So in my last post I told you all about the pin obsession shared by my family members, and today I'm going to talk about the community itself and how it all works.

First, the only place you can buy pins (legitimately) is through Disney. Yes, you'll find some used pins on eBay, but the parks themselves and the online Disney Shopping site are the only places to buy new. Once you've got yourselves some pins (and haven't decided to hoard each and every one) you're all set for trading. Disney actually produces some very nice beginner lanyards like the one displayed below

that give you a place to pin your pins (the lanyard) and some starter pins (including duplicates in case you just can't bear to part with any).

Now it's trading time!

Trading at the parks is a blast. the majority of cast members (Disney employees) have lanyards, and are alway accomodating to traders. Almost to a degree that I feel bad for them, when you can tell they're trying to get somewhere quickly yet my children are pulling them aside to view their pins. The very cool thing about cast members is they are the only ones who have the precious "Hidden Mickey" pins... you can't buy these in stores. These pins have a hidden Mickey someone in their design. I've included a more obvious example below.

See the little silver Mickey in the corner? That designates it as a "Hidden Mickey" cast member only pin. These also tend to come in sets of 4-12... so collecting them can be great fun... or great frustration.

Cast members wear two types of lanyards, or pin bags, either in the traditional blue or a special "children's only" green. The green lanyards are only for the kids and I personally think it's a great idea. There are ALOT of adult pin traders out there, some legit, others looking to just make a buck on eBay selling cast member pins. My kids have picked up some amazing pins off the green lanyards, and it keeps a general innocence alive about the hobby.

Now each park has a primary pin trading post... but the big daddy of them all is at Downtown Disney.

This place is crazy big, loaded with pins, and a fair collection of professional pin traders with tables and pin books full of pins for trading. A caveat here... not all those pin traders are in it for the love of trading. Although they can't sell their pins (Disney won't allow it) they will take brand new pins from inside the store in trade. Some will go so far as to accompany you into the store to make sure you pick out the right ones to trade. This in itself isn't wrong, but they have been known to take advantage of people who don't understand the value of some of the pins... trading cheap, inexpensive pins for brand new, limited edition ones in the store. Just a caveat.

Happy trading!