Buying Disney Pins in bulk on ebay

[ilovemickeymost]

My DD & myself love to trade pins while in WDW parks, just for the pure fun of trading. We buy a resort pin each time we stay at a new "home" & normally one for each of us that represents that trip. Those we keep. And we've each picked a favorite to collect. I collect Mickey & Walt & she collects Donald & Cuteies. So, as you can see we rotate frequently. Our problem is we never have enought to trade for our entire trip. I've seen on ebay where you can buy them in bulk & get them for $2 a piece. Has anyone done this? Do you get real Disney pins (tradable)? Thanks for the info.

Also, I'd love to display my collection in frames on the walls in our house. I want to be able to add to them, as we get more. I really want to be able to enjoy them & not shove them in a drawer or book. Any suggestions how I can do that. Obviously, I can't use regular frames.

 

[flyingcat2003]

The pins that I have bought from Ebay have all been Disney tradable pins. I would emailthe seller and verify. As far as displaying them. visist usadisplay.net. These cases are kinda expense but will give you a general idea. If I were you, I'd check with Hobby Lobby or a local craft store. They may can help with a display case the is cheaper. Hope this helps!

 

[NCgal]

I would be wary of bulk ebay purchases. I recently made one after getting back from our first trip to WDW. I was excited to receive the package and the pins all looked great with a great variety. Then I started visiting pins sites like pinpics.com and dizpins.com. There I learned about counterfeit pins and "scrappers." When I compared pins that I received to the info about them at pinpics.com, I realized I had been sent counterfeits (limited edition pins that had not even been released yet) and I suspect many of the others are scrappers (colors aren't right, sizes are different from the real pins, backstamps are different.) They all have the Disney copyright and so would be able to be traded at Disney, but I'm not sure I feel good about trading unauthorized pins. And since hundreds of these types of pins come out of ebay each day, many other people at Disney will be trading unauthorized pins as well. You may trade a real pin just to get stuck with an 8 cent knockoff from China.

 

[NCgal]

Check dizpins.com. There is a whole thread there about framing!

 

[jernysgirl]

I display mine by using a simple corkboard (bulletin board) that you can buy from almost anywhere. They are cheap, easy to find, and you can move your pins around if you so desire.

I have bought pins of of ebay before, and have always been satisfied. I try to look for someone who has good feedback and advertises that they have real Disney, tradeable pins. As PP stated though, sometimes there are people out there that are going to rip you off. I guess that is just a risk that you take.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[ilovemickeymost]

I would be wary of bulk ebay purchases. I recently made one after getting back from our first trip to WDW. I was excited to receive the package and the pins all looked great with a great variety. Then I started visiting pins sites like pinpics.com and dizpins.com. There I learned about counterfeit pins and "scrappers." When I compared pins that I received to the info about them at pinpics.com, I realized I had been sent counterfeits (limited edition pins that had not even been released yet) and I suspect many of the others are scrappers (colors aren't right, sizes are different from the real pins, backstamps are different.) They all have the Disney copyright and so would be able to be traded at Disney, but I'm not sure I feel good about trading unauthorized pins. And since hundreds of these types of pins come out of ebay each day, many other people at Disney will be trading unauthorized pins as well. You may trade a real pin just to get stuck with an 8 cent knockoff from China.

We only trade w/ cast members (When they clock in for their shift, they just grab a handful from a box in their employee area & put them on their lanyard. They don't pay for them etc. unless someone specifically asks us. Too many are just wearing their pins & don't want to trade. Thanks for the insight.

 

[suferchick]

The ones i have bought from ebay were tradeable at the disney parks and i had bought a pin lot of 30 so it was a very good deal and i got my pins within a week. Also before you buy anything make sure you look at the sellers because on some sellers you click on they have a button that says there a top seller and such but yea gl with your pin buying!

 

[ReneeQ]

We only trade w/ cast members (When they clock in for their shift, they just grab a handful from a box in their employee area & put them on their lanyard. They don't pay for them etc. unless someone specifically asks us. Too many are just wearing their pins & don't want to trade. Thanks for the insight.

Just remember, as their shift goes on, they may get scrapper/junk pins on their lanyards FROM people they have done a trade with. This happened to my nephew a few times when he was younger. He'd just "LOVE" a certain pin a CM had on, because it was Mickey playing soccer, etc. I could tell it was a cheap scraper, and cringed when he traded one of his "good" pins for it. But he was happy, so I let it go.

We ONLY trade with CMs with green lanyards, since they only trade with children, and we've seen some junky pins on their lanyards, so be sure to double check.

 

[I_Know_You2!]

Why only trade with green lanyards? What does it matter who the CM is trading with?

 

[ilovemickeymost]

Check dizpins.com. There is a whole thread there about framing!

ENABLER< ENABLER< ENABLER!!!!
I'm not a collector in the sense that I care what series & how many & limited addition. I just collect what I love. And now I love the idea of making the frames for the pins I love. Of course, I have nothing else to do & need one more craft project to become obsessed about. Since I collect a pin from each new resort we stay in on property, I want to do one for those. Any ideas for a background would be great. I need it to be big enough to fit all the resorts in it eventually. When its just DD & I we stay at more than 1 during a visit w/ DH we have to stay put. He just doesn't get the idea of collecting resorts. LOL That's what I call trying to stay at every resort on property. Really, I wanted to thank you for the website. I love looking at all the new pins coming out. I already found 2 I HAVE to have. "Real" pin trading better not become my newest obsession

 

[ilovemickeymost]

Why only trade with green lanyards? What does it matter who the CM is trading with?

If they are only trading w/ children, it is less likely that children trading fake pins.

 

[ilovemickeymost]

We only trade w/ cast members (When they clock in for their shift, they just grab a handful from a box in their employee area & put them on their lanyard. They don't pay for them etc. unless someone specifically asks us. Too many are just wearing their pins & don't want to trade. Thanks for the insight.

The only reason DD & I started trading pins was b/c we were at the Disney store & they had tons on clearance for 50 cents a piece. We bought a bunch for our upcoming trip. Those have all been traded years ago. And we just rotate through the ones we've traded & trade them again when we get bored w/ them. I'm always looking for them on clearance. I was just at the Disney store & found a Mickey lanyard w/ 2 pins for $2.99. I picked up 2. I kicked myself on the way home. I know I should have gotten more, but oh well. We have a trip planned for December 09. This time the whole gang will be coming. So, we'll need more pins this time. That's why I was looking into the ebay deal. The pins that we've "bought" for full price, we hardly ever trade them. We normally only buy ones that represent a special memory of that trip. So, they stay put!!!.

Why we only trade w/ CM isn't b/c of the quality of the pins, its just easier b/c we know they will trade. Guests might be wearing pins b/c they want to show off their new purchases. The look we've gotten several times is shock that we would want their pins. LOL If someone is covered, we know we can trade w/ them normally.

 

[I_Know_You2!]

If they are only trading w/ children, it is less likely that children trading fake pins.

Children just trade what their folks buy them. I've found people don't want their kids "wasting" good pins,and thus they buy sedesmas, propins, europins, etc. You might want to rethink this concept. It seems to me that the kid lanyards are either filled with crap, or have great hidden mickey's.

 

[firechick139]

I bought two packs of Princess pins on ebay that showed each pin still on it's card. I got them home and found out that the pins were not backstamped. Even though they are "official" Disney pins (I looked them up on pinpics), I still don't think they will be tradable without the backstamp. There is another site that I have seen mentioned on this board that have grab bags of pins that are guaranteed tradables. I am thinking about getting a 25 pin grab bag from them.

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I bought two packs of Princess pins on ebay that showed each pin still on it's card. I got them home and found out that the pins were not backstamped. Even though they are "official" Disney pins (I looked them up on pinpics), I still don't think they will be tradable without the backstamp.

Can you post the pinpics numbers for them? There are many starter pins that don't have backstamps that are perfectly tradable in the parks.

 

[firechick139]

Man, I am crossing my fingers!!! Here they are. They are all the same kind of pin:

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54439

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54440

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54441

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54442

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54443

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54444

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54445

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54446

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54447

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54470

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54471

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=54777

 

[agnes!]

Hmmmmm...these are interesting. I would keep these pins with their pincards. I'm thinking that the pincards have the "copyright Disney" or "[copyright symbol] Disney" on them, right? Sometimes the pins that are available at places other than Disney parks/stores can be more valuable to collector, simply because they are outside the mainstream for pin collectors. If you took those to a Pin Meet you'd probably have collectors who specialize in Princesses or a particular Princess go gaga over them.

agnes!

 

[ReneeQ]

Why only trade with green lanyards? What does it matter who the CM is trading with?

Not sure what I was thinking when I typed that.

What I meant was, we ONLY trade with CMs. We've had some VERY unpleasant encounters when my nephew attempted to trade with non-CMs. We USUALLY look for CMs with green lanyards, as I was told they just trade with kids. Sometimes a 5 year old takes FOREVER to decide what he wants to trade, and these CMs seemed extremely patient.

Now that he's older, he'll attempt a trade with any CM. But I guess since we started with green lanyard CMs, it's ingrained in us to look for them first.

 

[I_Know_You2!]

LOL. late night post!

 

[zuzu]

Has anyone ever wondered where and how these sellers are able to get these pins in bulk to sell on eBay? I just bought my first and only lot of 15 pins and although they look fine several of them are listed on pinpics as questionable. The seller I bought from had very high feedback and is at 100% but they also have many lots to sell and some as much as 100 pins. Where would they all come from if they weren't scrappers or counterfeits? I feel pretty dumb now in retrospect.