Pin trading for first timers question

[figment_jii]

Unfortunately, there is no sure-fire easy way to tell if a pin is a scrapper or not. My experience is that unless it something so egregious (e.g., "Belle" with red hair), 99% of guests and CMs cannot tell the difference. Even then, the CMs are still likely to accept the pin. They might not put it on their lanyard afterwards, but they'll still accept it. The only times I've seen CMs refuse a trade is if they already have that pin on their lanyard or pin board (not always, but fairly often), if you offer them something that is not a pin (e.g., a button), try to trade for their service pins, or if you offer them a non-Disney pin (e.g., a pin from Universal Studios or some other location). I wouldn't get to worried about the CMs refusing to trade with your child (the professional traders are a whole different story).

 

[Bubblegum1286]

I just want him to have fun and interact with the CMs. I've read some of the boards on the serious pinner's forum (not on this site), and I have no interest in him trading with people who are so die-hard that they would hurt a child's feelings.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

Don't trade with any one who is not a cm or on the pin boards in shops. Some ppl are serious mean they may want 4 pins for one of there's. I don't really think they should be trading in DL but they do. I just steer clear of them. We don't care if half our book is filled with fakes and scrapers. we buy the grab bags from mousepinsonline and go trade its a part of my family having fun. Even if we got all scrapers from CM's i'm not upset about it. I just know there is a chance they will never be worth money.
Money isn't the reason we trade.

 

[agamble]

Hmmm what is a "scrapper" pin? We bought ours from Ebay, but I don't know if they're scrappers. They aren't counterfeit, but they may not be any good. I would feel terrible if none of these were worth trading, as I got this as a special surprise for my son.

I only heard this term a few months ago. I didn't know either. But they look fine to me and I've never been denied a trade. I'm sure your son will not have any problem trading with CM.

 

[Bubblegum1286]

Seems like a dumb thing to be mean about. If you bought a pin for a lot of money and don't have any interest in trading it, don't bring it into the park with you. There's no need to be nasty. Just MHO.

 

[figment_jii]

Seems like a dumb thing to be mean about. If you bought a pin for a lot of money and don't have any interest in trading it, don't bring it into the park with you. There's no need to be nasty. Just MHO.

Sorry, I'm a little confused about who you are referring to...a lot of guests like to buy pins and wear them to the parks as part of their outfits. I don't really think there is anything wrong with this. They aren't there to trade those pins, but they do like to show off their pins on lanyards, hats, vests, etc. I have several pins that I've bought over the year on my bag and I've never though that have them there was being "mean" or "nasty" to anyone else.

If you talking about the "professional traders", you have to remember that for them, this is a business. So they want the best possible trade for their pin. In general, they are there to trade their pins, but they want pins of comparable or greater value. So unless you know the rough value of the pin, I think it's tough for the average casual pin trader to make a fair trade them the professionals.

 

[SMD]

Don't trade with any one who is not a cm or on the pin boards in shops. Some ppl are serious mean they may want 4 pins for one of there's. I don't really think they should be trading in DL but they do. I just steer clear of them. We don't care if half our book is filled with fakes and scrapers. we buy the grab bags from mousepinsonline and go trade its a part of my family having fun. Even if we got all scrapers from CM's i'm not upset about it. I just know there is a chance they will never be worth money.
Money isn't the reason we trade.

I agree that the value of pins is not a reason to trade. But it's a little messed up to intentionally trade scrappers with other guests who may not know what a scrapper is or know that there's a chance they could be getting fakes. Unintentionally buying fake pins and bringing them to the park is one thing, but if you know it's not right not to at least warn another guest of the possibility.

Sorry, I'm a little confused about who you are referring to...a lot of guests like to buy pins and wear them to the parks as part of their outfits. I don't really think there is anything wrong with this. They aren't there to trade those pins, but they do like to show off their pins on lanyards, hats, vests, etc. I have several pins that I've bought over the year on my bag and I've never though that have them there was being "mean" or "nasty" to anyone else.

If you talking about the "professional traders", you have to remember that for them, this is a business. So they want the best possible trade for their pin. In general, they are there to trade their pins, but they want pins of comparable or greater value. So unless you know the rough value of the pin, I think it's tough for the average casual pin trader to make a fair trade them the professionals.

Some of them also want to skirt the limits on LE pins and will try to get guests to buy LE pins from the store to trade. And most of the time the pin the guests wants worth less than the LE they're enticed to buy. Now, if I really wanted a pin that originally cost $8.95 but wasn't available anymore and the trader wanted an $11.95 pin for it, it might be worth it. But when they're making those trades multiple times per day it starts to add up to running a scam. I think Disney has been right to crack down on the professional traders. They should be conducting their business at collectible shows or on eBay, not parked next to a Disney pin store.

 

[RobertaMomof2]

Thanks for all the info everyone. My kids have been asking to do pin trading and I think I will just allow them to do it with CM's since I don't know if the pins I got are authentic or not (got a bunch from a friend whose child (teenager now) doesn't pin trade anymore ). Looks like if it is a fake or a scrapper the CM wont turn my child down, which is what I was most afraid of since I have no way to know if they are authentic or not...

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[starjazz]

I'll tell you this much - we just started trading with our little 6 yo on our last trip. It was NOT this big of a deal. We bought a couple mystery packs, a couple oddball sets, and a lanyard. Probably put $50-60 in. Then we put them all on her lanyard, and let her go nuts. She made, probably, 4-5 trades while we were there over the course of a few days. It was pretty fun. She also just enjoyed looking at other people's FAR more expansive collections while we waited in lines, etc. And those people were all super nice. Most were telling her which ones they like of hers, which had a little value (we're talking $12 as opposed to $8 here), some that had stories like the Olaf that used to be hard to get, etc. It took her a couple tries before she was comfortable with it, but finally this CM in Tomorrowland just rolled right up to her, got down to her level and was like, "alright, which pin do you want?". She chose, and then he was like, "you just take it honey. keep yours." She was hooked from then on.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

Aww that is a wonderful story. I am so happy when some CM's make a child or even sometimes adults days. Disney magic right there.

 

[Bubblegum1286]

If you talking about the "professional traders", you have to remember that for them, this is a business. So they want the best possible trade for their pin. In general, they are there to trade their pins, but they want pins of comparable or greater value. So unless you know the rough value of the pin, I think it's tough for the average casual pin trader to make a fair trade them the professionals.

I guess this is what I was referring to. I have read on the pin forum some heated conversations from serious traders (don't know if they're "professional" or not) about how mad they get trading their expensive ones for kids' scrappers. I would never intentionally bring in a low-quality pin, or one that wasn't worth trading. A lot of us just heard about this hobby through blogs, forums, pinterst, etc. and thought it would be a neat and engaging activity for our kids, period. In essence, we're ignorant to scrappers and frauds. I made sure all of ours have the Disneyparks seal on the back, but I guess they could still be counterfeit and I would be clueless. I just don't like the idea of any adults being rude to kids who are clueless about the "rules" of this pin thing, that's all.

 

[figment_jii]

That makes sense. I haven't personally seen any heated conversations or extremely rude professional traders, but I do generally avoid them. I'm sure that there are nice ones that aren't out to take advantage of other guests who don't know pin trading as well as they do, but unfortunately it's the bad ones that stick in everyone's mind. My general advice to new traders (and even vets) is to avoid them unless you know a lot about pins and their monetary values. I love pin trading, but I only trade with CM. In terms of spotting the "professionals"...they're usually pretty easy to tell...they have large pin books open for display. Last time (March) I saw them at Rancho del Zocalo seating area (near the front). I've also read that you can sometimes find them at the Tomorrowland Terrace area nearest to the Little Green Men Command Store.

 

[SMD]

I guess this is what I was referring to. I have read on the pin forum some heated conversations from serious traders (don't know if they're "professional" or not) about how mad they get trading their expensive ones for kids' scrappers. I would never intentionally bring in a low-quality pin, or one that wasn't worth trading. A lot of us just heard about this hobby through blogs, forums, pinterst, etc. and thought it would be a neat and engaging activity for our kids, period. In essence, we're ignorant to scrappers and frauds. I made sure all of ours have the Disneyparks seal on the back, but I guess they could still be counterfeit and I would be clueless. I just don't like the idea of any adults being rude to kids who are clueless about the "rules" of this pin thing, that's all.

Then don't let your kids pin trade with adults. It's a casual hobby for some and a serious hobby for others. People who are very knowledgable are allowed to be annoyed if someone tries to give them a counterfeit. Maybe it would be nice if they kept it to themselves 100% of the time, but that's not realistic.

 

[Bubblegum1286]

I found this that is a pretty helpful guide on spotting the fakes, and I pulled out the pins I purchased, and even following her guidelines, I'm still not completely sure which ones are real or not. I was able to pull a few out of our set based on her explanation, but some I just don't know.

 

[Imdboss]

I found this that is a pretty helpful guide on spotting the fakes, and I pulled out the pins I purchased, and even following her guidelines, I'm still not completely sure which ones are real or not. I was able to pull a few out of our set based on her explanation, but some I just don't know.

Thanks for posting that video, there were some great tips in it!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I like the video. Honestly from what they said on there, it looks like many of the pins I got from mousepinsonline are real. I have checked them over more then a few times. But i did like the video and will keep that knowledge in the back my mind while trading.

 

[agamble]

OK, after watching the video I checked out the pins on my lanyard and my DD's lanyard. I only found one pin that had a small sharp spot on the edge (her most simple way to tell they are fake). Also, all of my Mickey Waffle backings go off the back as she said a real pin should. The fronts all feel the same as the ones I know are real (purchased at Disney stores) and the images and colors are clear. So according to her video only one of my pins is probably a fake. But according to her video cheap pins from ebay (mine were $1.09) are all fakes and those traded from CM are mostly fakes, so in that case all but 3 of my pins should be fake. It doesn't match! What I believe is they're not fakes at all, they're extras (scrappers), 1.5 million instead of 1 million (as mentioned previously). They are EXACTLY like the real pins, just made in greater quantities. That means the pin would look exactly the same as the real pin and be of the same quality; the only difference is that it was never supposed to be made.

A point worth repeating: People are saying only let your kids trade with CM, but then people say CM mostly have fakes/scrappers, so if you're going to trade only with CM it doesn't matter what the value of the pin is.

 

[SMD]

A point worth repeating: People are saying only let your kids trade with CM, but then people say CM mostly have fakes/scrappers, so if you're going to trade only with CM it doesn't matter what the value of the pin is.

CMs start the day with pins that you can only get by trading with CMs. If they have fake pins it's because guests have traded them to the CMs and they didn't notice or remove it yet. Mostly what you're going to see on the pin boards are CM series or pins from the starter sets that Disney sells.

 

[Bubblegum1286]

The thing that confuses me a bit, she did say any pin (to her knowledge) made after 2012 will have the Mickey waffle pattern that will run right off the edge with no border. I have one with a border, so I assume it's fake. But then I have some from the hidden Mickey series in 2011 that don't have the waffle border at all, but on the back it is stamped saying "1 of 5" or "4 of 6" whatever the series was. I'm trying to find more information about those pins made before 2012 and how to tell if they're fake or not.

I know it really doesn't matter at all since we'll only be trading with CMs, but I'd like to know that I tried my best before going to weed out the counterfeits since I know it's such a touchy thing to the serious traders. I just think it's the nice thing to do.

 

[Bubblegum1286]

I bought a Star Tours pin for my son from the Disney store website, so I know it's legit, and I keep trying to use it to compare to the ones I bought from my Ebay lot. I'm sure no matter how hard I try, fakes are going to wind up on my son's lanyard. Oh well. At least I tried, right? I just don't want to add to the frustrating problem die hard collectors complain about.