WCPT pin trading meet, we came across this pin from Hong Kong and just had to have it.

If you compare this pin to the pin set that I had earlier, you'll see that they are of the same theme.

I still have this pin in my pin book. I haven't decided if this will go into one of my pin frames, or if I'll display it with the original pin set that is in my display cabinet.

Zz.

During the holidays, I often use a few of my pins as part of the decorations. They are typically jumbo pins, since they're big and can be seen from a few feet away.

This is one jumbo pin that I have on display right now for the season. It comes in a display box, and the pin looks like a gift box on the outside.

The box opens up, revealing the content.

Here, Mickey and Pluto are pins on pin, while the others are painted onto the jumbo pin itself.

This pin is currently on display in my display cabinet.

Zz.

That is a very nice pin! Something like that might even make me want to start collecting.

Here's another holiday pins that came out and on display for the season. This one is being displayed, or mounted, in the guest powder room. It's a box set of 6 pins.

I like this set. The only drawback is that the pins are rather small, or should I say, standard size. I wish they were bigger.

Still, this set is almost 10 years old.

Zz.

I love your holiday pins, Zz.

Joe just surprised me with this one yesterday:

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Nice one Jeff.

Last weekend, we had our monthly Windy City Pin Traders meet. This time, I got a haul of very good pins. These two were my favorites.

The first one is a framed set for Donald's 60th birthday. It is going up on the wall this weekend.

The second one is also to commemorate Donald's birthday, and I think this one is from Tokyo's Disney Store. It came in a box.

When you open the box, you see this. It is mounted on a stand. I put a quarter in there so that you have an idea of the size.

This one is going into my display cabinet in the family room.

All in all, it was a very good pin meet.

Zz.

Can you explain pin trading to me. How do you know which pins to buy or trade. How do you trade them? Do they have different values? How would a beginner start trading? Thank you

What you do depends entirely on how deep into this you want to get.

If you are thinking of being just a casual pin trader, i.e. you are going to just trade with cast members, then you do not have to pay any attention to the quality of the pins. The purchase-with-purchase pins that you get when you buy pins at Disney theme parks would be sufficient (they run about $2-$3 per pin). Or do what most pin traders do. They buy the bulk-quantity pins sold on ebay.

However, if you want to go into this seriously and start trading with other pin traders, either at pin trading events or online, then you have to do a bit more homework. Pin traders then to want Limited Edition pins. Often, the lower the edition number, the more desirable the pin becomes, but this is a very loose criteria. What determines the desirability of a pin is the subject matter depicted by the pin, and how attractive it looks. This is where things become very unclear, because both of the criteria that I've mentioned are very subjective. You need to have the right pin for the right collector. Most collectors have a particular narrow subject matter that they are collecting. So it is almost like a marriage - you need to have a pin that a collector wants.

Having said that, there are subject matter that are popular. Pins with Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Stitch, etc. are usually highly popular with collectors.... IF they don't have those pins already. In my case, I collect Donald, other ducks, park icons, world showcase, and Fab 5. Most of my friends and regular pin trading partners know that, and so, if they are out at the parks and they see new pins that fit into one of these criteria, they know that they might have a pin that they could trade with me. So knowing your "audience" or the people that you regular encounter or might encounter is useful. This is where someone who is just starting out will have a disadvantage, because you haven't made that many contacts yet to know what the "atmosphere" is like and what are the pins that people tend to desire.

There are places such as pinpics and various Disney pin forums where you can trade with others online (they will have a list of pins they are looking for in their profile), and also get a feel for what pins are being sought. So those are good places to start just to get a flavor of things.

My advice to you is that start with what you like. If you wish to be a collector, narrow down the "theme" or subject matter of your collection, and STICK TO IT! If not, you'll be buying everything left and right and you'll wonder where your money went. If your collection happens to involve things that you think other people might want, then next time you are buying a pin for yourself, buy a second one as a spare to trade. Start small first, i.e. don't buy everything in duplicates of 5. Test the waters until you get the hang of it.

Disney has its annual pin trading event usually in September. This is where you register to attend a couple of days of pin trading, games, etc. You might want to go to one of these, because it is probably the only place that you'll see this much pin activities. Check the Disney pin trading website for upcoming info:

http://eventservices.disney.go.com/pintrading/index

If you are planning on going to this pin event, please let me know so that I can tell you a bit more about it.

Zz.

Hi Zz, thank you, I found the information you posted really interesting. I have only bought 3 pins and I bought them because I thought they were pretty, but I also thought it would be nice to buy at least one on each trip as a memento. The pins I bought were available in multiple merchandise locations, so I thought why would someone want to trade for one of these if they can just go and buy it? But now I understand that some pins are available in limited locations and for limited time scales, so that would make them more desirable/tradeable.

Another new acquisition.

Labor day 2011, LE 350.

Zz.

Zz that Scoop pin is one of my Holy Grail pins.

My favorites are my History of Art collection pins from the Japanese Disney stores, and my Winnie the Pooh pins.
First pic is a recent favorite. Keys to the World
Second pic is from HKDL and they happen to be my initials
Third pic is a set of gumball Poohbears the background card is a large gumball machine it's awesome. All pictures courtesy of Pinpics.com. I'm Disneygrrl on pinpics if you're interested in trading or talking pins

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They stopped doing grand gatherings in 2009 or '10 every now and again you'll see the illuminations or AK safari pins on cast lanyards.

This is my new favorite pin. It was handed out at the end of the Walking in Walt's footsteps tour which we went on during our Cali trip.

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Was switching out pins from my display cabinets, and thought I'd show a couple of my favorite jumbo pins.

This first one is from Disneyland Paris, and it was from a Tower of Terror event of some kind. I really is a nice jumbo pin, especially since it has Donald in it.

This is the box and the cover that it came in.

A closer look at the pin, I put a quarter there for you to have an idea of the size.

Each of the elevators actually slides up and down.

The next one is a Haunted Mansion Holiday jumbo pin, but with the cast and characters from Nightmare Before Christmas. This is the box:

and a closer look at the jumbo pin.

This is one of the holiday-themed pins that I pull out of storage during the holidays and display it and the other holiday pins in the display cabinets.

Zz.

Favorite pin? It is not possible to decide. I love all of the pins on my keeper boards which at the moment number 1344.

I really like this set because this is the daytime parade that was running during our honeymoon:

I love this set because it's so beautifully detailed:

I like these because I teach gymnastics and there's not much stuff that is themed to gymnastics, so it's a pretty cool day when I find Disney gymnastics stuff:

I like this one a lot because Benn got it for me--he calls me his lucky charm:

Benn also got me this one. In fact, it was the first pin he ever bought for me. The first time I ever flew was to go to WDW in 2010, so it was a "you earned your wings" present:

And I collect Alice in Wonderland (and Stitch) specifically and this is my favorite Alice pin:

We had our monthly Windy City Pin Traders pin meet yesterday, and this was a good one. We had a huge turn out, several new people from Wisconsin, and some people from out of state that we haven't seen in a while. It was a pin feast!

I got two new pins that I just love. The first one will fit into my collection of the 3 Hitchhiking Ghosts.

These are part of a larger collection of Haunted Mansion pins, but I just didn't want to collect all of it, just the 3 ghosts.

This other pin is hysterical. When a few people first saw it, they said "There's something not right with this pin!", and of course, there shouldn't! It was an April Fools pin, and of course, Mickey is confused by the whole situation he's in!

Finally, Donald got his revenge!

Zz.

I am not in anyway in competition with some of the pros on this site, but my two favorite pins are Tinkerbell holding a bottle of "pixie dust" and Tinkerbell flying over the castle. Simple yet all me. Another sentimental one that DH got me is one that opens with a pic of Walt and Mickey walking away hand-in-hand. I love the sentiment but it is heavy and unbalanced so it constantly open and catching on things.

I also have my Tinkerbell keychain bob.

This is another pin that I got over this past weekend at our WCPT pin trading meet. Of course, it has to be Donald/Ducks.

The pin looks like this when you see it:

But when you open the flap, you get Donald and Daisy all fancied up!

Zz.

This is another set of pins that is one of my favorite. I don't actually collect Attraction pins, but these are special pins from Disney Imagineering, all of them are Limited Edition of only 300. I don't know how many are in the set (I haven't done my investigation yet).

As with most Imagineering pins, it is well-designed, it is larger than normal, and even the backing becomes part of the whole thing. So in these ones, the pins actually go well with the backing, and I'm guessing that the value of the pins would drop considerably without the corresponding backing. In fact, in a few of the pins below, you can't even tell which is the pin the photo. That's how much thought was given in the design of the pin and the backing.

So when I finally put these on my frame, the backing has to go with the pin.

Zz.

Those are nice. I don't even collect pins, but I'd buy those in a heartbeat!

This is part of the "easel" series that they have been releasing. I only bought this one because, of course, it had Donald.

You can open it up and prop up the easel.

Zz.

These pins are just beautiful! Little works of art.

I must not get this started, as I have NO stopping sense when it comes to Disney.

I have purchased or acquired 4 of the newer "hat" ornaments and I want them all. Cannot have one mug if there are six in the "set"....sigh.

My DS2 bought pins to all the rides that broke down on our last trip. He figured no one else would collect for that reason so it made him unique...abit poorer but unique just the same. Of course this is the same one who stood in line to pose with princesses.....

Don't have a pic, but my favorites are two from my first trip; one is a small Mickey in a green pinstripe baseball uni, and the other is a Dixie Landings mill wheel logo. Just sentimental.

This is a recent acquisition to add to our ever-growing Donald collection. I think this has got to be one of my most favorite one.

Zz.

Wow..Hard question..Just one..Stitch as Elvis wearing a jewelled coat..Thank you very much..

What is the question? Are you looking to acquire it? Is it this one?

http://pinpics.com/pin.php?pin=71832

Zz.