Aren't there any good pins on ebay????

[pbnjrockette]

I subscribe to the "help new pin traders avoid cheap pins" thread and have gotten sooooo discouraged! I've been a mickey pin collector with about a third of my 100 or so pins purchased on ebay. (Others were bought at WDW, disneyshopping.com , the Disney Store or traded at the park.) Since I probably won't be returning to WDW for at least another year, when I feel the "need" for a new mickey, I've turned to ebay. I'm certainly no expert but none of my ebay-pins look cheap but without an "authentic" pin to compare, I can't be sure. Am almost afraid to examine them too closely for fear of a big disappointment. I keep reading that you can rarely buy pins on ebay that are not scrappers or conterfeit.

I love ALL my mickey pins, so I guess I should be happy with my collection and not look for flaws.

 

[Parkhopper_Vince]

There are plenty of good legitimate pins out there. I know lots of people worry about gettting scrappers and I can see that there is a big problem with that, but there are also plenty of authentic Disney pins out there and as a person who collects a lot of Mickey Mouse pins (my favorite character) I would say that you will be able to find a lot more authentic Mickey Mouse pins out there.

 

[PinCrazed]

You are going to get a few scrappers here and there, no matter how hard you try to avoid them, but please remember what pin trading is all about...having fun. It's not such a terrible thing if you really like a pin and find out, or suspect, it's counterfeit. As long as you like the pin and it means something to you, that is what is important.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

There probably ARE authentic pins on eBay. The challenge is FINDING them. I bought an AP pin from eBay last year and I am relatively sure it is real. I also paid nearly $20 for it.

The people selling fakes are usually selling hundreds and hundreds of the same pin and/or pins. If you look at their completed listings all of the pins are the same. There are also sellers selling the same pins under multiple names. The pins in "lots" are much more likely to be fakes or contain a few fakes. Even pins that were obtained in the parks are likely to have fakes mixed in because so many people are trading fakes with cast members.

It is more expensive to buy single pins, but if I was serious about a certain pin that's the route I would go. And I would want detailed pictures of the front and back of the pin, as well as a guaranteed return policy if the pin is fake. When I browsed eBay regularly I would see auctions with "No scrappers" but I don't know if those exist anymore!

 

[AshJs3]

There are plenty of great pins on Ebay!

The ones you want to look out for the most are the hidden Mickey pins. I don't even attempt to collect them anymore because of all of the fakes.

 

[harvardx]

I've gotten great pins on eBay, burned a few times, but still love each pin. I buy individual pins, usually on "buy it now", but I have neglected to research each pin carefully several times and that's when I have been "surprised" by the seller, not the pin. Still very happy with the pins, I just don't buy from that seller again. When I go to WDW again, I will be extra careful with my "traders" but I'm no expert. I now enjoy the information on the scrapper thread because I am a better collector and will be a better trader.

 

[arielchickenofthesea]

MOST of the pins on eBay are the real thing. The ones to watch out for are the Hidden Mickey cast lanyard pins. These tend to be the ones that get copied by the fraudsters. I buy all my pins on eBay and after buying for over a year and well over 2000 pins, I have only 1 or 2 scrappers that I can really tell. There are probably more in my collection, but if it is in the characters I collect it matters to no one except me. I am not going to trade that pin. It depends on who you buy from and if you want really good Hard To Find, RARE pins, you are going to pay for them. I have paid 225.00 and more for very rare pins and often up to 75.00 regularly on hard to find LE pins. 29.00 to 50.00 is not unusual at all. That is pretty much standard for the pins that I buy. I have also paid 500.00 and more for LE framed sets. It depends what you want.

Collecting the hard to find and rare pins is not for the faint of heart. You WILL spend LOTS and LOTS of money on them. But I have two different sets of collecting. The pins I collect because I like the character, for me it is Belle, Beauty and the Beast, Ariel and Bambi pins. I will collect every pin I can find in those characters.

Then there is my investment collection. Those are the pins that are LE50 or framed sets or extremely rare or Hard to find. That collection is not for sale or trade. It is my investment and maybe someday I will sell it to another collector like myself who invests in Rare and Hard to Find pins.

Overall, I have spent close to 75,000.00 on pins alone and have well over 2000 of them in my various collections. I am not much of a trader as I am a collector of Disney memorabilia. I have lots of other memorabilia as well, a huge collection.

I do have a pin bag that I take to the Parks with me and trade with castmembers for those pins in the categories I collect and if I see a cool one that I like. I also take a bag of pins to give away to children. It is fun to see their eyes light up when you give them a pin. And I have many of the giveaways and they are not neccessarily the ones no one wants. I have given away LEs and Hard to find pins to kids just because. They love it, so why shouldn't I give it to them? The adult traders have to trade with me. Only the kidlest and cast members get free pins.
That is part of the fun, passing along pins to others who will enjoy them more than I will. And it creates a little magic moment for someone! That is what Disney is about.
ACOTS