Just backl from 12 days @ WDW..my view of pin trading

[thelionqueen]

Hi all,
For those who know my background, and those that don't, I am a long time pin trader, almost from the very 1st day (started pin trading within 2 months of the launch). My family of 4 has been pin trading every trip (2-3 trips for year) since that time.

I believe I was one of the first posters about scrappers on the DIS (close to 3 years ago now). I felt like I was the only person trying to educate people who bought scrapped pins on ebay. It seemed to me everyone was OK with the practice, I was the only one verbal in my opposition (although I'm certain there were others, it FELT like I was the only one).

I have contributed to several threads over the years regarding scrappers, ebay sellers, etc. and tried to educate new traders as best I could...background complete :laughing:

The last 2 years of pin trading has DEFINITELY been the most trying and "unmagical" that I have ever seen. The HUGE amount of scrappers on CM's lanyards, truly made the hobby more like a chore than enjoyable. We spent more time avoiding scrappers (which were easily 50% of each CM lanyard) than trading.

I am EXTREMELY happy to report, that the scrappers on CM's lanyards (at WDW anyway) was down INCREDIBLY from our last trip!!!!:banana::banana:
In fact, the volume of quality and current "rack pins" was more than I have seen in several years! I noticed the change by about the 3rd day as I realized I wasn't looking for scrappers anymore, because there weren't any!! As I look back on the entire trip, I can say that I only saw a handful of scrappers (I'm guessing fewer than 10) our ENTIRE TRIP!!!!

I traded for limited releases, CM ONLY (not cast lanyards), AP's (artist proofs) and more that I haven't seen before on previous trips.

The hidden mickey's I traded for were current (last 2 months) and definitely not scrappers.

I just wanted to pass on some GOOD NEWS for a change!! I don't know what Disney is doing, but they are moving in the right direction and it shows!!!!! :love::banana::cloud9:

[Spiffie]

Hi all,
For those who know my background, and those that don't, I am a long time pin trader, almost from the very 1st day (started pin trading within 2 months of the launch). My family of 4 has been pin trading every trip (2-3 trips for year) since that time.

I believe I was one of the first posters about scrappers on the DIS (close to 3 years ago now). I felt like I was the only person trying to educate people who bought scrapped pins on ebay. It seemed to me everyone was OK with the practice, I was the only one verbal in my opposition (although I'm certain there were others, it FELT like I was the only one).

I have contributed to several threads over the years regarding scrappers, ebay sellers, etc. and tried to educate new traders as best I could...background complete :laughing:

The last 2 years of pin trading has DEFINITELY been the most trying and "unmagical" that I have ever seen. The HUGE amount of scrappers on CM's lanyards, truly made the hobby more like a chore than enjoyable. We spent more time avoiding scrappers (which were easily 50% of each CM lanyard) than trading.

I am EXTREMELY happy to report, that the scrappers on CM's lanyards (at WDW anyway) was down INCREDIBLY from our last trip!!!!:banana::banana:
In fact, the volume of quality and current "rack pins" was more than I have seen in several years! I noticed the change by about the 3rd day as I realized I wasn't looking for scrappers anymore, because there weren't any!! As I look back on the entire trip, I can say that I only saw a handful of scrappers (I'm guessing fewer than 10) our ENTIRE TRIP!!!!

I traded for limited releases, CM ONLY (not cast lanyards), AP's (artist proofs) and more that I haven't seen before on previous trips.

The hidden mickey's I traded for were current (last 2 months) and definitely not scrappers.

I just wanted to pass on some GOOD NEWS for a change!! I don't know what Disney is doing, but they are moving in the right direction and it shows!!!!! :love::banana::cloud9:

I am so glad to hear this! My family and I have only been trading for 1.5 years and not long after we started trading I found this board with tons of information. So, we were aware early on in our trading.. We did find a few scrappers in our pins, but it helped to make us aware of what NOT to trade for. So, we considered it a lesson to learn from.

Another lesson I learned was that even eBay sellers that are listed as good sellers can slip at any time into the wrong practice of selling scrappers. So, even if someone has had a positive experience with a seller, check your pins!! From the same seller I received 10 fakes pins in one transaction and in a totally different transaction, I received all legitimate pins. It was very disheartening.

I hope that when we go in August, the evidence of fake/scrapper/bootleg pins will continue to decrease! It makes me excited again to see what we can find!

Thanks again for something to look forward to!

[BebopBaloo]

Fantastic news!

[NHMickey]

Great news! Thanks for the update!

[chaoscent]

That's good to know, but wasn't my experience when I went the first week of July. I ended up with about 25 scrappers (and I was looking hard to avoid them). Now my nieces are happy as they get my scrappers, but I wasn't very happy:sad2: Hopefully I just hit a bad week and when I get there in August there won't be any scrappers. Penny:hippie: