Pin-Mania

Last week my wife and I made a trip to Anaheim's Disneyland. This time we maneuvered into the monster parking garage rather than permitting ourselves to get funneled into one of the remote satellite parking lots. The main 6-story parking garage is mammoth. We were unlucky enough to get directed to the third to the last stall in our row, at the very back, on the Goofy Level. We needed a shuttle just to get to the other end of the row where the escalators take you down to the tram station, which drives you to the drop-off, where you then walk through the security station to get to the ticket booths, and then into the park. Whew! I'm exhausted just telling you about the effort it takes to get to Main Street these days.

Mid-morning we walked through the entrance to Frontierland, and happened to notice just inside the fort walls a make-shift station where two ladies were engaged in selling and/or trading a vast array of Disneyland commemorative pins. Two western style wooden barrels were flipped upside down and several folders full of pins were on display, like a huge coin collection, for customers to peruse.I was intrigued by the transactions:

I will sell you this Tinker Bell 'It's All About Me' pin for $20, or I've got a Mickey through The Years three-pin set for $50."

There had to be hundreds and hundreds of Disney pins on display: Mickey pins of all kinds, Goofy pins, Donald Duck pins, pins for each land, each ride, pins commemorating Disney anniversaries, every imaginable Disney cartoon character, limited edition pins, hidden Mickey pins, seasonal pins, Disney movie pins, Disney Olympic pins, state character pins, and on and on.

I had never known this secret world existed - the world of pin traders and collectors. My son had flirted with an interest in coin collecting as a boy, so I felt I was on some familiar ground. Like coins, I was sure that there must be commonplace pins of modest value, as well as rare limited edition pins that would fetch a pretty price.

Eager to learn more, I stepped up to one of the ladies and asked innocently which of her pins was the most rare and valuable. She immediately clammed up. I could tell I had entered the club without the secret handshake. She hemmed and hawed for a moment and offered some canned dribble about the value of pins being purely in the eyes of the beholder. I didn't give up:

"Yeah, I'm sure that's true, but like coins, there must be some pins that are serious collectors items. For example, which of your pins would you charge the most for?"

For some reason, that question wiped the smile off her face and she muttered:

"I'm not going to tell you that."

And she moved on to her next customer. She acted like I had asked her income or how she votes. Maybe she thought I was casing her out to snatch her precious pins and make a run for the parking garage.

Back home, I called my brother Bill, who used to work at Disneyland, to learn more about this secret society of Disney pin collectors. He was quite illuminating. Apparently, this pin-mania is a serious affliction bordering on addiction. There are websites exclusively for the sale of Disney pins, with literally tens of thousands of pins (see dizpins.com or pinpic.com). And new pins are being rolled out literally every day. It is impossible to collect them all. Bill has a modest collection of his own, so he recognizes the sickness and the level of obsession associated with Disney pins. He e-mailed me a picture of one of his favorite pins - the parking lot tram pin, a three-piece set commemorating his job in the parking lot (See the pin to the right). A popular Tinker Bell pin (to the left) was originally sold off of the Disney Auction pin site...similar to Ebay. It sold for $67 dollars. It then was up on Ebay for a lot more. And trying to trade for it is difficult as those who have don't easily let it go. They have it ready for trade for the next MUST HAVE pin that comes out. And since new pins come out daily...one never knows. My brother said that some of the most sought-after pins will sell for thousands of dollars. Wow. Pin conventions and special trading and sales events are held throughout the year for the faithful.

When I think back on our recent trip to Disneyland, I recall a moment when my wife and I were standing in the Finding Nemo Submarine line, when we spotted a family standing not far behind us with that foreign nationality look. They were all blond, fair-skinned, with eyes and cheek bones that screamed "northern European". What caught my eye next was a large round pin each person was wearing with pride. It read "1st Time Visitor".I side-stepped my way back to them to learn more. I was dying to hear first-time impressions of the park.

"Are you from the USA?" I asked. "No, we are visiting from Finland," the mother confided. We chatted for a minute about their expectations and goals for the day, then I took a picture of their pin (shown at right).

I confess I was jealous. The more I thought about that "1st Time Visitor" pin, the more I wished I had my own pin to commemorate my own first visit so many years ago. But they didn't make those pins back in 1955. If they had, and my parents had thought to buy me one, I would cherish it to this day as the rarest of pins that celebrated that once-in-a-lifetime event: my first shining wide-eyed visit to the Happiest Place on Earth. I only wish I had such a pin of my own. They are not sold on eBay, you could not attach a price to it, and it would be untradeable. For me, that would be the rarest and most unique of all Disney pins.