Good/Bad Internet and eBay Pin Sellers

[thelionqueen]

Originally Posted by ksl5f123

I am not a pin collector - in fact I have never even traded a pin, but I wanted to share my experience. I thought that pin trading would be fun for my kids on our next trip - a way for them to start conversations with CMs. So, I bought a lot of pins from "steamtraininc" on ebay for about $1/pin. The next day, I found this thread. When my pins arrived (very quickly) 2 days later, I started comparing them to the pinpic site as was recommended here. While I couldn't tell any visible differences between my pins and the pictures, every and I do mean EVERY one of them, had the following warning on the pinpic site:

Please be aware that this pin is being offered for sale to pin collectors directly from factories in China. As such, there are "unauthorized" versions in circulation. Please be advised that counterfeit versions of this pin are darker in color than the original.

I decided that the likelihood of buying authentic pins for $1/pin that all having warnings was probably pretty small, so I returned them to the seller and received a refund. I don't know for certain that these were scrappers, but I would encourage others to be cautious.

Kudos to you for taking the time to educate yourself on this issue. And yes, you are right, they were scrappers. Even if none of them were listed on pinpics, you can pretty much be certain that lots of pins for around $1 each are fakes. Thank you for taking the initiative and sending them back, I truly appreciate it.

As a side note, I have 2 lots of 25 pins each that didn't sell on ebay last year that I still have on a card and not in my book. If anyone is interested in them, contact me and I can re-list them on ebay. I sell them for $2.50 each plus shipping (around $7 for priority) which is a steal! Not trying to fish for customers, I just noticed that some people were looking, and while I wasn't planning on relisting them anytime soon, will do so to help out a fellow DISer. If you're interested, send me a PM.

[DisneyRunner2009]

Does anyone know if there are scrapper DeeBee pins circulating? Pinpics doesn't have any listed or a warning statement. Red list sellers are auctioning some on Ebay, especially the first series. Are these pins safe to buy? From these sellers?

[pixiewings71]

If they are red listed I probably would not buy them. I see you did check pinpics but remember it takes time to get the scrappers updates posted there. If you're comfortable buying from them do so, they may have traded for some "good" pins in the parks and have those available for purchase.

[MountNittany]

This really needs an update... this weekend I will sort through it

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Seems to me that they only way you can be sure you are getting the real thing is to buy from Disney and basically not trade. Is that right?
(Not trying to be sarcastic, just wondering if those who do this more then my kids do would agree?)

We bought some online and compared them to scrappers online and all the ones we traded for last time and they seem fine, seem the same weight and all, but it could very well be that one or all of the ones we traded for last time were scrappers. We bought all ours at Disney last time (the mystery ones) so we know we traded real ones, but we may have gotten all fakes or scrappers. The person I bought form was listed as "questionable" but when I clicked to rady why there was nothing about them, just other sellers.

[0hLovely]

Just want to THANK YOU for this thread!

we are new to pin trading and have been looking to buy lots on Ebay all week, but I've been seriously searching each member now before purchasing anything! It's such a trap to those who are new to trading and not aware of scrappers out there!

We really appreciate all the advice ~ LOVE the dis boards ~

[pixiewings71]

Originally Posted by MountNittany

This really needs an update... this weekend I will sort through it

Originally Posted by MickeyMomOfThree

Seems to me that they only way you can be sure you are getting the real thing is to buy from Disney and basically not trade. Is that right?
(Not trying to be sarcastic, just wondering if those who do this more then my kids do would agree?)

We bought some online and compared them to scrappers online and all the ones we traded for last time and they seem fine, seem the same weight and all, but it could very well be that one or all of the ones we traded for last time were scrappers. We bought all ours at Disney last time (the mystery ones) so we know we traded real ones, but we may have gotten all fakes or scrappers. The person I bought form was listed as "questionable" but when I clicked to rady why there was nothing about them, just other sellers.

Absolutely, the only way to 100% guarantee your authenticity is to buy the pins directly from Disney. Unfortunately that's not always possible for everyone. Who did you buy from? If it was someone I used I can let you know my reasons for giving them a yellow status, if not maybe I can do some research on their eBay page and give my impressions from there.

Originally Posted by 0hLovely

Just want to THANK YOU for this thread!

we are new to pin trading and have been looking to buy lots on Ebay all week, but I've been seriously searching each member now before purchasing anything! It's such a trap to those who are new to trading and not aware of scrappers out there!

We really appreciate all the advice ~ LOVE the dis boards ~

Thank YOU for using this thread and for trying to not get scrappers!! That's why it's here and we appreciate it very much! We've worked on this thread, it's soooooooooooooooooo nice to see so many new faces here.

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Originally Posted by pixiewings71

Absolutely, the only way to 100% guarantee your authenticity is to buy the pins directly from Disney. Unfortunately that's not always possible for everyone. Who did you buy from? If it was someone I used I can let you know my reasons for giving them a yellow status, if not maybe I can do some research on their eBay page and give my impressions from there.



Thank YOU for using this thread and for trying to not get scrappers!! That's why it's here and we appreciate it very much! We've worked on this thread, it's soooooooooooooooooo nice to see so many new faces here.

I bought from domimgood.

The thing is the only ones we bought right from Disney that we didn't trade were big pins and all the ones we traded are tiny, so it's impossible to know if the weight is different but size for size the ones I got from eBay are the same weight as the ones we traded for but they could all be scrappers.

[pixiewings71]

I bought some jumbo pins from that seller, I'm pretty sure they were fake. I like them, I bought them to add to our collection and I don't know for sure they are fake because I haven't seen real ones, but I have definite suspicions on them.

[earthfaries]

Originally Posted by pixiewings71

I bought some jumbo pins from that seller, I'm pretty sure they were fake. I like them, I bought them to add to our collection and I don't know for sure they are fake because I haven't seen real ones, but I have definite suspicions on them.

They fake jumbo pins ?!?

[pixiewings71]

Seems so......when I compared them to the disney shopping listing and the pinpics info the ones I got aren't quite right......like the Pirate one isn't supposed to have glitter in the clouds but ours does. Like I said, I bought them for our collection and that's where they will stay so I'm not really worried about it personally, but yes, they do seem to be different.

[Vala]

Does the Pinpics listing have a real photo of the pin?

I'm asking because I had a couple of pins too where Pinpics was showing concept art and the real pin does have effects (like glitter) that were not mentioned on the listings. The listings I noticed have been corrected and have the photos I sent in now, but jumbos are not exactly a main focus of my collection.

Disneyshopping is showing concept art in 99 percent of all listings anyway.

[hedgehog2owl]

lot of people are buying those cheap pin lots, based on the seller's feedback in ebay

[pixiewings71]

Originally Posted by Vala

Does the Pinpics listing have a real photo of the pin?

I'm asking because I had a couple of pins too where Pinpics was showing concept art and the real pin does have effects (like glitter) that were not mentioned on the listings. The listings I noticed have been corrected and have the photos I sent in now, but jumbos are not exactly a main focus of my collection.

Disneyshopping is showing concept art in 99 percent of all listings anyway.

I don't remember now Vala, I checked after I got them and it's been quite a while now. If I remember I'll look again.

Originally Posted by hedgehog2owl

lot of people are buying those cheap pin lots, based on the seller's feedback in ebay

Or they are only "buying traders for the kids for fun" and don't care if they are trading fakes or not, or they just don't know about scrappers. I didn't when I first started trading.......yup, I used to buy those huge lots too.

[Vala]

When you get the chance I'd love to know that, thanks. I never heard of fake jumbos before. Of course there's a first time for everything. But this seems so... unusual.