Pin-trading events to end at Disney resort hotels (WDW) - Orlando Sentinel, 7/25/06

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Disney pin-trading nights are coming to an end at Walt Disney World hotels, and some collectors wonder if it's because of declining interest.

The Walt Disney Co. announced on its official pin-collecting Web site this month that weekly pin-trading sessions, staple activities in several Walt Disney World resort hotels for years, will end in the next couple of weeks.

The Web site, officialdisneypintrading.com, did not say why the sessions are ending. Nor did a Walt Disney World spokeswoman, except to say that the company is making room for future pin-trading opportunities, associated with the company's upcoming "Year of a Million Dreams" campaign that opens in October.

"It's part of the ongoing efforts to continually refresh the experiences," spokeswoman Kim Prunty said.

Disney lapel pins depict thousands of iconic Disney moments ranging from Snow White kissing Grumpy to Cars characters. Most retail for $6.95 to $12.95. In 2000, pin-trading popularity took off. And not long after that, pin-trading sessions began at the hotels.

But attendance at the hotel sessions has fallen recently, collectors said. Some wondered if Disney might have saturated the collectible pin market and deflated the craze, while others suggested that professional pin traders, known as "pin sharks," began to dominate small meetings and took the fun out of them.