Let’s be honest: there are A LOT of Disney pins available. It seems every store you visit at Disney (World or Land), pins can be found somewhere inside. From attractions, to characters, to holiday pins. There’s even limited edition pins, and pins only available to Disney passholders.
It can be so overwhelming to both your mind and wallet, that getting started in pin collecting seems extremely daunting. Where do I start? What do I collect? Do I have to collect all of these? (goodness, no!!)
To help you get started with your personal Disney pin collection, we offer a few ideas to help you narrow your scope so you can focus on pins to look for.
Resorts you’ve stayed at!
This is an easy theme to begin, and fun to progress with. If you’re staying on-property for your Disney vacation, pick up a Disney pin of the resort you’re at! On future vacations, pick a different resort and pick up that pin.
Over time, your pin collection will both grow and serve as a reminder of your vacations. You can even arrange them progressively, starting with the first resort you’ve stayed at, and ending with the most recent.
Your favorite attractions!
Is there a particular ride at Disney (again: World or Land) that you love so very much? You could begin your pin collection around your love for that ride!
Or, alternatively, you could collect a Disney pin of all of the rides that you personally love at Disney. You don’t have to collect every pin of that ride, but perhaps one that really speaks to you.
Important note: from our experience, not every ride at Disney has a pin available for it. While there’s no shortage of pins for iconic rides such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, or Tower of Terror, we’re still impatiently waiting for pins of attractions we also love such as Spaceship Earth or Living with the Land. (Disney, take note please)
Your favorite characters!
Do you have a favorite Disney character? I’m sure we all do. Perhaps your pin collection could be finding pins of your favorite characters!
Or perhaps you really love one character, such as Stitch!
Or maybe you really love a main character’s sidekick? We’re not saying we love Pascal more than Rapunzel, but we’re not not saying it….
Perhaps all of these happily-ever-after characters aren’t your thing, and you want your Disney pin collection to focus on the bad guys! People love a good villain, and there’s no shortage of Disney villain pins.
Interest-specific pins.
We apologize for the clumsy wording for this category. This isn’t resorts, rides, or movies. Perhaps you really like the Disney monorail and want to only collect pins related to the monorail.
Or if that’s too narrow, you could broaden your collection to Disney transportation in general. Monorail, bus, boat, train. You may even find a Skyliner pin or two.
Those “Needle in the Haystack” pins.
Maybe for your pin collection, you want to find that extremely rare pin. That character you’ve never seen a pin for. That ride or show from decades ago that is long gone. That hard to find pin that would make fans jealous.
Such as this pin, from the long extinct show “Food Rocks!” and “Kitchen Kabaret” that was at The Land pavilion at Epcot. We found it on a pin trading board when a cast member asked if we knew who that character is. Boy, did we! A few moments and one pin trade later, this pin came home with us to be housed in our ‘special collection’.
Don’t go overboard.
We want to wind down this article with an important reminder to not go overboard. Pin collecting is not a cheap hobby, but it can become really expensive if you let it. Remember to focus on the pins that you want, in an effort to curb impulse purchasing. We’ve been victims ourselves in the pin collection frenzy of seeing so many great looking pins and wanting to have them all. Ultimately, it led to several instances of buyer’s remorse and regret.
Remember to stay focused on what you really want your pin collection to be. You can admire great looking pins in the gift shops while acknowledging that they’re not right for you and your collection.
Disney Rover 