Disneyland will transform a corner of Frontierland that has become a hangout for Disney Adults who trade collectible pins into a kids-only pin trading area in the park’s latest attempt to rein in professional resellers who threaten to tarnish the decades-old Disney tradition.
Disneyland has begun distributing pin trading etiquette flyers to notify visitors of changes coming to pin trading rules at the Anaheim theme park.
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Disneyland pin traders will no longer be able to set up stationary pin trading spaces anywhere at the Disneyland resort starting on May 19, according to the flyer.
The designated pin trading area near Westward Ho Trading Company in Frontierland will become a kids-only pin trading area starting on May 22 when the park kicks off Kids Rule Summer, according to the flyer.
The Kids Rule Summer campaign is tied to a steep ticket discount good from May 22 through Sept. 7 that lets kids ages 3 through 9 parkhop between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for $50 a day.
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Disneyland pin traders will be limited to using a lanyard or handheld pin-trading accessory to display and trade their collectible enamel pins, according to the flyer.
Pin trading binders can no longer be displayed on tables, benches or chairs near the Westward Ho Trading Company or anywhere else at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney or the three Disneyland resort hotels, according to the Disneyland website.
Disneyland will kick out any visitor suspected of abusing the park’s pin trading guidelines, according to the flyer.
A Disneyland pin trader named Brittany who has collected 3,500 Disney pins welcomed the new restrictions.
“Those table resellers completely destroyed the fun of pin trading for our family and gave the hobby a really bad reputation,” Brittany wrote on Instagram.
The new kids-only pin trading area in Frontierland takes aim at the often-maligned Disney Adults who have been the subject of mockery and ridicule in a slew of recent news articles focused on their obsession with Disney theme parks and all things Disney.
Large groups of pin traders who congregate near Westward Ho Trading Company cause congestion at the busy Frontierland entrance, according to Mickey Visit.
“It’s unclear if this area will be permitted to return to a pin trading gathering for all ages after the Kids Rule Summer promotion ends,” according to Mickey Visit. “Pin trading with open binders in this area of Frontierland may be gone for good, as this could just be a quiet way to phase out the practice.”
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The Disney pin trading tradition was born after then Disneyland Resort president George Kalogridis returned from the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where pin-trading areas allowed visitors from around the world to interact and communicate without being able to speak the same language.
Kalogridis helped introduce pin trading in late 1999 at Disneyland and Disney World for the Disney Millennium Celebration. A decade later, Disney boasted an ever-changing selection of more than 50,000 pin designs.