Cast Members trading fake pins?

[Ashlotte]

We just returned from an absolutely wonderful vacation to Disneyland. While we were there, my kids decided they wanted to take up pin trading. We bought a landyard and pins there and traded with CMs and the kids had a blast.

Towards the end they liked all of the pins they had and didn't want to trade anymore, so I decided to buy two lots of pins off of ebay for them to trade with each other at home and use for next time we come. I ordered the pins from someone with good ebay feedback (99.8%), but then I looked at some of the negative feedback (after I had ordered, of course ), and people were claiming some of the pins were fakes or scrappers, so I began to get worried.

The pins arrived yesterday and I spent some time looking them over and looking them up on pinpics.com and dizpins.com. I can't be sure because I am totally new to pins, but I thought some of them could be fake. So, to be sure, I compared them with the pins we got in DL, both purchased and traded with CMs. It appears that A LOT of the pins we traded with CMs also look fake. So, either a) there are lots of fakes floating around, and even the CMs are trading them and thinking they are real, or b) some pins are just not as well made, but are still real. I don't know what to think!

If the pins I ordered are fake, I can't trade them in good conscience, but I hate to wrongly accuse someone or tell my kids they can't keep their pins if they are just fine.

Anyone have any experience with this to share? It is all new to me.

 

[mydisneymoney]

We trade pins as well and yes, there are LOTSSSSSS of fakes out there and the CMs are trading them. Most CMs are not up on what is fake and what isn't. They just trade. They are given two new pins each day and then they start trading so a pin they have on their lanyard may have been traded 10 times that day. Some of the CMs do know what to look for and will refuse a pin if they know it is a fake.

When I buy pins I always look thru them and try and pick out the ones I think might be fake and I scrap them. Even after that it doesn't guarentee that I still am trading a fake (a really good fake) but it truly was done unintentionally on my part. The only way to make sure you are not trading a fake is to buy brand new pins directly from Disney. There have been reports of people buying booster packs of pins and then swapping out the good ones for bad ones and selling you a "brand new" pack of pins that are not real.

 

[Brian Noble]

I decided to buy two lots of pins off of ebay

If you are buying pins for $1 each (or less) there are really only two ways that can happen without the seller going broke. One: they are scrappers. Two: the person selling them used scrappers to trade for "real" pins in the parks, and are selling the latter.

If you are a serious pin collector, then this is probably not kosher. For the kids having a bit of fun in the parks? I'm not going to get too worked up over it.

 

[Ingrid0382]

Pin trading seems to be getting really big. Unless Disney starts enforcing or checking over every pin that someone tries to swap with CMs, I think more and more scrappers are going to circulate. I see people in the all the time with bags of individually wrapped pins that are obviously lots that were won on ebay. They decide what pins they want on a lanyard or board and start unwrapping their pins to trade.

When we first got into trading we ordered a couple of these lots. While I was waiting for them to ship, I started reading up on scrappers. By the time they arrived, we decided we would keep the pins we received for ourselves or to attach to cards/gift tags, but it wouldn't be right to circulate them in the parks.

I see the same exact pins that we received over and over again on CM lanyards and boards. It's really a bummer and has taken a lot of the fun out of trading for us. Who wants to spend 30-50 dollars on a starter set, trade them, and end up with a bunch of scrappers?

 

[rewardsinlife]

Please correct me if I heard this and it is wrong, but I heard somewhere that as long as it has copyright "Disney" on the back you can be 99 percent sure that it is real? That is how I have judged mine at least...all have this on the back. ...instead of something like made in China.

 

[elaw]

Please correct me if I heard this and it is wrong, but I heard somewhere that as long as it has copyright "Disney" on the back you can be 99 percent sure that it is real? That is how I have judged mine at least...all have this on the back. ...instead of something like made in China.

The fakes and "Scrappers" have those on them ... not a good way to tell the difference.

 

[ballarinamom]

Also, trading with a CM is a crap shoot. They HAVE to trade if it is a Disney character. Thats why many times, they just let the kids look at their lanyards and not even see what the person is trading with. Where folks will get in trouble istrying to trade a scraper with one of the guests set up to trade

 

[PAcpl]

There were a couple of trips where I really got into pin trading and this was the biggest issue I was having. I am the anal type that wants to make sure what I have is right and a complete set is indeed a complete set. After a while I just gave up trying to look for the differences. I was finally able to convince myself if I like the pin I like the pin. Regardless if it is real or not, I like it.

But this is a big reason that I only did pin trading on a couple of trips and then lost interest really fast. I will usually have a pin or two on me to trade at any given time now, but I only take the time to trade if a pin really sticks out.

 

[RaceCar]

We love pin trading. But, honestly, we do it because we like the pins not because we're investing in our future. For that reason, it doesn't matter to us whether they're "fake" or "real". They're just as beautiful all the same. If our intention was to sell them for big bucks further down the road, it would probably matter. But we just like them for ourselves. For us, they're all real and poke you without a backing.

 

[dmband]

IMO if "you" know they are fake then you shouldn't trade them

 

[anonymousegirl]

Please correct me if I heard this and it is wrong, but I heard somewhere that as long as it has copyright "Disney" on the back you can be 99 percent sure that it is real? That is how I have judged mine at least...all have this on the back. ...instead of something like made in China.

I like high-end handbags. When someone counterfeits one of those, they are not using the correct materials, patterns or hardware. They are not authorized at all to manufacture the purses. These pins however, are made in the same factory, by the same people, using the same materials as the real pins. They are called scrappers because they are made with the scraps of the Disney-authorized pins. Disney authorizes a run of 1000 pins. The manufacturer makes those 1000 pins, and then runs off maybe another 200 pins using the scraps of the original 1000 and leftover paint. Thus the scrapper pins tend to have faded coloring, are much thinner, and often had less precise outlines.
If Disney would manufacture the pins within the United States, they could take more precautions to eliminate these scrappers.

 

[Mary09]

How do we even know about scrappers?

It seems like if a company as powerful as Disney gives an offshore manufacturer a large contract, they would be able to control the release of non-spec, Disney merch? Or is it too small of potatoes for them to concern themselves with, given the pin trading was intended more for fun than anything (I'm guessing)?

 

[thankudrivethru]

Disneyland doesn't control what people sell on EBay. Most( NOT ALL) of the pins on EBay are counterfit pins.If the pin doesn't look right then most likely it's fake, if the price is too good to be true, it's a fake most likely.But i would not trade fake pins, just keep seperate from the real pins.

 

[elaw]

I like high-end handbags. When someone counterfeits one of those, they are not using the correct materials, patterns or hardware. They are not authorized at all to manufacture the purses. These pins however, are made in the same factory, by the same people, using the same materials as the real pins. They are called scrappers because they are made with the scraps of the Disney-authorized pins. Disney authorizes a run of 1000 pins. The manufacturer makes those 1000 pins, and then runs off maybe another 200 pins using the scraps of the original 1000 and leftover paint. Thus the scrapper pins tend to have faded coloring, are much thinner, and often had less precise outlines.
If Disney would manufacture the pins within the United States, they could take more precautions to eliminate these scrappers.

As i understand it .... Scrappers are generally the lesser quality pins from the original manufacturer. Counterfeit and fake pins are just as you describe with the handbag analogy .... They are 2 different things and both very common on CM lanyards.

See links below for more info

Disney Pin Forum
Pin Talk - Pin forum
Dizpins

 

[pixiewings71]

Oh scrappers.....such a hot issue. I wish I had more time because I have some knowledge in this area. We have 4 traders in our home, I've learned a lot over the past years of trading. lol
Unfortunately yes, many CM's will have scrappers on their lanyards and won't even know it. CM's are told to trade for any pin that has the copyright on the back, unfortunately the copyright is all the pins (even the scrappers) because they are normally made in the same factory. Sometimes though the molds are sold to second party manufacturers and then they make more of the pins, unfortunately Disney doesn't seem too concerned about this practice. Although I have seen eBay stores shut down and people have been arrested for selling scrapper pins.
I don't trade because I hope the pins value will go up, I trade because I find it fun and I like looking for new pins, we have some pretty amazing ones, we also have some pretty crappy scrappers.
I would like Disney to move the manufacture of their pins to the US, so they could generate more jobs and be better able to monitor the making of the pins and scrappers. Alas, that doesn't seem to be on the horizon. But we will continue to trade (for good and scrappers) as long as there are pins we like. I'm just very very very careful about who I buy from on eBay, there are good eBay sellers but the majority of them are bad.

 

[mydisneymoney]

How do we even know about scrappers?

It seems like if a company as powerful as Disney gives an offshore manufacturer a large contract, they would be able to control the release of non-spec, Disney merch? Or is it too small of potatoes for them to concern themselves with, given the pin trading was intended more for fun than anything (I'm guessing)?

I think the only way they could stop it would be to manufacture in the US. So basically they are looking at a couple issues. Manufacture in the US which will make them have to raise the price they charge for a pin which in turn will most likely turn a lot of people away from buying pins because of the cost. The other option is to keep manufacturing in China and hope people will be honest and not buy or trade scrappers. I have seen some good fakes and some really bad fakes. The good ones are often so good that most people and CMs quickly looking at it are not going to tell it is fake. Even then the bad fakes are often not picked up on. There are so many pins out there that a CM is not going to know that Mickey's hat is suppose to be dark green instead of lime green.

 

[thankudrivethru]

Scrappers are also different in color then the real pin itself and have small differences.

 

[elaw]

... If the pins I ordered are fake, I can't trade them in good conscience, but I hate to wrongly accuse someone or tell my kids they can't keep their pins if they are just fine.

Anyone have any experience with this to share? It is all new to me.

What I've done with my Scrapper and Counterfeit pins is cut the pin backs off them and glued some strong magnets to the back using epoxy and made some really nice refrigerator magnets out of them

 

[sonnyjane]

What I've done with my Scrapper and Counterfeit pins is cut the pin backs off them and glued some strong magnets to the back using epoxy and made some really nice refrigerator magnets out of them

Good idea!

 

[marcemc]

This is new to us, the boys have been trading pins with CM the past few days