PIN SHARKS!! OH MY! What Can Disney Do to
Help!?
Over all my hubby
and I love Disney Collectable trading pins. We don’t normally collect sets or
go get picky about what people trade when trading with us. We go for the pins we
like and it does not matter if they are Limited Edition or Open Edition. Does
it make us smile or remember a special time? If so we want it!
Overall we do not
trade with other adult guests. We choose to trade with Cast Members and children.
Cast Members have a simple rule for trading. Pin for a pin period and it does
not matter if it is Limited Edition or Open Edition. They limit it to two pins
per person. We hold to the same pin for pin rule when we trade. If the pin is
in our trading group of pins they can take it and give us any pin they want. If
someone does not want to trade a pin we want for a pin we wish to give that is
fine.
We like trading
pins with children. Part of the reason we like trading with kids is we hope to
keep them away from the “Pin Sharks” that would take a highly collectable pin
the child may have and give them a pin of much lesser value or no real
collectable value. The other reason we like doing it is we enjoy seeing their
faces when they get a pin they like. If a child tries to give us a pin we know
is of value for a lesser value pin we let them know and let the child and
parent make the final decision to trade or not. We are not avid pin traders so
we don’t always know.
If a child wants a
pin my husband has but does not have a pin to trade my husband will send the
child over to me telling them, “Tell my wife her husband needs a pin for
trading.” I’ll give the child a pin and my husband will let the child either
keep that pin or trade for any pin he has.
Now here is my
problem. We have been helping a friend get a set of very limited edition pins
that are being released one pin per month. We make a special trip to the park
to get them. These pins are so treasured and limited in number that by the end
of the day they are released the pins are gone. In fact now they are selling
out within the first couple of hours the park is open. Disney limits the sale
of the pins to two pins per person. That is great as there are not many of the
pins. The problem is the pin sharks find their way past that rule and somehow
purchase five or more pins. The Pin Sharks then turn around and sell the pins
online for an outrageous profit.
A pin they
purchase for $25 will be sold online for $50 in just a couple of hours. The
price goes up from there. One pin I saw was going for $150 in just a couple of
days. The pin sharks breaking the rules and purchasing more than allowed takes
all the fun and simple pleasure out of collecting. They make it so we have to get
to the park when the park first opens and run to the pin shop if we want just
one pin.
One way the Pin
Sharks get past the limit is by teaming up with others. One “friend” will stand
in one line to purchase pins. When they are done they run to another shop where
another friend is standing in another line. This way they can purchase pins at more
than one store. They will run to as many shops as possible purchasing the limit
at each shop.
There are ways for
Disney to stop the Pin Sharks. One was is to stop selling pins at all. This is
what happened at Disneyland Tokyo. They Pin Sharks were so aggressive there they
eliminated pins all together.
There are other
less drastic ways to handle the Pin Shark problem. One simple solution is
linking all the cash registers. The majority of Pin Sharks are Annual
Passholders and use their pass to save money on the purchase of the pins. A 10-20%
discount is not to be ignored! The registers could inform the Cast Member the
person was attempting to purchase more than the number of pins allowed and
therefore allow the CM to uphold the policy.
Another way to
stop the profiteering is to use the system they had at the Cars Land opening.
If you wanted Limited Edition items you had to go to one location. You were
only allowed to go in once. It was a very controlled situation. Once everybody
that wanted had purchased the items the left overs were dispersed to other
locations throughout the park. Limits were strictly adhered too. It was easy to
make sure no one person got more than the limit.
I hope Disney will
get a handle on this so the fun can return to pin trading and frustration be
limited.
AMEN!
ReplyDelete