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Hunting for Trash in Disneyland · Never Post

0:10
Mike Rugnetta: Friends, hello and welcome to Never Post, a
0:13
podcast for and about the Internet. I'm your host Mike
0:16
Rugnetta and we have a dogged show for you this week.
0:20
Contributing producer Rose Whitmer and her sister Maggie
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take us around Disneyland as they search for a specific
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enamel pin, all while reflecting on the state of hobbies,
0:34
especially those involving collecting at the time of peak
0:38
social media. But first, we're gonna take a quick break. You're
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gonna listen to some ads unless you're on the member feed, and
0:44
when we return, Rose, Maggie, and the search.
0:54
The Internet is for buying things. There. I said it. It's
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not about education or community or discovery or friendship or
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the collective search for truth. It's about stuff.
1:06
Digital, physical stuff. It's about subscriptions really
1:09
principally at the moment it seems, including to Never Post,
1:12
please. $4 a month. Okay. I'm joking.
1:18
The Internet is for a lot of things, including all the things
1:20
that I just said it wasn't, but it can often feel, I think, when
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engaging with your interests online that you are always being
1:27
funneled into a pattern where mainly what you are expected to
1:32
be is customer. I feel at least like I am constantly swatting
1:38
away the fly that is purchasing. This is even a major problem in
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some hobbies. Musicians have a name for it, gas or gear
1:48
acquisition syndrome and it plagues Reddit, Instagram,
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message board communities the world wide web over. The push to
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buy to be nothing more than a tapping finger connected to a
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credit card is so strong that in the last couple weeks, attending
2:06
an indie comics fair and then a tape fair, as in like cassette
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tapes, with my daughter and my wife, it has felt positively
2:15
intoxicating to, I mean, buy things, but from people to just,
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talk about our hobbies, to say why we're interested in some
2:27
such item or why we're not interested in something.
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And I mean, sure, you know, you gotta get on the train, you
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gotta go somewhere, you gotta clear your schedule, you gotta
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rub elbows with other people, but hey, at least there are
2:40
other people. That is in a way what this segment is about.
2:46
Contributing producer Rose Whitmer and her sister Maggie
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know at all times that it would be possible to open up their
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phones and become customer at any moment via the internet.
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They could acquire exactly what they are looking for, but they
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choose instead to do the more difficult thing, to become
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person rubbing elbows with other people. Why?
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Well, take a listen and find out.
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Rose Whitmer: Even if you're not involved yourself, you've
3:35
probably seen the breakneck growth in the popularity of
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blind box collecting. This idea that you will pay good money for
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something collectible, only knowing options of what might be
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in there. You might know Labuboos, Hachipoopoo, Mofusan,
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Sunny Angel, Skullpanda, Monchichi, Lego minifigs, and
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other toys that have swept the collecting market in the last
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few years. Or you might know Pokemon or Magic the Gathering
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cards. Blind boxes even go back as far as baseball and other
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trading cards placed in packs of tobacco and chewing gum.
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So not new. But there is a corner of the collecting world
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you probably aren't aware of. And at first, it isn't going to
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seem to have much to do with the Internet, but just bear with me.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. We're here at Disneyland. It's 06:40PM.
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Sun's getting low. Nice golden hour over the park, and we're in
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Tomorrowland.
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Tell us what we're gonna go check on, Maggie.
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Maggie Whitmer: Right now, we are going to check on the shadow
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box trading that they have here in Disneyland.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So we're gonna go look over and see if
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they have a pin that you're looking for?
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Maggie Whitmer: Yes. Right now, I am collecting the character
5:00
trash can series. Okay. There's 16 total. I have 12.
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Okay. So there's just four more characters that I need.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So let's walk over and see if she's got
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what you need.
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Rose Whitmer: I'm Rose, and this is my sister, Maggie. We're at
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Disneyland a lot. Some people, like my husband, might say we're
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here too much. But we live close by, and it helps that Maggie
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works here, so we get to go to Disneyland for free. She's part
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of the custodial team that works to realize Walt Disney's vision
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of a pristine and sparkling park for families to enjoy together,
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and she takes that very seriously.
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Collecting these trash can pins allows her to show off the pride
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she takes in her work and the joy she gets from a job well
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done. We are fans enough to come often, but we know that the
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Disney experience is many things for many people. A once in a
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lifetime vacation with the whole family for some, and a casual
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evening at work for others. It's rides, it's shows, it's food,
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it's crowds, it's consumerism. And one tiny corner of that,
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that's an enormous piece of some people's lives, are Disney pins.
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Maggie Whitmer: So what I'm gonna do now is across the way,
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there is a store that sells pins. So I have to buy a pack of
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that same pin set, pay for it, bring it over there, and open it
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in front of them.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So now we're coming into the store.
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We've just got, like, a giant wall of different kinds of pins
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in mylar bags. We can't actually see what specifically we're
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getting. There's also some cardboard boxes.
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So we found yeah. Of course.
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Maggie Whitmer: Pick a bag for me. Okay.
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Maggie Whitmer: Think this top one. Way yeah. Way up there.
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Let's do that one. Okay.
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Rose Whitmer: A pin is generally a couple inches tall, relatively
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light but dense metal with a smooth spread of colorful enamel
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on top. They're fun to look at and even nicer to touch. You can
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find one for any and every Disney character you can think
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of, with some of the more popular characters boasting
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thousands of different designs to choose from. You can buy them
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directly from Disney at possibly every retail location in their
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theme parks. The one we're in now is exclusively devoted to
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pins and their adjacent accessories, lanyards, display
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boards, and anything else to show off your haul.
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Maggie Whitmer: Thank you so much. Thank you.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So now we're gonna walk back across the
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street over towards Star Wars Launch Bay, and we're gonna go
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wait in line with about 20 other people that are also looking to
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trade
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Maggie Whitmer: with the official Disney tin trader.
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Rose Whitmer: In the world of Disney pins, this method of
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blind boxes is branded as mystery boxes. For about $45,
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you buy up to five pins in an opaque package. You know the set
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it belongs to, but not which ones in the set you're going to
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get.
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Maggie Whitmer: My hope is that in this bag are the pins that I
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need.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So what would that be?
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Maggie Whitmer: So the four characters that I need to
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complete this are Pluto, Donald, Stitch, and r two d two.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So these are little pins that look like
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the front of a Disneyland trash can. Correct. But they're themed
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for different Disney characters. So the Mickey Mouse one has,
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like, three quarters of it in red with two little, white ovals
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on the front, like his
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Speaker 5: Like
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Rose Whitmer: his his shorts.
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Maggie Whitmer: Yeah. Just, like, color blocking Mhmm. To
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give the essence of the character.
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Rose Whitmer: Mystery pins are a physical version of something we
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watch play out over and over and over and over on TikTok.
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Creators posting videos of themselves opening their
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purchases similar to a shopping haul, but with more suspense.
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Maggie Whitmer: We found the new mystery pins of Disney
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characters as trash cans. There's 16 pins in the set.
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Which trash can is your favorite one?
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Rose Whitmer: Would the creator experience the joy of finally
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getting the one pin that they needed to complete the set, or
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would they have to face the disappointment of getting the
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same one from the last three times that they bought this
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collection?
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So our next step, we're headed up to
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take a look.
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Rose Whitmer: There are shadow box frames on the table. They
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each hold a dozen or so pins. If Maggie gets a duplicate, she can
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trade for one of those. Maggie takes a breath and opens her
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bag.
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Maggie Whitmer: Thought that was so good. You know, it's She's
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got stitch.
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Maggie Whitmer: 99. We've got Pluto. 99. We've got Donald's.
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Rose Whitmer: Three of the four she needs. The other two in the
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pack are duplicates, and she decides to swap one for an
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orange on the board.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So how do you feel coming out of that?
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Maggie Whitmer: That's really good. I traded for that orange
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bird one because it is a more unique character. If I'm doing
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pins with other guests, then it might be a more desirable pin to
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trade for.
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Speaker 6: How was it?
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Rose Whitmer: What I'm really curious about here is, as Maggie
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hunts for that last pin in this set, how much does the method
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she uses to obtain it matter? How much does the thrill of the
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gamble increase the reward when she finally completes the set?
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So are would you say you're happy with,
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Maggie Whitmer: the pack that you got?
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Maggie Whitmer: Yeah. Absolutely. I now have three of
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the four that I need, so I just need one more pin to collect
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Maggie Whitmer: that series. Okay. And what's the the last
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one?
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Maggie Whitmer: The last one is gonna
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Maggie Whitmer: be R2D2.
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Rose Whitmer: Okay.
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Maggie Whitmer: Alright. We'll be on the lookout then. Yeah. So
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Rose Whitmer: now, Maggie is looking for one very specific
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pin. She has 15 of the 16 she needs to have every pin in the
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set. But for her, gambling on $45 packs and hoping to get
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lucky is not the way to find her last pin. Luckily, she has other
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options.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So right now, we're in Maggie's room. It
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looks like it's still recording. Okay. Okay.
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So
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Rose Whitmer: When we get home, we sit down in front of her
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collection, which covers three cork boards on the wall of her
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room.
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Maggie Whitmer: How many pins do you think you have?
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Maggie Whitmer: I would say more than a 100, but less than 200.
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Rose Whitmer: She has 328 pins. This makes Maggie, as she puts
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it, a casual collector.
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Maggie Whitmer: What would you say your preferred method of
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acquiring pins is? I prefer to just buy them outright. There
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could be a lot of different personalities with trying to do
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in person trading. If you look into, like, any pin community,
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they talk about, you know, the Frontierland traders in
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Disneyland and then the ones in Epcot. They can be kind of mean
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girls of of pin trading.
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It's not all like that, but I'd rather just try my luck with
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buying in person. But then if I'm, like, kinda, like, down to
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the wire with something, like with the trash cans, I only have
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one left. I'll I'll look into doing an in person trade as
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opposed to buying the pin one off.
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Rose Whitmer: In a practical sense, the internet can give
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Maggie whatever she wants or needs. She could go straight to
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eBay or Amazon and search for exactly the pin she's looking
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for, paying the market price. She can and has joined any of
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the dozens of popular Facebook groups that help facilitate
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trades and sales of individual pins. There's even dedicated
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online retailers for pins, like the site Pink a la Mode, with
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hundreds of options available with the click of a button.
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Maggie Whitmer: How do you feel about someone that goes online
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and buys the entire collection outright?
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Maggie Whitmer: I'm totally fine with that. The problem is that
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the person that they're buying from is probably not giving them
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a fair price. So because you didn't have to go through the
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inconvenience of buying all the mystery sets, it's gonna be a
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pretty big markup.
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Rose Whitmer: So you're paying a lot for the convenience of
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getting precisely what you want when you want it. And when your
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collection grows into hundreds of pins like Maggie's has, that
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adds up to a heap of extra money with none of the friction that
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comes with interacting with another human face to face. That
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face to face would happen and feel much different if she were
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back in the park, where instead of buying a mystery pack, she
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could trade individual pins with any other guest, or with any
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cast member at a pin board. They are required to accept any trade
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for any pin legitimate or counterfeit.
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Maggie Whitmer: Would you say there's like an emotional
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difference in buying it outright new, trading it with another
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guest, finding it on a pin board in the park.
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Maggie Whitmer: The most exciting way that you can find a
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pin that you're looking for is finding it on a public Disney
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pin board because that is, like, pure luck. Because there could
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have been any variation of people that came in. If you came
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ten seconds later, someone else could have come up and put a
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fake pin on that board. But it's all, like, the right
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circumstance. It's a pin you want.
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You can trade any pin you want for it, and it's just right
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there in front of you. That's the most exciting.
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Rose Whitmer: Once you start looking for them, you'll see
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these pin boards all over the park. They're usually about a
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foot tall, shaped like a Mickey head, and covered with soft
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velvet fabric. The perfect background for showing off a
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dozen or so pins ready for trading.
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Maggie Whitmer: How do you think you'll go about getting that
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last pin to complete the collection?
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Maggie Whitmer: I think I will try to do some one on one
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trading for that. Just because it's one pin, I don't really
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wanna have to buy another five pack of pins to try to get that
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one.
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Maggie Whitmer: Okay. So now we are lining up to go through
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security. Alright. You're going in my bag. After
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Rose Whitmer: the break, we're back at the park.
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Maggie Whitmer: Alright. We've been allowed entry.
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Maggie Whitmer: Are a lot of people here.
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Rose Whitmer: There are a lot. The pin trading event is being
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held in a hedge circled picnic area just outside the front
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gates of Disneyland. There's dozens of tables and at least a
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100 people. I hadn't anticipated how overwhelming this would be.
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But the vibes are friendly and energetic.
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This feels more like a family reunion than strangers gathering
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to exchange trinkets. My sister Maggie and I make our way over
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to a table on the outskirts. We're directly under the
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monorail track. There are a bunch of people on either side
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of the table flipping through black binders loaded with pins.
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And when I say loaded, I mean loaded pages and pages and
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pages, each page filled with 10 to 30 pins available for
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trading.
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Maggie Whitmer: Hi. Hi. Hi there.
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Rose Whitmer: We are immediately greeted by someone in a pumpkin
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Mickey shirt standing on the traitor side of the table. He
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has a bright smile, dark hair, and broad shoulders, and he
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tells us his name is Juan.
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Maggie Whitmer: I am looking for one specific pin right now.
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Speaker 7: Okay. What is it?
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Maggie Whitmer: It's the r two D two trash cans.
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Speaker 7: Oh, you haven't found that?
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Rose Whitmer: Juan is skeptical here because the main pin that
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Maggie is looking to trade isn't what most people would consider
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a grail pin. Grail pin as in holy grail, a pin of great value
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or rarity for them, the most coveted thing that they want.
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Maggie has grail pins, but today, she's looking for her r
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two d two trash can pin.
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Maggie Whitmer: I have that's my last one, and these are my
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Normally? My duplicates.
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Speaker 7: I'm a go find a place.
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Rose Whitmer: Juan just leaves the table he's set up at and
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disappears into the crowd behind us to help two complete
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strangers find the pin they're looking for. In his absence, we
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look down at his collection on the table. He has Disney pins on
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offer, but next to them are some pins that he designed himself.
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These self designed fan art pins are called fantasy pins. And now
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that someone like Juan has access to cheap manufacturing,
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they're a huge influence on the online pin trading ecosystem,
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providing high quality custom creations that Disney would
19:07
never dream of making.
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Most official Disney pins are a couple inches tall, but Juan
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created some that are round pins as big as my palm with Guillermo
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del Toro characters Disneyfied and super cute. Another
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collection has Disney princes like Aladdin in leather fetish
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harnesses. They're gorgeous and feel like a love letter. It's a
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connective tissue between the parts of Disney that Juan loves
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to the parts of himself that Disney would never embrace.
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We're admiring his fantasy pins when
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Speaker 5: Girl, you're gone.
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Maggie Whitmer: That's okay. No
19:49
Rose Whitmer: luck.
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Speaker 7: I'm so sorry.
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Rose Whitmer: But it kind of doesn't matter. Juan was so kind
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to even wade into the crowd on our behalf. It was such a
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surprising and wonderful first encounter at the event. We ask
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him about his fantasy made pins. How would you say that compares
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Maggie Whitmer: with some
20:07
Maggie Whitmer: of the pins we've been seeing on the public
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pin boards in the park that are kind of like Yeah.
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Maggie Whitmer: Know that's
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Maggie Whitmer: low quality buy
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Speaker 7: and
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Maggie Whitmer: Yeah. Bulk Yeah.
20:15
Maggie Whitmer: Fake pins.
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Speaker 7: So fantasy pins and scrappers are very, very
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different beasts. Fantasy pins are pieces of art that someone's
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created for the intention of someone collecting them.
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Scrappers are second produced garbage that manufacturers will
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sell to anyone who will buy them. And scrappers are a huge
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issue with trading. And it's just like one of those things
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you see people drop a scrapper for an authentic pin, and it's
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just it hurts.
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Rose Whitmer: Yeah. You can go on eBay right now and buy
20:42
yourself a pile of 50, quote, unquote, Disney pins for $30.
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But what you're buying is terrible enamel and cheap metal
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and definitely not pins actually produced by Disney. But if
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you're only considering the cost, the choice between 50¢ and
21:00
$15 for each one is for some people easy. Since the only rule
21:05
in the park to trade is one to one, Maggie estimates that 80%
21:10
or more of the pins on the public boards around the park
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are scrappers.
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But some people just starting out, especially kids, don't
21:18
always know the difference.
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Speaker 7: It also hurts when you see a kid, like, get a
21:22
lanyard purchase for them, and then they trade for a a
21:25
scrapper. I've encountered, someone bought them, like, some
21:30
mystery boxes. This was back in the day, and they were dropping
21:32
them on boards for scrappers. And so what I did is I followed
21:35
them. I picked up all the ones they dropped on the boards, and
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I went to their parents and them, and I was like, hey.
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Listen. I I I get it, and it brings them joy with what they
21:44
got. But let me tell you, like, the pins that you just purchased
21:46
were worth $3,400, and you now have $6 worth of fake pins in
21:51
your hand. So these are for you. Like, I want you to take them
21:53
back.
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And if you're wanting to trade them for something else, go
21:56
ahead and do it again, but letting you know, like What's
21:58
the everything that you just got is fake.
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Rose Whitmer: Juan stepping in here seems uniquely grounded in
22:08
the in person version of pin trading. Online, there just
22:12
isn't the mechanism to be able to monitor what people are
22:15
trading. You're mostly on your own, but in person, you're part
22:19
of a community with all the rules and norms that come with
22:22
it, good or bad.
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Maggie Whitmer: Yeah. I'll a drink with them already. Thank
22:26
you.
22:26
Speaker 5: Nice to
22:26
Speaker 7: meet you guys.
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Speaker 5: Thank you, boss.
22:28
Speaker 7: Good luck on your
22:28
Maggie Whitmer: Thank you. Just knocked my knees so hard.
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Rose Whitmer: We thank Juan for his help and with his well
22:35
wishes, head back into the crowd. We can overhear the
22:38
various discussions and trades happening all around us, and it
22:42
keeps bringing me back to this question of value. Online, the
22:46
price is usually the price. But here, the value of something is
22:50
constantly shifting, and there's never any money exchanged. So
22:55
someone might ask for three of your pins for one of their rare
22:58
ones, but you might get a different deal at the next table
23:01
over where someone else really needs the one you have to
23:05
complete their set.
23:06
This is somewhat regulated by supply. Some pins are just
23:10
rarer. But it also has a lot to do with demand, which you can
23:14
see here in person very clearly. There are people everywhere. As
23:19
soon as we start asking, it quickly becomes clear how much
23:22
demand is influenced by social media.
23:24
Maggie Whitmer: Hey. Hi. Caitlin? Yes. Yes.
23:26
Rose Whitmer: At a table on the edge of the event, we meet
23:28
Caitlin, who has made pins for business, literally.
23:32
Speaker 8: I'm a personal shopper, so I will pick up pins
23:34
for people that don't live in the area, so they obviously
23:37
can't come to Disney every Tuesday.
23:38
Rose Whitmer: So she's here weekly to get a first chance at
23:41
each new release.
23:42
Speaker 8: I just moved here in July. So I've noticed it get
23:47
busier and busier, like, each week. So I think as, like,
23:51
PinTalk has been growing, so I think the the hype is there.
23:56
Then I think resellers and people who have been in the
23:58
business for a while have started to notice that more
24:01
people are interested in it, so they're trying to go and get
24:04
more. And then there's a lot of people that will hike the price
24:09
up quite a bit online, and they're the ones that are
24:12
usually there first thing in the morning.
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Speaker 9: I came to Disneyland today with one mission, and that
24:16
is to trade pins.
24:17
Maggie Whitmer: Alright, pals.
24:17
Speaker 10: I got
24:17
Maggie Whitmer: a duck update for you.
24:18
Speaker 9: I got business to make here.
24:20
Speaker 7: Do you
24:20
Speaker 9: guys have a pin trading board here?
24:21
Rose Whitmer: I now welcome you to Pin Talk. Because, of course,
24:25
if there's a hobby, there's going to be a well of content
24:28
about it.
24:29
Maggie Whitmer: Today, we're only trading for candy apple
24:30
pins here at the Magic Kingdom. This set has been on my radar
24:34
for such a long time. It came out in 2016 and there's a total
24:37
of eight including the chaser. You know the drill. Our first
24:39
goal is to complete an entire set and the second goal is to
24:42
get as many as we can.
24:43
Let's get started. Come on.
24:45
Rose Whitmer: Brand new to this niche? There's videos
24:47
introducing you to the process, the lingos, and the hot tips.
24:51
Speaker 11: Word on the street is there is a brand new mystery
24:53
pin set, and it's six characters as slippers.
24:57
Rose Whitmer: Been here a while? Learn all about the new drops
25:00
and what you absolutely need to add to your collection.
25:05
Speaker 10: Today, I'm starting a new pin collection.
25:07
Speaker 6: You won't believe what we scored at
25:08
Rose Whitmer: the Swap Me today.
25:09
Maggie Whitmer: Let's see what pins I got.
25:10
Rose Whitmer: You'll learn the things you never knew, you never
25:13
knew.
25:14
Speaker 6: Let's make a mermaid out of Disney pins.
25:16
Rose Whitmer: There's something for everyone and it's never
25:18
ending.
25:19
Speaker 12: Let's go spend a thousand dollars on some Disney
25:21
pins at D 23.
25:24
Rose Whitmer: I start hearing from so many people who are new
25:26
to pin trading that short form content and specifically pin
25:30
talk is what got them hooked, like Ash.
25:33
Speaker 10: I ended up getting into pin trading because I got
25:36
sick. So I was literally just scrolling through TikTok, and I
25:39
kept getting, like, all these TikToks of people, like, pin
25:41
trading, and I just got my annual pass. So I was like,
25:43
well, this seems fun. It's like another activity I could do in
25:46
the parks. And then I just joined a bunch
25:48
Maggie Whitmer: of Facebook groups and fell into the rabbit
25:50
hole.
25:50
Rose Whitmer: We start hearing this over and over. I got into
25:54
pin collecting recently after seeing it on Pintok.
25:57
Speaker 13: TikTok, I feel like, grew the community.
26:00
Rose Whitmer: This is Alyssa, who among her many roles is a
26:03
content creator on Pintok.
26:05
Speaker 13: I mean, I feel like so many of the people even here
26:07
are from TikTok. Yeah. Most definitely. That's how, yeah,
26:10
that's how we ended up at this. Just like making friends with
26:13
some of the gals who post pin videos on TikTok, and then they
26:16
invited us to come out today.
26:18
So it's getting bigger. Yeah. Growing. It's growing. Yeah.
26:23
Rose Whitmer: She owns Collect Random with her husband, Matt.
26:25
But they aren't just making content about pins, they sell
26:28
them too. Their eBay store has almost 20,000 pins for sale, and
26:34
their live auctions have become a major gathering place for pin
26:37
collectors to see what's new and climbing in popularity. Making
26:41
short form content about pins seems like a no brainer for her.
26:45
Speaker 13: I kind of initially did it because I thought it
26:46
would be cute to, like, do like an ASMR thing because I was
26:50
watching videos of people like doing slime videos and do where
26:54
it's like the hands and they're like touching this thing and I
26:56
was like watching these videos like and I'm like I can do this
26:59
with pins. Yes. And I made one video and people were like, what
27:03
is happening here?
27:04
Speaker 10: Now you're overbooked for like 20.
27:06
Speaker 5: Now I'm like, oh my god.
27:07
Maggie Whitmer: I have
27:07
Speaker 13: a million videos on my draft. I can't do these. I
27:10
can't edit these fast enough.
27:13
Rose Whitmer: One reason I think short form content is so
27:16
addicting is because short form experiences and memories make
27:20
life exciting. It's hard to remember any details from the
27:23
days at work that are all similar and the thousands of
27:26
times doing laundry, but the excitement of novelty of short
27:30
form interactions stands out clearly in our minds. With less
27:34
effort and expense than having novel experiences ourselves, we
27:38
can watch someone else do it online and get a similar hit.
27:42
It's not hard to get mesmerized by the stories and adventures,
27:46
the intricacies of the design, the tactile draw, the smooth,
27:50
colorful enamel. I see how it would be hard to swipe past a
27:53
pintalk video if it came up on my feed.
27:57
Pin training has existed long before the rise of short form
28:00
content, but the increased popularity of both has been
28:03
mutually beneficial. People find out about this hobby on TikTok
28:07
and then are pushed to participate IRL. But also the
28:11
experience of trading in person is perfectly suited to the type
28:15
of experience someone chronically online might crave.
28:18
Starting the moment you enter the park, it's a string of short
28:22
semisocial interactions, small bursts of narrative one after
28:27
another. It feels video feed like in its unfolding.
28:32
Maybe that's not on purpose, but judging by the amount of people
28:36
we're meeting who came to this meetup from a video they saw and
28:40
the nearly as many people who make Pintok content themselves,
28:43
I'd say it's not a coincidence. While we're meeting all these
28:51
folks, we're still trying to find r two d two. But everywhere
28:54
we look, we're getting turned down.
28:56
Speaker 6: Nope. No. No.
28:57
Maggie Whitmer: You guys
28:58
Speaker 6: do not have that one. I don't think I have it today.
29:01
Maggie Whitmer: Oh, that's okay. That's okay. Yeah. You'll find
29:04
it eventually.
29:06
Rose Whitmer: But we haven't come this far completely empty
29:08
handed. Maggie made a few trades she didn't expect. One, an anime
29:13
style Snow White with big sparkly eyes, an exclusive from
29:17
Hong Kong Disneyland. The other, a small purse shape styled to
29:22
represent Sleeping Beauty, or Aurora for those who know. Both
29:26
are from sets that she's casually collecting already and
29:29
would have cost her 20 to $30 each had she bought them online.
29:35
We head over to a table right up against the massive hedges
29:41
surrounding the alcove. Various people mill around chatting and
29:44
flipping through even more black binders. Maggie jumps in.
29:47
Speaker 13: Oh, do
29:48
Maggie Whitmer: you have any trash cans? I'm looking for R 2
29:50
D 2.
29:51
Speaker 6: Oh, I had R
29:51
Speaker 5: 2 earlier.
29:53
Maggie Whitmer: And you traded it?
29:54
Speaker 5: Hold on. I think I I know someone that does.
29:55
Maggie Whitmer: Hold on. Let me go. They here?
29:57
Speaker 10: We really need to get her that one. Is that
29:59
Rose Whitmer: After the break the
30:00
Maggie Whitmer: little thing.
30:00
Speaker 5: Hey. Hello.
30:01
Rose Whitmer: Our search continues.
30:03
Speaker 13: Okay. That's someone here that's looking for it,
30:04
Speaker 5: and they have some other trash cans. Shit. Okay.
30:08
Maggie Whitmer: I'm good.
30:08
Speaker 5: Okay. Alright.
30:09
Maggie Whitmer: He's not being me.
30:10
Speaker 5: No. No worries. I'm here. Okay. Cool.
30:12
I'll let him know.
30:22
Rose Whitmer: My sister Maggie and I are still on the hunt for
30:24
a tiny r two d two trash can. While we search through various
30:28
traders' binders, we strike up a conversation with Ashley and
30:31
Kat, both decked out in Disney gear. They found a whole other
30:35
place to find pins I hadn't thought of, on the high seas.
30:39
Speaker 6: So like for example, when we were in the cruise,
30:43
there was the little, Chinese New Year's pin set. And me and
30:49
my family were like buying boxes and there was a one pin that I
30:51
had. And they got to a point where random people were around
30:55
me, like, rooting for
30:56
Maggie Whitmer: me as you're opening to,
30:57
Speaker 6: like, get it. Was it the Stitch? It was the Stitch.
31:01
Mind you, Stitch is one of her favorite characters. Yeah.
31:03
And it was the last one. And to to the point where I was like, I
31:06
can't keep spending money. So then, like, my brother was like,
31:08
I'll buy you a box. My mom was like, I'll buy you a box.
31:10
Maggie Whitmer: Strangers are jumping in. Look at
31:13
Speaker 6: her box. Middle of this cruise and everybody,
31:15
including, like, the cast members there. And then when I
31:17
pulled it, literally, when I tell everybody pulled out a
31:20
Speaker 12: screen. Yes.
31:21
Speaker 6: So that's
31:22
Maggie Whitmer: community right there.
31:23
Speaker 5: For sure.
31:24
Speaker 6: It was literally, like, like, as cheesy as the
31:27
sound. It was, like, that moment that I was, like, I like this.
31:29
And then it just kept going from there. Yeah. Literally.
31:34
Rose Whitmer: This was so much fun to hear, and it put the
31:37
pursuit of r two in a whole new light for me. The joy of it. And
31:41
for some, the joy is in the risk.
31:44
Speaker 6: They'll put, like, maybe a 100 to a 150, like, pins
31:47
on the randomizer, and it's kind of like, you bet what you can't,
31:50
Rose Whitmer: what you want
31:51
Speaker 6: Yeah. And you bet you get what you get. Right.
31:53
Rose Whitmer: Kat started a collection on a high risk
31:55
randomized auction. The people betting have no idea what
31:59
they're betting on. All they know is it's a verified
32:03
authentic pin and not much else.
32:05
Speaker 6: You can easily spend $50 and get a $10 PIN. Oh,
32:08
really? But that's so I feel like it's very much for people
32:11
that like to gamble, that's like the that's the show for them.
32:14
Maggie Whitmer: Maybe me.
32:15
Speaker 6: That's the show for them.
32:17
Maggie Whitmer: Yeah. Yeah.
32:18
Rose Whitmer: In Kat's case, she got lucky, extremely lucky. She
32:22
made a random bid and won her $150 grail pin for $27. But, of
32:29
course, not everyone wins, but everyone is entertained.
32:34
Alright.
32:35
Speaker 5: So Alright. So let's get let's get to it. You guys
32:37
want a banger? And I'm trying to find another really really
32:40
really really really really cool thing for you. Where is
32:43
Maggie Whitmer: she? Maggie
32:44
Rose Whitmer: has shown me some of the QVC esque live streams
32:47
from places like Gopin Pro and Pink a la Mode.
32:51
Speaker 5: Come and get the seals and deals party people.
32:53
Let's go with this. This is really cool. Oh my gosh. We got
32:56
one of these new ones here.
32:58
Darth Vader, you open it up with the his Oh. Wow. Some Tylenol.
33:02
You got your Arista Kitties vanity. You got Mickey in front
33:05
of MGM Studios with the lion.
33:07
Speaker 14: It is layered pen on pen sleeping beauty. This one's
33:10
really cool. Midway Mania with Weezy and Bo Peep. Woo.
33:13
Speaker 5: The Ariel Flower Girls. Come and get it,
33:15
lovebugs.
33:16
Speaker 14: We have Stitch as the Sorcerer's Apprentice. He's
33:19
trying to get the brooms to cooperate.
33:21
Speaker 5: Yes. Hey, Lady and the Tramp. Seventieth
33:24
anniversary with Lady and the Tramp there. Alright. Twenty
33:27
five years of pin trading limited edition.
33:29
Let's go baby.
33:30
Rose Whitmer: A dizzying stream of hundreds of pins and
33:33
thousands of dollars and reactions and comments. Some of
33:37
it in the open auctions and some in randomized and mysterious
33:40
gambles.
33:41
Speaker 10: Janet, tell me three or four characters or movies you
33:46
like so I can help you pick out like a
33:48
Speaker 14: nice $100 pin, girl. Starting at $40.
33:51
Speaker 5: 40. $40, Star.
33:52
Speaker 14: This one is 75. 75. It's a $130.
33:56
Speaker 5: $8.50 up to a thousand. $1,500 pin.
34:00
Speaker 14: Oh, run it. We got it. Not a problem.
34:02
Speaker 5: Here we go. Here we go. There we go. 321. Run it.
34:06
Rose Whitmer: All this seems a lot like gambling?
34:09
Speaker 5: 22. 32. We're all Kristen. Last
34:14
Speaker 14: goes to Disney pen gal. Thank you for that.
34:16
Speaker 5: Okay. A beautiful grab for Raven King.
34:22
Congratulations. Didn't last long. Knew it wouldn't.
34:26
Rose Whitmer: It was startling at first. It was one of the
34:29
reasons I started initially exploring this world. But is it
34:32
any surprise given how ubiquitous gambling has become
34:35
in nearly every online space? It's hard to escape the
34:39
encouragement to start betting in what we would consider
34:41
traditional media too. But isn't this exactly the structure of
34:46
Disney's own model?
34:48
In the gamble of mystery boxes direct from Disney, they are the
34:53
house that always wins. This community seems to be finding
34:57
ways to circumvent Disney so they can't always win. They use
35:01
the Internet to find each other and make their own valuations
35:05
while still scratching that itch we all have to be surprised and
35:09
excited and engaged.
35:15
Maggie Whitmer: All good. Thank you, guys.
35:18
Rose Whitmer: We say goodbye to Ashley and Kat and they wish us
35:21
good luck on our quest. I am so reinvigorated by their joy and
35:26
enthusiasm to help Maggie find R 2. But as we look around, we
35:30
notice the crowd is thinning and the tables are slowly empty. I
35:34
checked the time and realized the event has technically
35:37
already ended. Let's see.
35:39
We decide to try one more table. One that has been incredibly
35:43
busy, but we now see our opening. Hi.
35:46
Maggie Whitmer: Sorry to interrupt. Yeah. Hi. I am
35:49
looking for the R 2 D 2 trash can. Give me two.
35:51
Speaker 13: Oh my gosh. I feel like we just traded that to
35:53
somebody.
35:55
Speaker 5: Has small pins.
35:57
Maggie Whitmer: Has small pins.
35:59
Speaker 13: Where is he?
35:59
Maggie Whitmer: Can you
36:00
Rose Whitmer: see He's right
36:00
Maggie Whitmer: over there.
36:01
Maggie Whitmer: In the hat.
36:01
Speaker 6: In the hat.
36:02
Speaker 13: In hat. The gray hat.
36:03
Maggie Whitmer: Thank Yeah.
36:04
Speaker 13: He brought it
36:05
Maggie Whitmer: from me.
36:05
Maggie Whitmer: Excuse us. Do you have the R 2 D 2 trash can?
36:11
Speaker 7: Oh, I think she traded
36:12
Maggie Whitmer: it. Dang it. Traded it? All yellow. Good.
36:18
Rose Whitmer: But just as we're about to pack up and head out
36:20
somewhat defeated, we hear a voice behind us.
36:23
Maggie Whitmer: That's okay.
36:24
Maggie Whitmer: Is that the last one? We have one over here.
36:25
Maggie Whitmer: You have it?
36:26
Speaker 5: No way. You
36:27
Maggie Whitmer: watch my
36:28
Speaker 5: stuff. I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I'm
36:31
leaving.
36:31
I have to one more trade. It's on my last desk.
36:45
Maggie Whitmer: And Maggie, what did you just get? I found my r
36:47
two d two trash can. How do you feel? It feels really good. I
36:52
almost gave a I lost hope there for
36:54
Speaker 11: a sec.
36:55
Maggie Whitmer: Yeah. So what did you trade to get the r two d
36:58
two?
36:59
Maggie Whitmer: I traded another trash can, and they they liked
37:02
another one of the trash cans I had. So we traded another pin
37:05
and I got Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as Dapper Dans. And I kind
37:10
of have a mini Dapper Dan collection. Okay. So I I have
37:14
some to match.
37:15
Yeah. That's so cool. I feel really good about this. A
37:20
successful pin trading event. Yeah.
37:23
We
37:29
Rose Whitmer: got it. And we're exhausted. And now we have to
37:36
make the long walk back from the front of Disneyland through
37:39
Downtown Disney and out to the parking lot.
37:44
Maggie Whitmer: So how does that what we just went through, how
37:48
does that feel compared to if you went online and bought that
37:54
trash can?
37:55
Maggie Whitmer: Oh, it's a completely different experience.
37:57
You know? It would just be, here's a username that has this
38:04
pin. I would try to probably find one for like less shipping.
38:07
It's probably closer to Orange County.
38:09
And then it would just come in the mail and that would be it.
38:12
But like that fun of like talking with everyone and like
38:16
the search of it was like, it feels more rewarding.
38:23
Rose Whitmer: It did feel very rewarding. And I didn't even
38:26
walk away with any pins for myself. It just felt good to be
38:30
around people who care about something enough to gather in
38:33
one place, navigate the social complexities and awkwardness
38:37
that comes with talking to strangers, and delight in each
38:40
other's primal joy of gathering little shiny things.
38:44
Maggie Whitmer: So it was a way for me to learn about stuff,
38:50
about these little corners of the parks that I would never
38:55
known about because I'm just rushing rushing to get to the
38:59
next ride.
39:00
Rose Whitmer: But as we walk and bask in the glow of community
39:03
Maggie Whitmer: We've got a very unhappy child behind us.
39:07
Rose Whitmer: We're reminded that not everyone is so content.
39:09
Maggie Whitmer: I feel very bad, but so is the,
39:13
Maggie Whitmer: the, like, atmosphere of Disneyland.
39:17
Maggie Whitmer: You never know what you're gonna get.
39:19
Rose Whitmer: It's a
39:20
Maggie Whitmer: lot of crying.
39:21
Maggie Whitmer: A lot of crying, a lot of arguing, a lot of
39:24
passive aggressive. Well, if you took the kids off this, then I
39:29
wouldn't have been able to get the food. And now she's having a
39:32
meltdown because the mac and cheese isn't right. It's the
39:35
happiest place on earth. Happy in quotations.
39:38
Why do you think people have such a hard time actually being
39:41
happy here? Well, this can get to a whole philosophical debate.
39:47
Please. We got a little bit to walk still. Are we ever truly
39:51
happy?
39:51
I think a lot of people, after the lockdown of the pandemic,
40:00
people were like, I need to feel happy. And for a lot of time,
40:05
what did that was Disney. Going to Disney parks, buying Disney
40:12
merchandise. But, like, that's just a a band aid over a bigger
40:17
problem if you're actually unhappy. Obviously, this is a a
40:24
very happy place for me too, but I can also compartmentalize
40:29
Speaker 6: a
40:29
Maggie Whitmer: little bit. This is like a major corporation
40:34
Right. That is manufacturing a lot of this. Yeah. So it is it
40:43
is real, but it also isn't.
40:44
Yeah. So if you are truly unhappy, going to going to
40:51
Disney isn't gonna fix why you're unhappy.
41:01
Rose Whitmer: As tired as we are, there's no question this
41:04
was worth it. I think how much differently this would have been
41:08
if Maggie had just bought this last pin on eBay and called it a
41:11
day. It's not really the friends we made along the way, but it's
41:16
certainly more memorable than the one click buy could ever be.
41:19
The internet is great at making our interests and hobbies more
41:22
accessible. But if we want to participate in the best part of
41:26
being human, and I think that's our interactions with others, we
41:31
have to consciously choose to take it deeper.
41:37
Maggie Whitmer: Okay. As we walk back to the car, I think I'm
41:42
gonna end it here. Okay.
41:44
Rose Whitmer: Thanks, Maggie. Thanks. Thank you so much to my
42:34
sister Maggie for welcoming me more deeply into her world. And
42:38
thank you to everyone we met and talked with. We would love to
42:42
hear from you about your collecting and how the Internet
42:45
shapes it.
42:46
Have you started? Stopped? Let us know. All the ways to get
42:50
ahold of us are in the show notes.
43:46
Mike Rugnetta: That is the show we have for you this week. We're
43:48
gonna be back here in the main feed on or around Thursday, May
43:52
14. Did you know that capybara can sleep in water? They just
43:57
keep their noses right above the surface while they snooze. Did
44:01
you know that capybara teeth are always growing?
44:08
You
44:09
Speaker 5: know
44:10
Mike Rugnetta: that capybara can run up to 35 miles an hour? Did
44:17
you know that a Never Post membership is only $4 a month.
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Never po dot s t become a member today. Never Post's producers
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are Audrey Evans, Georgia Hampton, and the mysterious
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doctor first name, last name. Our senior producer is Hans
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Buto.
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Our executive producer is Jason Oberholzer and the show's host.
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That's me is Mike Ragnetta. That is the Glebe and this is the
44:43
Glissando. The future is nothing but a flying wing. You must make
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your case either with names or with an unfolding.
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Opposition or a disclosure, a microbus. The corridor, the
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cascade, what stuck. Glacier notes over the tops of hills to
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