Sharks and a new *ugly* wrinkle

[The Blue Parrot]

Visited in late June and went with the goal of trading for newer pins to weed out some older duplicate pins from my collection. Even a couple of older rarer cast member pins. Wasn't looking for anything in particular.

I am not one of those folks who has to have every pin. Been collecting since Disneyland got me hooked on pins by giving away free pins for the different lands back for the 30th anniversary.

To make a long story short, I was trading on a Friday afternoon at the Plaza Pavilion. Saw a few guests with books and looked through. One male - can not call him a gentleman - had a couple of books and I did find a pin that I wanted to trade for. That day I was wearing a lanyard and it had all of the pins that I had brought with me. When I ask this man what he would trade this pin for, he actually got up and walked over to the pin carts and was pointing out pins that he expected me to buy!

Talk about guts... I was disgusted. I have never seen such an overt display of greed and avarice for just one pin ever at any Disney theme park. And I watched him do it again with other guests, some of who actually did buy the pins he wanted them to. Of course they were all the $10.95 pins.

So, when did this new low in pin trading become the fashion? And why does Disney permit it?

Curiouser and curiouser...

[SorcererMickey]

I cannot believe the nerve of that guy. Does Disney have a CM stationed at pin trading locations? This man should honestly be banned from trading pins! What a disgusting display of someone with no class.

[cstephens]

And why does Disney permit it?

What do you think Disney can do about it to stop it? He's not doing anything illegal or against the rules. It's a personal transaction between two people. If both agree to it, there's not a problem. If one doesn't, there's no transaction. No one is forced to do anything.

One day, I happened to not have any trader pins on me, and I saw a CM with a pin I *really* wanted. I bought a pin at the counter and traded her for it. It wasn't a terribly expensive pin I bought, but I wanted the pin she had, so I did what I needed to do to be able to trade her.

CMs are the only people I trade with because I don't want to deal with regular traders. They do have their rules. If you want what they have, you have to play by their rules.

[mcow1]

One day, I happened to not have any trader pins on me, and I saw a CM with a pin I *really* wanted. I bought a pin at the counter and traded her for it. It wasn't a terribly expensive pin I bought, but I wanted the pin she had, so I did what I needed to do to be able to trade her.

I do that all the time.

[SorcererMickey]

To me it's different if you buy a pin to trade as opposed to being told to buy a pin for a trade. With the first situation it's your own choice.

[BFJen]

I avoid the "professional pin traders" like the plague. Forgive me if any of you are one of them, but I just think they've taken things a little too far.

[Adventurelandlover]

Yeah I think we came across the same guy. We went and bought a pin to trade with him because we dont TRADE our pins. We COLLECT them and he had one that we really wanted. It really wasn't that big of a deal to us.

[krystledm]

i hate te whole pin trading thing for many reasons, but that is definatly one of them....they did it to my bro when he was new, paid for about $50 in pins and he ended up with what turned out to be a junk one.....

not to mention they take all the nice shaded seats ALL DAY and don't ever move...


just grrrrrrr

[cstephens]

To me it's different if you buy a pin to trade as opposed to being told to buy a pin for a trade. With the first situation it's your own choice.

It's still your own choice in the second situation. No one is forcing you to buy a pin. You can choose not to buy the pin. But then you don't get the pin that you want. There are stipulations for what you need to do if you want that pin. The choice is entirely yours if you want to follow them.

[Peglegin98]

I've heard of that guy, he is there and he never buys pins himself. Makes guests buy them for him. It is out of control. I always avoid all of those people.

[kronos]

I know how many of you feel. Most of the "sharks" as they are known have moved to DTD, or DCA. Disney outed them recently with a new requirement that only one book can be used for pin trading. So one book per person per table. Trust me, if you want the better deals go to the Pin Carts during the summer, those of us who spend our time there are much nicer. For some reason there is only one shark who I see regularly at the carts, but he never seems to be satisfied with what he gets(deserves him right anyway).

[NeverNeverland]

Yeah, that is why I only trade with CMs.
The pin book people scare me. And I don't have anything valuable to trade for anyway!