Another desperate plea for pin trading help!

[Hunnybee]

Okay, so I've been reading about good/bad ebay sellers, scrappers, tradable/non-tradable pins. We're looking for cheap trading pins for our trip to WDW. We are not die-hard traders, we just like the fun of the "easy" trading with CMs. I started reading different threads on here about the pin trading issues going on now. So, now I'm starting to be very leery.

Yesterday, I talked to someone who just came back from WDW and had bought a huge lot of traders off Ebay and was very happy with them. She had only good things to say about her seller, said he/she assured them that they were ones that they had traded, etc. I hopped on the good/bad seller list and found their seller on the red list. Now, I don't want to just write someone off without hearing their side first. So, I wrote a message to this seller, asking a few questions. When I got a response, I was told I should stop making false claims and should get myself educated about pins. Okay, so that was not my intent at all -- I felt bad. But, he had only answered 1 of my questions -- not the other one.

I had not received an immediate response, so I had gone to the green seller list and found one that had some pins for a cheaper price. I just won that bid. However, I just hopped back on this board to reread some of the threads after this redseller's response. I found one that said to check out www.pinpics.com to see the scrappers. I did find a FAQ about bootleg pins. I clicked on their link and found a whole page of just pictures with numbers. Are these the scrappers? Many of the ones pictured on this page are ones I just bought from this green list seller. How will I know if mine that I will receive in a few days are the real thing or if they are the scrappers? Am I looking in the right spot on pinpics?

Help! Thanks!

 

[Spiffie]

Okay, so I've been reading about good/bad ebay sellers, scrappers, tradable/non-tradable pins. We're looking for cheap trading pins for our trip to WDW. We are not die-hard traders, we just like the fun of the "easy" trading with CMs. I started reading different threads on here about the pin trading issues going on now. So, now I'm starting to be very leery.

Yesterday, I talked to someone who just came back from WDW and had bought a huge lot of traders off Ebay and was very happy with them. She had only good things to say about her seller, said he/she assured them that they were ones that they had traded, etc. I hopped on the good/bad seller list and found their seller on the red list. Now, I don't want to just write someone off without hearing their side first. So, I wrote a message to this seller, asking a few questions. When I got a response, I was told I should stop making false claims and should get myself educated about pins. Okay, so that was not my intent at all -- I felt bad. But, he had only answered 1 of my questions -- not the other one.

I had not received an immediate response, so I had gone to the green seller list and found one that had some pins for a cheaper price. I just won that bid. However, I just hopped back on this board to reread some of the threads after this redseller's response. I found one that said to check out www.pinpics.com to see the scrappers. I did find a FAQ about bootleg pins. I clicked on their link and found a whole page of just pictures with numbers. Are these the scrappers? Many of the ones pictured on this page are ones I just bought from this green list seller. How will I know if mine that I will receive in a few days are the real thing or if they are the scrappers? Am I looking in the right spot on pinpics?

Help! Thanks!

In my opinion, a seller who gets defensive over questions of quality and the authenticity of what they are selling does so because they have something to hide. A true pin collector/seller will be happy to answer questions.

I also think it is totally possible for a once good seller to become a not so good seller if they are drawn into the devious practice by dollar signs.

It has been said on this board many times over that fake/bootleg/scrapper pins are becoming better and better looking every day and it may be very hard for an untrained eye to detect the difference. To become trained you must be familiar with both authentic and fake pins. I own a couple of fake pins that my son got from trading with CMs at WDW and DTD. My husband also got a couple. We came home and immediately removed them from his lanyard, marked them and now we keep them to remind us of some of the flaws that we should look for (wrong dates on the back, off coloring, thin and warped metals, etc.). My children are 9 but are becoming fast aware of the deceit involved in this hobby. They are pickier than me! Which is good.

I will also say again, that pin trading is NOT cheap. It would be nice if there was a more economical way to obtain pins and be legitimate, but well, it is Disney we are talking about. Cheap and Disney don't go together.

My suggestion would be to start off in the parks with a booster set (6 or more pins in a set). When you spend a certain amount of money ($30) you can buy a mystery pin for $1. Then you can start trading with those. Over time, you will obtain more and more pins. But getting started slowly will encourage them to trade for what they REALLY want. BE PICKY!

My family has been trading for a 1.5 years and we have been to Disney 3 times plus a cruise since we began trading collecting. I would estimate that my family of 4 has spent $1000 over the course of that time in pins alone. That is our choice of souvenir, so we don't purchase the typical tshirts, etc.

Good luck in your decision!

 

[Hunnybee]

So, you said wrong dates on the back. How will I know what the right date is? I'm hoping this seller is still on the up and up -- I've read this seller's name quite a bit on people's replies to threads. But, I'm getting very nervous!

Thanks for any information you can give me to "get me educated"!

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

We have used ebay to get starter pins and trader pins. I had no problems. Just read their feedback scores. Plus, you can usually get quite a few pins for inder $10...this is a great wasy to get started. Some of the pins we got were very cool from the ebay seller (sorry...can't remember hthe t name) and we kept them and added them to my son's lanyard. IMHO, if htey have good feedback, itis worth $10 to give it a try to get started. In the parks, the starte packs oare 4 or 5 (maybe 6 pins) for $20- to $30...

 

[blockscrappers]

So, you said wrong dates on the back. How will I know what the right date is? I'm hoping this seller is still on the up and up -- I've read this seller's name quite a bit on people's replies to threads. But, I'm getting very nervous!

Thanks for any information you can give me to "get me educated"!

O.K. pull up the picture on pinpics and compare it for the obvious mistakes, broken, misscolored, it's usually not hard to tell "cheap" scrappers when you received them did they smell or feel oilly? Look at the year released does it match the back of your pin or at least within a year (sometimes rereleases etc..) This is harder but you can weight the pin and compare to a similair pins that should be close to the same weight (a food scale works good) is the pins you received feel lighter or weigh lighter,
may I ask who the seller was?

 

[pixiewings71]

fyi feedback is not a good way to tell if the seller has real pins or scrappers, too many people just have no clue what scrappers are so they give good feedback to bad sellers. I know because before I knew what a scrapper was I did the same thing. My best advice is to read the pinpics page to see what they say the red flags are, and use the super thread to chose your sellers. Then please, come back and give us your feedback on the thread. And I agree, anytime a seller gets defensive and doesn't answer your questions they are suspect.

 

[Spiffie]

fyi feedback is not a good way to tell if the seller has real pins or scrappers, too many people just have no clue what scrappers are so they give good feedback to bad sellers. I know because before I knew what a scrapper was I did the same thing. My best advice is to read the pinpics page to see what they say the red flags are, and use the super thread to chose your sellers. Then please, come back and give us your feedback on the thread. And I agree, anytime a seller gets defensive and doesn't answer your questions they are suspect.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, PIXIE!! I feel as though I am drowning here! Feeback is NOT a good way to judge pin sellers!

 

[Hunnybee]

Thanks, everybody, for your input! Our pins have shipped. So, we'll wait and see!

Also, I went off of the good/bad Ebay sellers thread on the boards here rather than feedback of Ebay. I chose a "Green" seller (retiredreadingspecialist) to buy from, that's why I'm hoping that they are truly legit pins. She has been very easy to deal with!

The seller I had looked into originally based on a friend's experience was the one who sent me the rather defensive message after I asked him a few questions. He was off the "Red" seller list here. I didn't go with him.

Thanks, again!

 

[Broncobilly83]

Something else I noticed, if you look at the seller history and other items they have for sale, you might be able to determine if they are someone selling a personal collection for whatever reason, or a professional seller. If you find someone selling that is either leaving the hobby, needs funds, or just spring cleaning, you might be able to get really really good pins extremely cheap!

As an example, I recently scored a lot of pins for cents on the dollar, but it was someone selling their personal collection, as most of them were in lots of 2-3 pins, and mostly Stitch related, some still on the cards. I paid $30 shipped for 21 pins, with half of those still on the original card backs! 4-5 of them were LE 1000 or lower, and the seller was just selling a lot of different items like they were spring cleaning or needed the funds, not a seller buying lots from China.

 

[Hunnybee]

Wow! How did you find that? There are so many "Disney Pins" when you search. Did you put in a different keyword to help you find something like that? I'd love to know! It seems like I could search forever on there!!!

 

[Mickey527]

<<I paid $30 shipped for 21 pins, with half of those still on the original card backs! 4-5 of them were LE 1000 or lower, and the seller was just selling a lot of different items like they were spring cleaning or needed the funds, not a seller buying lots from China.>>

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but don't go by pins being on a card as them being "real".
I have been trading and collecting pins since trading started in 2000. I have seen personally people standing at the pin stations taking pin cards from the trash or asking for them from people after they buy pins. And there have been requests from people on a legitimate pin site asking for pin cards.
I know, sad but true.
I have sold some of my pins on ebay and tried many times to sell them on a pin site and have had some luck, but not much. I am selling because I am disabled now and need cash, not because I wanted to get rid of my pins. but I am selling them for what I paid or slightly lower but people are looking for bargains. The pins I am selling would be better for someone who is looking for a particular theme and will keep them, not for just trading to a cm.
I do understand buying bulk pins for under 42 to use as traders for kids, but then when I go to the parks and try to trade an older pin that is "good" all that is on the cm lanyards are junk or scrapper pins.

 

[Broncobilly83]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but don't go by pins being on a card as them being "real".
I have been trading and collecting pins since trading started in 2000. I have seen personally people standing at the pin stations taking pin cards from the trash or asking for them from people after they buy pins. And there have been requests from people on a legitimate pin site asking for pin cards.
I know, sad but true.

Yes, you are 100% correct, that pins on cards are not a 100% guarantee that it is not a scrapper. However, thanks to sites like PinPics, you can match the UPC that is on the back of the card and see if it that is the correct pin, and if so, odds are you have the real deal compared to a scrapper. Plus I know a lot of traders lately will not trade for an LE unless it is on the card, with the correct UPC, to make sure that it is not a knock-off.

Wow! How did you find that? There are so many "Disney Pins" when you search. Did you put in a different keyword to help you find something like that? I'd love to know! It seems like I could search forever on there!!!

As for how I did that, right now, I am in a pin buying mode for trading for our upcoming trip, so I keep a tab open on E-Bay "Current Pins" category, and keep it refreshed for the setting of "Ending Soonest". My goal of course is to avoid scrappers so I look at whether they are on the list, the pin is a known scrapper, or whether it is untraded (i.e. still on the original card back).

When I find a pin that I might want to buy, I look at their other items to see if they have others I might want, to save on S/H, etc. Sometimes, if they have hundreds of pins, then odds are they are a pro seller, and I use the list here to check their reliability.

But like in this case, they had 6 lots of 2-3 different Stitch pins, some other Disney stuff, some books, some records; basically stuff that looked like they were spring cleaning or just looking to unload. A couple of them were mislabeled so odds were they were not getting the exposure they should have. So I was able to score them cheap via bidding, since no one else saw them.

 

[blockscrappers]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, PIXIE!! I feel as though I am drowning here! Feeback is NOT a good way to judge pin sellers!

Hang in there, Spif!
There are few of us out here that believe in what you're doing.

 

[blockscrappers]

Yes, you are 100% correct, that pins on cards are not a 100% guarantee that it is not a scrapper. However, thanks to sites like PinPics, you can match the UPC that is on the back of the card and see if it that is the correct pin, and if so, odds are you have the real deal compared to a scrapper. Plus I know a lot of traders lately will not trade for an LE unless it is on the card, with the correct UPC, to make sure that it is not a knock-off.



As for how I did that, right now, I am in a pin buying mode for trading for our upcoming trip, so I keep a tab open on E-Bay "Current Pins" category, and keep it refreshed for the setting of "Ending Soonest". My goal of course is to avoid scrappers so I look at whether they are on the list, the pin is a known scrapper, or whether it is untraded (i.e. still on the original card back).

When I find a pin that I might want to buy, I look at their other items to see if they have others I might want, to save on S/H, etc. Sometimes, if they have hundreds of pins, then odds are they are a pro seller, and I use the list here to check their reliability.

But like in this case, they had 6 lots of 2-3 different Stitch pins, some other Disney stuff, some books, some records; basically stuff that looked like they were spring cleaning or just looking to unload. A couple of them were mislabeled so odds were they were not getting the exposure they should have. So I was able to score them cheap via bidding, since no one else saw them.

Good Stuff!