How can you tell if it's a fake

[bamamolly]

Title says it all. How can you tell if a pin is a scrapper/fake? I looked at pinpics.com and the pins I have on are on there but in the notes about each of the pins some said that there were scrappers out there so beware. Well, OK, but how do you tell?

 

[thymed]

It seems like more and more scrappers are hitting the internet and Parks. They are like everything else, someone has a great idea and product and someine else figures out how to steal it or copy it or exploit it!

The best advice I can give you is trade for pins that you like and that appeal to you. Unless you are a die hard collector if you end up trading for or trading away a scrapper the world won't come to an end.

If you visit pinpics.com they sometimes describe ways to tell if a pin is fake or not, such as metal color verses black color on details. But even they say it is hard to pick out scrappers so just try to enjoy pin trading and not stress.

 

[Broncobilly83]

Sometimes the smell, or the edges seem rough. Also, with the new Mickey Ears imprints on the back, the ears are not even or they run off the edge of the pin incomplete

 

[blockscrappers]

It takes some work but what I define as "cheap" scrappers are fairly obvious.
Study pinpics to familiarize yourself with what the pin should look like then look for obvious things such as different color, missing chips pieces, does the pin look like someone painted the color, this one is hardest of all weight - after trading a while sometimes you can hold a real pin and a fake and can tell the fake is lighter. Like the previous advice though, I would just trade for pins you want look for the obvious fakes and not worry too much.