Good/Bad Internet and eBay Pin Sellers

[MountNittany]

Originally Posted by pixiewings71

I'm not surprised that someone from the "nannub" camp is watching this thread...remember the poster earlier in the thread who was accusing us of slander because of what was said about some eBay sellers? LOL Some people....LOL

Yes, that's very interesting. Is nannub hard to deal with? If so, realfastpins is probably nannub.

[Spiffie]

Originally Posted by pixiewings71

Oh Spiffie, I wanted to say that I have loads of pin that have that little "nub" coming up off the post and they are 100% real so that's only a "tell" with certain pins.

Yep! So, I hear! So much for my sleuth skills!!! ha

[Vwdiva93]

Thanks for posting the good and bad sellers! I only wish I had come across this 2 weeks ago before I purchased a scrapper lot from lauritadelmar. Out of 20 pins I think I got one real one. Oh well, I know better now! Thanks again, this thread will be real helpful to me in the future!

[MountNittany]

Originally Posted by Vwdiva93

Thanks for posting the good and bad sellers! I only wish I had come across this 2 weeks ago before I purchased a scrapper lot from lauritadelmar. Out of 20 pins I think I got one real one. Oh well, I know better now! Thanks again, this thread will be real helpful to me in the future!

No problem, glad you found us

[ohhaieeyore]

Anyone know anything about uk seller pinz_and_thingz ?

[pixiewings71]

Originally Posted by MountNittany

Yes, that's very interesting. Is nannub hard to deal with? If so, realfastpins is probably nannub.

Well actually when I made my few purchases from nannub (before I knew how they got the good pins to list) I had no issues at all with them. The transactions were very easy, the pins were great and they were extremely easy to deal with. Of course once I found out they were selling and trading scrappers to get the good LE's to sell on eBay I stopped using them.

Originally Posted by Spiffie

Yep! So, I hear! So much for my sleuth skills!!! ha

LOL Those skills take years to develop..hang in there, with time you'll figure this stuff out.....LOL

Originally Posted by Vwdiva93

Thanks for posting the good and bad sellers! I only wish I had come across this 2 weeks ago before I purchased a scrapper lot from lauritadelmar. Out of 20 pins I think I got one real one. Oh well, I know better now! Thanks again, this thread will be real helpful to me in the future!

I'm sorry you got scrappers, did you attempt to return them to the seller?

Originally Posted by ohhaieeyore

Anyone know anything about uk seller pinz_and_thingz ?

Sorry no, I try to buy from US sellers...

[Mom2OakandEm]

I'm so glad I found this thread I was just looking into purchasing some pins from e-bay myself. I was wondering if the pins come attached to black www.disneypins.com thing (Sorry I don't know the offical name) would it be safe to assume these pins are okay to buy? I would hate to by a scrapper mostly because I'm not sure if I got one I could tell the difference.

[horselover]

Another quick update. I received my 4 new replacement pins from sleepys_emporium today. They all look great. I even received some of the hidden mickey fruit pins which I happen to love. Despite the fact I did receive some scrappers I would buy from them again. They were very responsive to fixing the problem & very apologetic. I already have my eye on a couple more pins from their site. Thanks to all on this thread for the valueable advice.

[pixiewings71]

Originally Posted by Mom2OakandEm

I'm so glad I found this thread I was just looking into purchasing some pins from e-bay myself. I was wondering if the pins come attached to black www.disneypins.com thing (Sorry I don't know the offical name) would it be safe to assume these pins are okay to buy? I would hate to by a scrapper mostly because I'm not sure if I got one I could tell the difference.

Well in theory but not always. If someone buys a pin they have the black backer (or card) for it so they can keep them and reuse them. So I guess it depends.

Originally Posted by horselover

Another quick update. I received my 4 new replacement pins from sleepys_emporium today. They all look great. I even received some of the hidden mickey fruit pins which I happen to love. Despite the fact I did receive some scrappers I would buy from them again. They were very responsive to fixing the problem & very apologetic. I already have my eye on a couple more pins from their site. Thanks to all on this thread for the valueable advice.

Good, I'm glad they helped you out with that.

[maburke]

I have a seller for the green list! I've been trying to replace the counterfeit pin I lamented about in post #785. I bought it and 5 other pins from wildbill5733. I received them yesterday, and that one seemed real, but I got one other that had a specific warning on pinpics (stars in the background of the real pin, no stars on the fake). I was a bit worried, because his return policy is strict and buyer pays return shipping. But when I pointed out the problem and asked what his policy was, he immediately offered to send me a replacement. When he couldn't replace with the same pin, he refunded my paypal account, including shipping for that pin. And he didn't ask me to send it back, which I appreciate, since I know he won't try to sell it to someone else. He obviously cares about his pins and his reputation.

Anyway, I thought we needed to hear about a new green-list seller!

[MountNittany]

Originally Posted by horselover

Another quick update. I received my 4 new replacement pins from sleepys_emporium today. They all look great. I even received some of the hidden mickey fruit pins which I happen to love. Despite the fact I did receive some scrappers I would buy from them again. They were very responsive to fixing the problem & very apologetic. I already have my eye on a couple more pins from their site. Thanks to all on this thread for the valueable advice.

No problem, glad it worked out. They were great about it with my scrappers today.

Mom2OakandEm, as pixie said, this is no indication of scrappers/real pins. However, it seems that most scrapper dealers sell in big lot, but this is not always the case.

[MountNittany]

Originally Posted by maburke

I have a seller for the green list! I've been trying to replace the counterfeit pin I lamented about in post #785. I bought it and 5 other pins from wildbill5733. I received them yesterday, and that one seemed real, but I got one other that had a specific warning on pinpics (stars in the background of the real pin, no stars on the fake). I was a bit worried, because his return policy is strict and buyer pays return shipping. But when I pointed out the problem and asked what his policy was, he immediately offered to send me a replacement. When he couldn't replace with the same pin, he refunded my paypal account, including shipping for that pin. And he didn't ask me to send it back, which I appreciate, since I know he won't try to sell it to someone else. He obviously cares about his pins and his reputation.

Anyway, I thought we needed to hear about a new green-list seller!

That's great! Glad you found a pin to replace it. If you are sure that the pins are all real except the one, I'll go ahead and green list him. I had experience with one seller that did the same thing, but I'm pretty sure they sell 100% scrappers.

[maburke]

Originally Posted by MountNittany

That's great! Glad you found a pin to replace it. If you are sure that the pins are all real except the one, I'll go ahead and green list him. I had experience with one seller that did the same thing, but I'm pretty sure they sell 100% scrappers.

Well, when we recommend sellers, we are considering at least 3 things: Do they intend to sell scrappers? If they do sell you one, are they concerned about making it right? And do they have any other unscrupulous practices, like buying scrappers themselves and trading them for real pins that they then sell? That last one is the most despicable, to me, because then people beyond myself would be harmed by my transaction. And it is likely the hardest to determine, so that's why it's so great to have this thread.

Anyway, yes, I feel certain that the other 5 pins I got are all authentic.

Thanks,

[MountNittany]

Originally Posted by maburke

Well, when we recommend sellers, we are considering at least 3 things: Do they intend to sell scrappers? If they do sell you one, are they concerned about making it right? And do they have any other unscrupulous practices, like buying scrappers themselves and trading them for real pins that they then sell? That last one is the most despicable, to me, because then people beyond myself would be harmed by my transaction. And it is likely the hardest to determine, so that's why it's so great to have this thread.

Anyway, yes, I feel certain that the other 5 pins I got are all authentic.

Thanks,

Thanks for your response, and I agree with your steps. I'll link your post in the first page, that was a great explanation!

[maburke]

Originally Posted by MountNittany

Thanks for your response, and I agree with your steps. I'll link your post in the first page, that was a great explanation!

Thanks. I also think it would be good to have a clear explanation of what we mean by "scrapper." I saw one at one of the links included here, but tell me if you think this is right:

There are probably 3 different things we mean when we say "scrapper":

1) Over-runs. The factories in China that make the pins for Disney probably have to run many more pins than Disney orders in order to get enough pins past quality control. For example, say Disney orders 5,000 of a pin. The factory makes 7,000 in order to be sure to get 5,000 good ones. Disney gets those 5,000 good ones, and some of the rest are probably good too. If they are sold to other buyers, they will be totally indistinguishable from the ones sold to Disney. The only way to avoid buying these is not to buy from someone who clearly gets them or ships to you directly from China.

2) True "scrappers" or quality rejects. These are the ones resulting from the process above that did not pass quality control. Again, they get on the market via someone shipping straight from China, which is why it is important NOT to buy from someone who ships straight from China. (Some sellers say right in their ebay shipping info that that's what they do!) You will not be able to tell ahead of time whether the quality will be good or bad, even if you didn't care about them not being authorized by Disney.

3) Fakes, or counterfeits. I don't think these are even worthy of the (dubious) name scrapper. These are made by a different factory, who are trying to copy the design of the authorized pin. These may have the "tells" we are talking about -- mickey head design that doesn't go to the edge of the pin, or the stamp is not the same as the original (like the one I had that said 4 of 6 instead of 4 of 5) or the hidden mickey is smaller or even in a different place from the original. These can sometimes be more easily spotted as fakes by other traders or sharp CMs. Therefore, they are worth less.

So, if you are thinking about buying those big cheap lots, and think you don't mind if you get the first category, please keep in mind that you are much more likely to get the third category, which are really fouling the stream of pin-trading. Sorry, off soap-box. (What's that they say about reformed smokers? Yes, I did buy my first set of traders in a big lot from someone on the red list.)

Please correct and improve my explanation, everybody.

Thanks,
Meghan