Silver Dollar City's 5th Annual Pin-Trading Event in Branson, Missouri: A Review

Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, held its 5^th Annual Pin Trading Event on Saturday August 16, 2008. The pin-trading event was a fun-filled day of pin trading, entertainment and games.

If you aren't familiar with pin trading, it is similar to Olympic Pin trading or Disney pin trading. Silver Dollar City has collectible pins for purchase, which a guest can then trade to an employee for a different pin. A guest trades for many reasons. One reason is employees have certain pins that can't be purchased but can only be obtained by trading with the employee. Another reason to trade is employees can also have older pins that a guest is looking for. My favorite reason to trade is the interaction between guest and employee. Silver Dollar City's employees are so nice and usually have lots of good stories that they like to share. After seven visits to Silver Dollar City, I have yet to meet an impolite employee.

We just started pin trading last year at Silver Dollar City and this was the first pin event we have attended. We weren't for sure what to expect. We sent in our registration form a couple of months ago with just our names. No registration fee was requested at that time and we just assumed there would be a fee on the day of the event. Imagine our surprise when we found out there was no fee for the event. We were warmly greeted by the staff, given a free event pin and a ticket for door prizes. The room was decorated in a festive beach theme. Free refreshments were provided. We were provided a free lunch and a free afternoon treat. We were just amazed by how much free stuff we got. Silver Dollar City sure knows how to spoil their pin traders.

The event was held in a banquet room within the park. We have passed the building numerous times in past trips but never realized it housed a banquet room. The tables were long cafeteria type tables so we found an empty spot with other guests to sit down with. I asked an employee later that day how many traders showed up for the event and she said 200.

We were treated with a top spinning demo and several guest speakers. My favorite speaker was Peter Herschend, co-owner of Silver Dollar City. It was nice to hear an owner who loves his company and is proud of his family oriented theme park. Peter held the audience captive with his moving stories. I am sure we could have all listened to him speak longer because he is truly a great speaker.

The event had numerous pin trading opportunities which included a pin trading board and a "pick a pin" game where a guest trades a pin for a mystery bag. I loved the mystery bags because several of them contained two pins. Two for one is an excellent deal so we walked away with more pins without even having to buy more. We even won two door prizes so we left the event with lots of free goodies.

The 5^th Annual Silver Dollar City Pin Trading event was a huge success in my book and I look forward to next year's event. If you would like to learn more about Silver Dollar City, please check out their website at www.bransonsilverdollarcity.com.