Tuesday, October 29 - Magic Kingdom
Today featured my first trade of the trade-cation. I brought along my Big Eyes Mickey figure to trade:
I headed over to the Frontierland Trading Post to see what I could trade. I found 2 clear trading boxes, but no mystery trade box at this location. (You can check out the vinyls they had for sale here). I looked at one of the clear 12 trading boxes for a figure to trade for. There were 4 High School figures, 2 Zooper Heroes figures, 2 Extreme Wrestlers, 2 Under the Big Top figures, John Carter and an Urban 5 Popcorn. Needless to say, I went for the Urban 5 Popcorn.
It doesn't surprise me that the trade box was full of junk, I was expecting it, and my reason for trading was for fun and also as an experiment to see the best figure I could pull, given that the boxes are full of junk. But it does prove my point that these non-Disney series are not what collectors want.
Frontierland Trading Post
With my new Popcorn figure in hand, I headed out, when as I left the sales desk I had my first (and what would turn out to be my only) spontaneous trade with another collector. He was a very kind gentlemen who saw me trade at the desk and asked if I wanted to trade with him. I said sure! He traded me my Urban 5 Popcorn for his Little Mermaid Ariel figure. I was really happy since I already have the Popcorn figure, but more so that I had a great and fun interaction with another happy collector.
Wednesday, October 30 - Pin Traders
For my second trade of the trip, I headed over to Pin Traders at Downtown Disney's Marketplace. I brought my Honey Hunt figure from Park 12. At Pin Traders I saw only a Mystery 15 trade box and tried my luck.
Ironically, my first pull was another Honey Hunt figure. Seeing that I had this figure already, the Cast Member told me to pick another number. I chose again and pulled the Urban Redux #2 Woolly Mammoth - common not the variant. The Cast Member put the Honey Hunt and Mammoth figures next to each other on top of the trade box and told me I could either take one or pick a third number.
I decided to take the Woolly Mammoth since I figured it was better than a High School, Extreme Wrestler or Zooper Hero figure I was at risk of pulling. I took the Mammoth and handed over my figure. The Cast Member seemed confident in what she was doing, but seemed pretty indifferent in her attitude. She also didn't explain the rules beforehand. It was interesting to note the different attitudes of cast members at each trade location.
Wednesday, October 30 - D-Street
My third trade took place on the same night as my second, but over at D-Street. I took Skippy with me, a figure from the Park #6 Alien Encounter combo set.
D-Street had a Mystery 15 trade box and a clear 3 trade box. I didn't see anything special in the clear box so I asked the Cast Member if I could trade from the mystery box. She seemed excited that I'd asked and looked in the mystery box. She said "the box is bad" and asked another Cast Member to "switch" the box. The other Cast Member ran out the back with the first box and brought out a new one. This was new information for me. I had heard about "refreshing" trade boxes, but I didn't know this meant switching the mystery box entirely at the discretion of cast members.
They seemed to have much stricter rules at D-Street, which one would expect being the flag bearer Vinylmation vendor, but from my past experiences here, I was not inspired with confidence that the staff knew the first thing about Vinylmation. The Cast Member made me surrender my vinyl before I could pick a number. She also didn't explain the rules to me before I traded.
My first pull was the Disney Cruise Line Killer Whale. I did not cruise to Alaska, so I tried to get another figure I might like. I had to give up this figure in order to choose a second number. The Cast Member told me this was my last trade (not the case at other locations, as I've already mentioned above). So I had to keep whatever I pulled this time. I pulled... Wild West Pluto. I was happy with that, it definitely could have been worse and I liked it a lot more than the whale.
Thursday, October 31 - EPCOT
This turned out to be my fourth and final trade of the trade-cation. While I'd hoped to do more trading, I just got too busy. For this trade, I headed over to Disney Traders.
I brought my Urban Redux #2 Woolly Mammoth to trade. Inside I found a Mystery 15 trade box and a clear 3 trade box. Once again I didn't see anything I liked in the clear trade box, so I asked the Cast Member if I could trade from the mystery box. This Cast Member also seemed excited that I'd asked to trade (although the Cast Member at D-Street wins the award for most excited).
My first pull was Drago Smackdownovich from the Extreme Wrestlers series. Hardly surprising, but the Cast Member did a great job of trying to make it seem like an exciting figure. I asked to pick again and the Cast Member kept Drago on top of the box and told me to pick another number. I chose a number and pulled Donald/March from the 2013 Poster Art series.
The Cast Member put Donald next to the wrestler and said I could pick for a third time. I decided to take Donald as I didn't think I'd pick anything better. I handed over the Woolly Mammoth and the Cast Member gave me Donald.
My trade figure
The Cast Member at Disney Traders was very helpful and polite. He asked me what I was looking for and checked the trade box. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, since I was trading for fun and didn't expect anything decent to be in there. I also didn't know how much he knew about vinyls so I said Star Wars in the hope that those figures (if there) would stand out to him. He looked but of course, no Star Wars figures in the box.
In-Park Trading Review
To summarize and review my thoughts on this experience and experiment, I felt that overall there wasn't anything amazing in the trade box. However, I was expecting this and I was definitely prepared to end up with A LOT worse than what I took home. Your typical outlet fodder was definitely in there but I avoided taking it. I was pleased to see so many CMs have an enthusiastic attitude toward Vinylmation trading, it made trading a lot more fun and enjoyable. I hate it when they seem thoroughly disinterested, you kinda regret asking.I was surprised to see different rules of trading practiced since the changes in the trade boxes. I thought Disney were aiming to make the rules more uniform and that reducing the number of trade box locations would help that initiative, but it hasn't happened yet from my experience. Although the rules seemed the same at each location other than D-Street, which had its own rules, so maybe less boxes has helped. I should mention that despite the undesirable nature of the vinyls in trade boxes, they all seemed like they were in great condition which I was extremely happy about. Nothing worse than a vinyl you don't want that's also beat up.
Mystery 15 box at Villains in Vogue - Hollywood Studios
I had a great time trading and would have traded more had I had the time, but since it was my honeymoon, trading definitely took the backseat when we visited Downtown Disney and the theme parks. I was thrilled to make a spontaneous trade with another collector and what I got was absolutely shocking and outstanding in a good way. I was surprised and pleased that not every collector brings discounted outlet vinyls to trade with at Walt Disney World. I enjoyed trading with another collector much more than the trade boxes and hope to do this again.
One thing I would say to others who plan on in-park trading, is to not take trading there too seriously. Trading was fun because I wasn't expecting to get anything amazing like a chaser, variant or something that I really needed/wanted to fill a gap in my collection. If you go in with that attitude, you might be disappointed when all you pull are non-Disney series, or discounted outlet vinyls when the Cast Member makes you surrender one of your $12.95 Park Series vinyls. However, if Disney listen to collectors and reduce the number of vinyls they make and stop producing those terrible non-Disney sets, I think these issues will eventually become a thing of the past for in-park trading.
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