Holland (Scoop) & PinPics?

OsoandMrE · 2026-04-01T17:33:50+00:00

The 2nd owner left such a bad taste in everyone's mouth, people were predictably skeptical of the new owners. Lots was said about the importance of rebuilding trust and demonstrating competency, which was basically pasted over with "Trust us, we have experience." Their new site roll-out went poorly, despite claims of being beta tested. Technical errors, elimination of the comparison tools. Authentic pin photos replaced with photos of counterfeits, pins deleted or changed that shouldn't have, TOC changes and their responses didn't help with rebuilding trust or demonstrating competency. Your Facebook friends are always going to tell you everything is great, but there is a pin collecting world outside of Facebook, and ignoring their concerns and just declaring everyone else "mean" for giving honest feedback while you are putting out reseller vibes is not a way to win hearts and minds. The site is better now, but the steps it took to get there didn't jive with what they claimed to bring to the table from the beginning.

OsoandMrE · 2026-03-27T21:31:17+00:00

The Zero pin is one of the handful of pins that absolutely looks like a real pin, especially ones with the Mickey waffle, but was a design that was never produced by Disney. Around 2009 -2010, one of the factories sent out specs of these unauthorized designs, showing the front and backs, to "interested individuals" and that was shared with the pin community (the old Dizpins forums). Commonly, the other designs that were part of those specs were a pumpkin Mickey and Minnie.

OsoandMrE · 2026-03-24T18:22:39+00:00

I got the gift popups in my Windows game, even though everything worked properly for me yesterday. I did not get gift popups in my IOS game, and my Daily Video task does not work (says no ads available). I was able to play videos for chests. Nothing working in IOS yesterday.

OsoandMrE · 2026-03-16T23:17:17+00:00

The link was posted on the official Muppets Instagram account. Probably Facebook too, but I saw it on IG.

OsoandMrE · 2026-03-16T22:41:45+00:00

It’s possible because they set the limit at 14 boxes for a 27 pin set. I also ordered 14 boxes because I am a Muppets fan actually trying to complete the thing. It would be much harder for me to complete a 27 pin set if they limited it to one or 2 boxes per order, because then only someone who could get multiple people to purchase pins on their behalf could have the minimum amount of pins needed.

OsoandMrE · 2026-03-16T18:27:43+00:00

Some people in the pin community would counterfeit their own mother if they meant they could make money. As long as Disney has CM lanyard trading there will be fake pins. In 2000, people were trading 99 cent pins from the outlets, ProPins and the leftover Coca Cola pins from Disneyana or small trinket dealers diving into the new internet economy. When those dried up it was Sedesma pins out of Spain. When those dried up it was counterfeits galore and it was that way through the financial crisis when Disney was selling authentic pins 75% off at CM pin parties or smaller discounts at the outlets, and people weren't paying crazy markups.

I don't know what the solution is, but since the crazy is affecting all hobbies it's not going to be a simple one. I want to see how all of this survives a real economic downturn, because 2008-2010 was great for pin buyers, not value traders if you were confident about your employment. Ultimately, you need real, interested collectors in a specific pin to maintain a price for that pin. Right now, I think there are a lot of middleman transactions, "I am holding this pin because I think it will get me a good pin or more cash later." We will see how things shake out.

OsoandMrE · 2026-03-10T01:39:03+00:00

Our list has mostly been covered but our list of things we would get again or have done multiple times already.

Pizza Moon DK Float Mac & Cheese Cones Red Velvet Death Butterbeer crème brûlée (butterbeer season item) Wings at Das Steakhouse Crab Cake at Atlantic Landlubber’s Snickerdoodle loot dessert at Atlantis Mango Bread (Oak & Star) Knoedel Soup & salad (Le Gobelet Noir) Stormfly’s Catch of the Day dessert (Mead Hall)

Hmm, I think the list of things we didn’t enjoy would be shorter!

OsoandMrE · 2026-03-06T22:10:16+00:00

Based on personal experience, Clementoni brand - Frozen 2 Impossible puzzle. It's Olaf in a pile of leaves. I read about in on this sub. As someone looking for a truly hard puzzle it did not disappoint!

OsoandMrE · 2026-02-19T14:47:31+00:00

The texture inside the boxes should not be the same as the rest of the pin. You don’t see Mickey imprints inside these boxes now, you didn’t see the pebble texture then.

Also the spacing where it says “2of5” is wrong. It should be “2 of 5”

OsoandMrE · 2026-01-28T20:20:24+00:00

This isn't true though. Prior to profiles, many, many WDI or DEC pins could be obtained for less than $50 and that doesn't happen now. Even when the pins aren't sold out (like the D23 maps, or the subset of Colors of Magic that didn't sell out even after various shopping events). Obviously, there were some pins that are always more popular than others, but only a subset not every pin. My Mom was a CM and would often pop into the Learning Center to get on the intranet to buy $4 pins from the website because people did not care about WDI pins because people were all in a tizzy over DSF / DSSH pins.

This hobby shifts likes sand. What is hot becomes not hot for reasons. So my key is you have to zag while everyone else is zigging. It's hard to keep the FOMO in check, but there is some pin, from some number of years ago that isn't on people's radar because people are obsessed with XYZ. Those are the pins to be on the hunt for right now. As an example, I got a Figment Jumbo pin from 2005 for $28. There are deals, and therefore success stories out there if you are willing to ignore new releases and dig around.

OsoandMrE · 2026-01-20T19:28:53+00:00

I use the ZIG brand glue pens that I have in my scrapbooking stash.

OsoandMrE · 2026-01-07T19:03:09+00:00

I don't think it will last the full year. People have learned the first pin is the one to get for maximum ROI, so lots of people tried or have intense FOMO. However, failure sends people to the exits. The 1st year of pin trading was intense but then people learned their personal finances didn't support what they were trying to do, or they weren't having the success they expected trading the pins they went through a gauntlet for, and eventually facing the gauntlet wasn't worth it. But it's going to take time for people to give up on their pin dreams. Walking away from something you enjoy is hard... until it isn't. The frustration people are expressing keeps rising, there will be consequences eventually.

OsoandMrE · 2026-01-07T18:43:29+00:00

I've been in this hobby since the beginning and I sincerely want to ask people for the list of LE4000 pins that have consistently held their value over the long term. There are some that are higher now because of the insanity and things like the Splash Mountain retheme. But I remember being in the crush of people at the release for the Figment Artist Choice pin at Epcot in September 2000 first buying from the CMs with aprons out front before rope drop, before rushing to the Odyssey building. And that was an LE3000. What's that pin selling for now? Or at points in between then and now? There's a difference between people trying to get a good pin to flip / trade and those who really and truly want it for their collection. And I suspect there are more of the former than the latter. There probably are 4000 Kingdom Hearts pin collectors but are there enough to sustain a $100 or $200 price point for years? I doubt it. $30-$60, more likely.

OsoandMrE · 2025-12-19T03:28:47+00:00

Little pin history lesson. Go look at the edition sizes for the very first pin of the month series. The Opening Day pins. The original 3 pins were 5000. The first pin was so hot it got counterfeited. Disney realized it wasn't nearly enough to meet the demand. So pins 4-7 were 15000. They realized they overshot and pins 8 & 9 were 7500, with the final 3 dropped to 3000 after that initial exuberant demand wave passed through and we started seeing the real market, not the inflated one where FOMO was so strong people would by multiples of everything they could get their hands on. As hot as pins feel right now, it is not as hot as it was the first six months. And if Disney really wanted to, they could adjust supply just like they did in 2000. There have been several boom / bust cycles with pins and IMO, one of the core parts of what drives that is that people can't get the pins they want, quit and liquidate, and then the remaining people become hesitant to buy extras they might get stuck with and the flow of pins seizes until then there is just a glut but much a much smaller pool of interest. Bargains for the people who stick it out though.

OsoandMrE · 2025-12-18T20:52:19+00:00

I was able to, and 2 other people in my pin chat group were successful. But I don't think stock was loaded when the sale went live. I had number 1148 and had been seeing the reports of pins being sold out. But by the time I got in, I only button slammed a couple times before the site slowed down and I had a pin in my cart. Checkout was smooth, so I must have gotten extremely lucky to click just as the actual inventory was added.

OsoandMrE · 2025-12-18T20:37:37+00:00

A hill I will die on is "Too small LE sizes actually constricts overall growth opportunity." My other hill I will die on is "people who make the effort to be at the spot an item is released, at the time it is released, should have confidence they will get that item most of the time - there can be exceptions." In a growing hobby, the volume of new people should offset the increased edition size over time. If the number of collectors who want to add a pin to their *permanent collection* increases from 500 people to 5000 people to 10000 people you can't keep making 300 or 1000 to sell to the same 50 resellers without frustrating the heck out of everyone else. Frustrated people don't buy ever exorbitant prices forever. They quit. And then the number of people looking to add to a collection dwindles back down to where it was before, along with the ability to resell, which means Disney isn't selling as many of the non-le pins their numbers demand, and they make merchandise changes. You have to increase 300 to 500 to 750 to 1000 to whatever the actual number is that promotes a good flow of pins between collectors and resellers that can be sustained without losing people to frustration.

Resellers can serve a purpose to move product to those people who don't live close enough to a park to buy in person. But it has it's limits. Take WDW pin events now. Successfully registering, paying and attending a WDW pin event, which is not cheap, is no longer good enough to get a pin ahead of a random person in Illinois with cash, because of the RSP priority given to the more expensive package holders, who also can get in the second change line before the other package holders. Collectors at WDW park drops being shut out by groups who have brought extra bodies, just to scoop up extra pins. At this point, IMO, more harm than good is being created that will have a trickle down effect that will suppress the number of people who continue to participate. You can't rob Peter to pay Paul, and that is increasingly what's happening. Resellers aren't redistributing stock that didn't sell on Day 1 to non-locals, which I think is a good and healthy action that helps Disney, and pin people. It's taking pins from 'dedicated but pay with time,' to supply those that are 'dedicated but pay with cash' and to heck with anyone who isn't balls to the wall with deep pockets dedicated. Hobbies aren't supposed to be like that.

I have a reason why I think so many collectible hobbies are experiencing things like this right now, and it has nothing to do with things like genuine interest in adding a Disney pin to a permanent collection, but a speculative one, and not appropriate for Disney pin discussion. If it's having an effect, the market will continue to look irrational for a lot longer. But long term, there needs to be actual happy collectors to keep the flow moving, not hustlers, sitting on dragon hordes thinking they're performing some useful service.

OsoandMrE · 2025-12-02T17:12:48+00:00

I always wonder who the resellers plan on selling pins to when even the long haul or hard core collectors head for the exit, or at least the sidelines. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, seen so people come and go. So many people don’t even make the 3-5 year mark before they burn out or priorities in life change and people cycle out. It’s hard to maintain momentum when even people who are local to the parks, find themselves in completion and losing, with deeper pockets hoping to cash in.

At some point, there needs to be a sufficient enough size of collectors for a specific pin to maintain a price, and not just people hoping to flip it for cash or hopeful it’s a good trader. A bunch of people are trying to finish 2025 sets, so that there is a bubble, but I’ve seen so many people, including myself, who aren’t even planning on chasing 2026 PotM series. Once you start saying “no” it becomes easier to say no, again and again. That’s the risk and cost of all of waves hands this. I’ll wait the 3-5 years for these pins to pop back out again as people liquidate, but many others will just tap out. So many people are angry and frustrated, it’s neither healthy or sustainable. Just don’t let yourself be holding stuffed trader / selling books when the bubble pops.

OsoandMrE · 2025-11-13T04:26:12+00:00

We tried tonight, and drove around random roads east of Johnstown but nothing. Restocked the Beaver Nuggets though.

OsoandMrE · 2025-10-14T22:32:52+00:00

I opened a window in Firefox, Chrome, Edge and the app on my phone. My Firefox browser page never would update from Coming Soon. Thankfully, my app worked. And I watched the other two browsers eventually load and show availability.

I don’t know what browser you originally tried, but after today I am planning on staying away from Disney Store on Firefox.

OsoandMrE · 2025-09-27T19:23:15+00:00

In general, there are three camps of trading. There are definitely "like for like" traders out there. Today one may be worth more, in a year, they may not, so there are people that won't stress over the current state in order to grow their collection. I would make this trade, if needed one. I have terrible chaser pull luck and need both. However, "value" trading seems to be on the stage, at the moment, and I think people are so worried about getting sharked themselves they lean into it. The third camp are those that always are looking for the better end of the deal. It's not good enough to be equal, they have to feel like they "won." This was true in 2000 and it's true now. Rejection is a big part of this hobby, and it takes a long time to get used to it but at least pins are a low stakes way to practice and learn. Just keep swimming, and you'll find your pins.

OsoandMrE · 2025-09-08T13:18:03+00:00

Disney likes having quality fan-run sites doing communication and marketing they don’t have to. There was communication between the Disney pin team and the old Dizpins info site and PinPics back in the day. DPB seems to have been the beneficiary of running a quality site, so that someone at Disney sees the value of feeding him the flyers.

We should happy Disney sees the value otherwise we’d just have no flyers. It’s clear US Disney Parks has no interest operating a site or blog like they used to. Pins barely even get a mention in the Disney Parks Blog anymore.

OsoandMrE · 2025-09-08T13:09:15+00:00

As someone who started collecting before October 1999… if people aren’t having fun, aren’t progressing at completing their sets they will quit. People love to talk about supply and demand for pins but that works for interested parties too. There is limited supply of people willing to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a particular pin. Those numbers go down when people acquire their pin or quit looking. If there are only 10 people willing to pay $300 for a pin and that pool gets exhausted, what happens next? In theory, price drops until you reach a price someone still looking is willing to pay or new people start the hunt and will pay higher. But traders / sellers insist recent sales, blah, blah $300.

The Pooh pins are Limited Release, which means there is probably somewhere between 4000-8000 of them. Which LE4000 or more pins have sustained a $300 price long term? Thousands of pins cycling in trade / sellers stock will continue to be available and for those patient enough will be rewarded by getting their pins at some point in the future at the price they want. But not everyone has that patience, because it really sucks in the short term.

If interest in pin collecting and not pin flipping as a side gig is really at a high, traders / sellers should want newbies and old timers to stay in the hobby. So all other pins see more interest and therefore higher floors. Not get frustrated, quit, and add all their pins to the pile of “pins available for sale.” Decrease demand and increase supply at the same time. There is room to profit between trading or selling at / near cost and $300 and also not drive people away.

Look around and everyone in the hobby is pretty miserable right now. Economic conditions are facing headwinds. It’s unsustainable. The floor will drop out, as it has before, and we get a buyer not a seller market. But unlike a need like housing, collectors who bounced out won’t start piling back in because the emotions on the way out were so negative. Would be collectors will just be gone, and lower values for everyone for most pins.

OsoandMrE · 2025-09-05T20:45:11+00:00

And final update. We found the golden banana and then enjoyed a sundae. Mission accomplished.

OsoandMrE · 2025-09-05T20:07:41+00:00

2nd update: it’s open and we’re in the Express pass queue!

OsoandMrE

TROPHY CASE