Disney Pin Trading has made a real comeback after years of being treated like an afterthought. If you have been on the fence about getting into it, or you already trade but keep coming up empty, this guide is built around one specific question: where do you actually go?
There are over 65 retail locations across Walt Disney World where you can buy pins. That number sounds like great news until you realize that buying pins and trading pins are two completely different things. Most of those 65 locations are not worth your time as a trader. The spots below are the ones that consistently deliver, organized in the order you will actually encounter them on a Disney World trip.
THE BEST PIN TRADING LOCATIONS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD
- Walt Disney World Store, Orlando International Airport (Terminal C)
- Front Desk and DVC Booth at Your Resort
- Gift Shop at a Deluxe Resort (BouTiki, Polynesian Village Resort)
- Camera Center Pin Traders, EPCOT
- The Dark Room, Hollywood Studios
- Frontier Trading Post, Magic Kingdom
- Discovery Trading Company, Animal Kingdom
- Disney’s Pin Traders, Disney Springs
- Attraction Exit Gift Shops
- Bonus: Where to Find the Best Unique Pins
Walt Disney World Store at Orlando International Airport (Terminal C)
Why You’ll Love It: This is the best pin trading board in the entire Walt Disney World ecosystem, and most people walk right past it on the way to baggage claim. The store at MCO catches two completely different types of guests at the same time. You have people arriving who are stepping into the Disney bubble for the first time, not yet thinking strategically about anything. And you have people on their way home in full chase mode, trying to land that one last trade before they board their flight. That combination of excited arrivals and desperate departures creates a genuinely unpredictable pin board, and unpredictable is exactly what you want as a trader.
Our last trip had a handful of Disneyland Paris pins sitting on the board, which is exactly the kind of thing you would never expect to find and would absolutely want to grab.
What to Look For: WDW-specific pins are the obvious goal, but keep your eyes open for international park pins. They show up more than you would think because of the global mix of guests passing through that store every single day.
Front Desk and DVC Booth at Your Resort
Why You’ll Love It: Resort front desks and DVC booths see a constant rotation of guests checking in and checking out, which means the boards turn over regularly and in interesting ways. Do not limit yourself to wherever you are staying. Stop into moderate and deluxe resorts beyond your own. The Boardwalk, the Yacht Club, and any of the monorail resort lobbies are all worth a walkthrough even if you have no other reason to be there. The boards at these locations attract more serious collectors than the parks tend to, which means more interesting pins end up in the mix.
What to Look For: Resort exclusive pins and anything that looks like it came from a collection someone was trying to complete. Those are the trades that usually have something worth finding on the other end.
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Gift Shop at a Deluxe Resort (BouTiki, Polynesian Village Resort)
Why You’ll Love It: If you are doing any monorail hopping around the Seven Seas Lagoon, BouTiki is worth building into the route deliberately. What makes resort gift shops like this one stand out is the concentration of trading opportunities in a single stop. At BouTiki specifically, you have cast members on the floor with lanyards, a pin board inside the shop, and a second board right outside at the DVC desk that most guests walk straight past without looking up. Three separate trading opportunities without leaving the same area is genuinely hard to beat anywhere else on property.
This model applies to other deluxe resort gift shops too, so do not feel like BouTiki is the only one worth visiting. Any deluxe resort gift shop that sits along a transportation route is worth adding to your rotation.
What to Look For: Resort-specific pins that are only available at that particular property. They exist, they are worth having, and they are the kind of thing that makes other traders take notice.
Camera Center Pin Traders, EPCOT
Why You’ll Love It: Camera Center is the dedicated pin trading location at EPCOT and one of the best spots in any of the four parks. The fact that it is built specifically around pin trading rather than being a section of a broader merchandise shop means the selection is more intentional, the boards are better maintained, and the cast members working there actually know what they are talking about. EPCOT also draws a different crowd than Magic Kingdom, which tends to mean more experienced traders in the mix and more interesting pins on the board.
What to Look For: World Showcase pavilion pins and EPCOT festival exclusive pins. EPCOT runs festivals across most of the year, and the pins tied to those events are some of the most collectible on property.
The Dark Room, Hollywood Studios
Why You’ll Love It: Hollywood Studios is genuinely underrated as a pin trading destination, and The Dark Room is the reason why. It sits in an area of the park that does not always get the foot traffic of Galaxy’s Edge or Toy Story Land, which works in your favor as a trader. Less foot traffic means the board turns over differently, and the guest mix tends to lean toward people who are there specifically because they know about it rather than people who stumbled in.
What to Look For: Hollywood Studios has some of the most unique park-specific pins in the Walt Disney World lineup, particularly anything tied to Star Wars or the classic Hollywood theming of the park. Those tend to move fast when they show up on a board.
Frontier Trading Post, Frontierland, Magic Kingdom
Frontier Trading Post in the Magic Kingdom (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Why You’ll Love It: Frontier Trading Post is the best pin trading stop in Magic Kingdom, and it is not particularly close. The location draws guests who are actively trying to complete something specific, which means the boards see more action from serious collectors than anywhere else in the park. Disney Adults chasing a particular series or a seasonal set tend to find their way here, and those same guests are often carrying pins they no longer need, which means you get access to things that rarely make it to the main floor of the Emporium.
What to Look For: Limited-edition pins tied to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. If you are visiting during a special ticketed event, Frontier Trading Post should be one of your first stops the moment you walk into Frontierland.
Discovery Trading Company, Animal Kingdom
Why You’ll Love It: Discovery Trading Company is the anchor pin trading location at Animal Kingdom and the most reliable stop in the park. It is large enough to have multiple boards and enough cast member traffic that you are going to find trading opportunities at most times of day. Animal Kingdom also tends to attract guests who are in a more relaxed headspace than Magic Kingdom crowds, which makes for better trading interactions overall.
Also worth noting: the merchandise locations near newer attractions at Animal Kingdom, including the shops around Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Expedition Everest, are worth checking if you are already in those areas of the park. Less foot traffic means less competition on those boards.
What to Look For: Animal Kingdom exclusive pins and anything tied to the park’s conservation and nature theming. Those pins have a dedicated collector base and tend to generate real trading interest.
Disney’s Pin Traders, Disney Springs
Why You’ll Love It: Disney’s Pin Traders at Disney Springs is the closest thing Walt Disney World has to a dedicated pin trading destination, and if you are serious about building a collection or finding something specific, this is the place to spend real time. The sheer scale of the location means more boards, more cast members, and more variety than you are going to find in a single park stop. Disney Springs also draws a different guest profile than the parks, including local collectors and annual passholders who stop in specifically to trade, which tends to make the boards more interesting.
What to Look For: Hidden boards tucked away from the main floor. The most interesting pins at Disney’s Pin Traders are not always the ones on display right when you walk in. Take your time, work the whole store, and you will find things that most guests miss entirely.
Attraction Exit Gift Shops
Why You’ll Love It: This one is more of a category than a single location, but it is worth understanding why these spots produce results. When guests exit an attraction through the gift shop, they are often in motion. They are not stopping to browse intentionally. That means pin boards in these locations get overlooked by most guests, which is exactly what creates the opportunity for the ones who do stop to look.
Mission: SPACE Cargo Bay in EPCOT is the best example of this. The exit area has a play space for kids, which means families are moving through without any particular trading agenda. Kids are not going to want to carry heavy or oversized pins around the park all day, which means those pins end up on the board. That is exactly how we ended up with a Disney KiteTails pin from the short-lived live entertainment show at Animal Kingdom. Right place, right time, and knowing to actually look at the board.
What to Look For: Pins from limited-run or discontinued experiences tend to surface in these locations more than anywhere else. The boards are less picked-over, the guests trading are less strategic, and the results can genuinely surprise you.
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Bonus: Where to Find the Best Unique Pins
Getting to the right location is half the battle. Here is what actually separates a great trading session from a forgettable one.
Luck is real, but you can put yourself in the way of it. The guests who find the best pins are not always the most experienced traders. They are the ones who show up consistently, check the boards at spots most people walk past, and stay curious. You cannot manufacture luck, but you can give it more chances to find you.
Find the blue ID badges. This is the tip that actually matters. Blue badges are worn by manager-level cast members. Those cast members go on and off stage throughout their shift, which means they come into contact with far fewer guests than a regular floor cast member. A floor cast member in a merchandise location does not really have the opportunity to say no to a trade. But a manager-level cast member with a blue badge has had fewer interactions overall, which means their lanyard has been traded with less frequently and tends to have more interesting pins on it. Find them when things are quieter and make your move.
Rope drop a pin board. Showing up at a dedicated pin trading location right when a park opens gives you first access to a board that has been reset overnight. Camera Center at EPCOT and Disney’s Pin Traders at Disney Springs are both worth targeting early for exactly this reason.
More luck. Seriously. Keep showing up at spots most guests skip. Check the board at the Mission: SPACE exit. Stop into the resort gift shop you have no other reason to visit. Walk through The Dark Room even when you are not planning on it. The KiteTails pin is out there on a board right now and someone is about to walk past it without looking down.
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Where to Buy Pins Before Your Trip
If you are heading into a trip without a solid set of trading pins, do not pay full park prices to build one. eBay has Disney pin trading lots that give you a perfectly tradeable base at a fraction of the cost, and the Disney Character Warehouse at the Orlando Premium Outlets is worth a stop before your trip really begins. You can find pins at clearance prices that trade just as well inside the parks as anything you would buy at full price, which means you are walking in with something to offer from day one.