As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I was just wondering about how much the pins and lanyards are. DBF and I are interested in doing this at Disney this year, but I might buy some pins on ebay if they seem cheaper than the regular prices. Also, are these pins and lanyards for sale at the regular disney stores that are located outside of disneyworld? Let me know what you think we should do!
A few weeks ago, I bought a lanyard with 3 pins on it at the Disney Store for $11. I also bought several pins there which had been $6.99, on sale for $1.99.
You can get lanards with some pins on them for under $20. Thy are usually cheaper pins and are good to get you started pin trading. Pins run from $5 on up. It is a fun hobby. My DS and I collect . He likes to trade , I just keep whatever i buy and don't trade. I always get one from the resort that we are at, and dated park pins and one from a favorite ride. Go to the Disney store online and you'll get a good ideal about costs.
My DS12 really got into this the last time we were there. I bought a bunch of pins on Ebay before we left. I was able to get them at a fairly good price because I wasn't picky about who was on the pin, just about keeping the price down. For example, I would bid on any pin that was less than $2 and not go above that. I had a lot of time to do it and I'm a bit of any Ebay junkie so I managed to pick up some deals in the long run. Be careful to check feedback though to make sure you're getting authentic Disney pins ( there are actually conterfeit pins out there!). I also bought some pins from someone on the DIZPINS sale board. As far as waiting and buying them at the parks for trading, the individual pins start at $6.95 and go up from there. You can, however, buy some sets of pins that will average out to about $5.00 a pin in a set of four. Sometimes the pin stores have a deal on that you can buy a special pin for $2.00 when you spend $30 there. These pins are always good for trading. Lanyards I believe started at about $6.00 and go up from there. I would just wait and buy one of those at the park cause they have so many varieties to choose from.
I would definitely recommend pin trading. We had a lot of fun with it and I loved to see my DS so obsessed with something Disney. Plus, with me watching pins on Ebay for the year before we leave, I get to enjoy Disney for that much more time.
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They do have some nicer sets in Disney as well that will run you between $25 -$30. Disney shopping online usually has a cute starter pack, but the lanyards at the stores in Disney and at DTD are MUCH nicer! You can also go on ebay and get an assortment of pins (you don't pick them, they come in a batch) for a good price. Just watch the dealer that you are getting authentic pins!
I HIGHLY recommend Ebay! My MIL and I each just bought a lot of pins from a seller and were overwhelmed by the quality! For 50 pins it's $99 plus shipping (for the person we used). That's just under $2 a pin! And these were really high quality pins. No fakes and no Sedesma. There were only a few doubles in each lot, which if you're trading them away doesn't matter. For the same $100 at WDW you would only get about 16 pins (@ $6 a pin). Some of the pins were definately more like $14 pins. I'll PM you the info on the seller we used. I know it seems like a lot of money to put out at once, but once you start trading it adds up REALLY fast. I have three little ones that do the trading and I just don't get the idea of getting to the parks and shelling out $6-$10 on a pin they're just going to give away to someone else. And when kids trade they aren't going for the most expensive pin on the lanyard - they're going for that cheap one with their favorite character on it.
Good Luck!
I HIGHLY recommend Ebay! My MIL and I each just bought a lot of pins from a seller and were overwhelmed by the quality! For 50 pins it's $99 plus shipping (for the person we used). That's just under $2 a pin! And these were really high quality pins. No fakes and no Sedesma. There were only a few doubles in each lot, which if you're trading them away doesn't matter. For the same $100 at WDW you would only get about 16 pins (@ $6 a pin). Some of the pins were definately more like $14 pins. I'll PM you the info on the seller we used. I know it seems like a lot of money to put out at once, but once you start trading it adds up REALLY fast. I have three little ones that do the trading and I just don't get the idea of getting to the parks and shelling out $6-$10 on a pin they're just going to give away to someone else. And when kids trade they aren't going for the most expensive pin on the lanyard - they're going for that cheap one with their favorite character on it.
Good Luck!
Sounds like the dealer I bought from! Great pins, great deal!! The one thing I liked was you could pick your lot size!
For lanyards, I actually found a neat thing on Ebay: A combined lanyard and little wallet. Search for "Disney wallet lanyard" and you'll see several examples. I was able to get a different character for each of us. We used our wallets to hold our Keys to the World cards, fast passes, and gift cards, as well as the little thank you cards we'd made to hand out to CMs. They were also handy for storing the kids' pressed pennies (I had a special holder for mine, but they didn't), Mickey-shaped confetti, etc. All those little things that tend to get lost easily. The neck strap works great as a pin lanyard, so it really served a dual purpose. I think I paid $5 or so for each, since I was able to get them all from the same person and therefore got combined shipping. I thought it was very worth the cost!
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DD and DS, May 2008
"I am purple today; Bright and happy like a butterfly in the air." -Kira Willey
be advised that there are many sets of pins where the price per pin could equal $4 or less. plus there are occasional pins on sale such as the muppets ($5 each) or the cast member completers for $1 (with purchase). those are sound investments in the park, but it also means that many CMs will already have them, which means it's also very important to be aware of what you're trading for.
My DD decided that she wanted to trade pins on the LAST day of our 2007 fall trip. She bought a starter lanyard (comes with 4 pins) at the big pin kiosk at DTD (was around $20). She even got a boring pin with purchase, giving her another "trader". Since then we've bought some pins online, my best finds being on ebay. I don't spend more than $2.50 (after s&h) per pin. Most pins at WDW will run you $6 minimum. If you're looking to collect pins from specific places or events, pay the $ and buy them. If you're looking to trade, buy on ebay. DD does both. Have fun!!
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Looking forward to another Christmas with The Mouse!!
I bought my DD a starter lanyard with the zipper pouch on the end (in Tinkerbell) with 6 random pins for 19.95 off of Ebay. This seemed to be a better deal that the official starter sets.
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Laura in Austin
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Lanyard and Pins!
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there are actually conterfeit pins out there!). I also bought some pins from someone on the DIZPINS sale board. As far as waiting and buying them at the parks for trading, the individual pins start at $6.95 and go up from there. You can, however, buy some sets of pins that will average out to about $5.00 a pin in a set of four. Sometimes the pin stores have a deal on that you can buy a special pin for $2.00 when you spend $30 there. These pins are always good for trading. Lanyards I believe started at about $6.00 and go up from there. I would just wait and buy one of those at the park cause they have so many varieties to choose from.
DD and DS, May 2008
She bought a starter lanyard (comes with 4 pins) at the big pin kiosk at DTD (was around $20). She even got a boring pin with purchase, giving her another "trader". Since then we've bought some pins online, my best finds being on ebay. I don't spend more than $2.50 (after s&h) per pin. Most pins at WDW will run you $6 minimum. If you're looking to collect pins from specific places or events, pay the $ and buy them. If you're looking to trade, buy on ebay. DD does both. 
Have fun!!
Laura in Austin 
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