Let’s help new pin traders avoid the cheap pins

[lovealldisney]

Hi I am new to purchasing anything on Ebay. Can you tell me about pay pal and how it works? I really hate using my Credit Card. Can I set it up to have money come out of a bank account?
Thanks

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

Yes you can have an instant transfer from your bank account.

Mike

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

There is a thread on Dizpins.com where a member copied a spam e-mail she got offering to sell her pins from a Chinese factory. She could order them in lots of 100-1000. There were several dozen pins pictured! And none of them were pins I had seen listed as scrappers before.

Now you know where those eBay sellers get their duplicates.

The thread is on the forum "comparisons" where people show their real pins alongside some fakes to show the differences. You might take a look to see if the pins in the lots you are bidding on are the pins in the e-mail. I personally don't want to buy pins from people who KNOW they are selling counterfeits, and I don't want to trade my legitimate pins and come home with a bunch of scrappers. Buyer beware!

 

[AnOtHeRdIsNeYfReAk]

Hi! Are the Countdown to the millennium pins tradeable in the parks? I found a bunch on ebay, but i wanted to check here before I bid. They are still in the original package. Thanks a lot

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hi! Are the Countdown to the millennium pins tradeable in the parks? I found a bunch on ebay, but i wanted to check here before I bid. They are still in the original package. Thanks a lot

Yes, they are. My DS has chosen a couple from CM lanyards - he really likes them.

 

[Mike0828]

I just got mine yesterday from him and am very pleased. I got 25, no duplicates. All had the black mickey head pin-back. Here's a rough estimate of what I got:

5 Hidden Mickey Pins
3 Limited Edition
4 Lanyard Collection
13 Regular traders

I got a good mix of characters, too. 6 Minnies, 1 Goofy, 1 Donald, 1 Mickey, 3 Princesses, 2 Piratey, 3 movie character, 1 Movie Rewards Pin, 1 Wilderness Lodge Pin. The only ones I personally wasn't thrilled with were alphabet pins that if you have them all spell Disneyland, according to pinpics they are: Pin 43416, Pin 37039, Pin 44969, Pin 44977, Pin 37035. All the pins have the official pin trading logo on the back so I assume that they are okay to trade....

I was just checking out that ebay seller as well(dizneypinzzzzzzz), glad I stumbled across this website/thread. Going to Disney in 2 weeks and wanted to get some pins so we can trade with the cast members. I guess I'll go through with it and give this seller a shot. I'm looking into the 25 pin lot.
I'm new to pin trading myself, went to Disney for the first time last summer and got hooked towards the end of the vacation. Researched what it was all about when I got home, next thing you know I was hooked! I was looking online/ebay, going to NYC to get pins/bag, keeping eyes open at flea markets/yard sales etc... But I find it hard to buy pins off ebay ....especially big lots from frequent sellers.....amazes me how they can be selling tons of pins(thousands of feedback), yet I am to believe they are all legit!? I dunno, how can they get ahold of so many legit pins yet make a profit off selling them for a couple dollars per pin!? Could someone shed light on this for me!? Thanks!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I was just checking out that ebay seller as well(dizneypinzzzzzzz), glad I stumbled across this website/thread. Going to Disney in 2 weeks and wanted to get some pins so we can trade with the cast members. I guess I'll go through with it and give this seller a shot. I'm looking into the 25 pin lot.
I'm new to pin trading myself, went to Disney for the first time last summer and got hooked towards the end of the vacation. Researched what it was all about when I got home, next thing you know I was hooked! I was looking online/ebay, going to NYC to get pins/bag, keeping eyes open at flea markets/yard sales etc... But I find it hard to buy pins off ebay ....especially big lots from frequent sellers.....amazes me how they can be selling tons of pins(thousands of feedback), yet I am to believe they are all legit!? I dunno, how can they get ahold of so many legit pins yet make a profit off selling them for a couple dollars per pin!? Could someone shed light on this for me!? Thanks!!

By and large the feedback is from buyers who aren't familiar enough with the pins to recognize scrappers, and the counterfeits usually look REALLY good so they might not even realize there is such a thing as counterfeit pins. If you are pretty new to the hobby then you get on eBay, buy a bunch of pins, they show up in the mail and you leave positive feedback. Been there, done that.
Then I found PinPics and the Dizpins boards and I realized that we had paid hundreds of dollars for pins that are scrappers and/or counterfeits. The people selling hundreds and hundreds of pins buy them direct from factories in China and sell them in lots on eBay. They make a profit because the pins were so cheap to begin with. CMs or other guests in the parks probably haven't memorized the back stamp info for every pin out there, so of course they are accepting scrappers for trades. The eBay buyers think it's a fabulous deal to pay $1.50 per pin or whatever and then trade them all for better pins at the parks. Of course with so many people buying eBay pins the parks are getting overrun with fakes.
Know what the pins are supposed to look like, know what the back stamp is supposed to say, and only buy from sellers who allow returns.

 

[Mike0828]

Thanks for the reply. All these scrappers/fakes and such put such a huge damper on a great hobby! Sorry for the rookie questions here but if they mention no spanish sedesma, german propin and no euro disney....is their still other fakes out there? Can a pin have the copyright/disney logo and still be fake?

 

[Mike0828]

Ahha...my post count is too low so I can't post links.

The actual auction I'm looking at on Ebay is #200129202914

Otherwise I found this but don't know if this is a legit site either!?

It's pinsellers . com and they sell a 25 pin lot for $77.

 

[lovealldisney]

Hi,
Has anyone bought anything from a seller VIPBLAST? If so what were your pins like and we're you satisfied?
Thanks!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Thanks for the reply. All these scrappers/fakes and such put such a huge damper on a great hobby! Sorry for the rookie questions here but if they mention no spanish sedesma, german propin and no euro disney....is their still other fakes out there? Can a pin have the copyright/disney logo and still be fake?

Sedesma aren't fakes, they are just a lower quality pin.
ABSOLUTELY there are fakes with the Disney logo on the back - that's the problem.
"Scrappers" are pins that have defects such as coloring (I have a princess pin where her face is kind of pale green), or other imperfections. They should have been "scrapped" but instead were sold on the black market. Counterfeits are pins that were either made from molds that were supposed to be destroyed or pins that the molds were purposely made to counterfeit pins. I have some Chip & Dale pins that say D SNEY on the back. I also have a bunch that are the wrong year and/or say Cast Lanyard Series when they ought to say Hidden Mickey Pin, etc. That's why you have to know what the back stamp on a "real" pin looks like. It isn't just the logo, it is the words and year being what they should be for each particular design. Not all of the pins on PinPics have complete back stamps listed, but many of them do.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Ahha...my post count is too low so I can't post links.

The actual auction I'm looking at on Ebay is #200129202914

Otherwise I found this but don't know if this is a legit site either!?

It's pinsellers . com and they sell a 25 pin lot for $77.

The things that worry me about that auction are that "These are SOME of the pins you MAY receive." This guy can send you whatever he wants. He also has no return policy. If he sends you scrappers you will have to dispute it through payPal and/or eBay.
I see at least 7 pins in the picture that have scrappers floating around. Not saying his are scrappers, but they could be. The other thing is by not specifying WHICH pins you get you can't tell if he sends the same pins to everyone, which would be an indication of getting them direct from the factory. I usually look at a seller's closed auctions to see if all the pins are the same (lots of them are) then I know to stay away.

I have never ordered from Pinsellers, but I have pins from Pincastle. Unfortunately they are all mixed together now and I don't remember which ones came from them. We bought TONS of pins from maybe 20 different sellers before we realized the huge scrapper problem. Not good.

I would look for auctions that specifically say NO SCRAPPERS.

 

[Mike0828]

Wow, this is worse than I thought. Thanks for all your help, must say all these fakes out there has really turned me off from pin collecting.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

If you are collecting and trading for fun then it isn't such a big deal. If you understand that some of the pins in your collection may be fakes and you can get past that then you'll be fine. BUT if you plan to sell the pins or trade with "serious" collectors then it is imperative that you know the difference. It is also better NOT to trade a pin you think is a scrapper, just because nobody wants to get a scrapper in return.
We only trade with CMs, but some of them are not pin traders personally so they don't pay that much attention to the pins guests give them. And we keep coming back to the fact that everybody who buys scrappers from ebay (on purpose or not) is trading them in the parks.
We have about 65 pins each to trade next month. DH says he is sticking to trading for rack pins since the biggest problems seem to be with "cast lanyard" pins. But there are fake rack pins, too. We don't collect with the intention of selling or trading off our pins, so once I manage to get over the hurdle of being angry that I am trading real pins for potential fakes I thik it will be fun again.

 

[Mike0828]

I hear ya, I surely don't want to contribute to the trading of scrappers. Wow...65 each, that's great! Now did you buy them in bulk from somewhere or just from personal collection that you don't want? I was hoping to have 10or 20, haha...maybe I don't realize I need more than that!

One more shot here, this seller has two sets I found, #'s:
300130357257
300130358091
Good feedback past year and says no scrappers, but man did they sell alot! Verdict?! Thinking of getting both these sets, keep a couple that I like and go with the rest to WDW.

And this one draws no interest to me, just wondering if they look fake or not? Just has a weird, perhaps old look to me!? Just trying to learn a little, so......
140138553724

 

[Dorisk3]

For our trip last year we bought from the seller pinscheap on ebay- he says he has no Sedesma, propins, etc. The pins were actually pretty cute- and were easy to trade- he sells them for about 2 each and you can get a big lot- but he runs one auction where you can buy however many you want

try

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pin-Lot-Disney-...131856784QQihZ007QQcategoryZ143QQcmdZViewItem

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I hear ya, I surely don't want to contribute to the trading of scrappers. Wow...65 each, that's great! Now did you buy them in bulk from somewhere or just from personal collection that you don't want? I was hoping to have 10or 20, haha...maybe I don't realize I need more than that!

One more shot here, this seller has two sets I found, #'s:
300130357257
300130358091
Good feedback past year and says no scrappers, but man did they sell alot! Verdict?! Thinking of getting both these sets, keep a couple that I like and go with the rest to WDW.

And this one draws no interest to me, just wondering if they look fake or not? Just has a weird, perhaps old look to me!? Just trying to learn a little, so......
140138553724

We bought all of the pins that our Disney Store had when they marked them down to $1.99 each back in February or March. We also have some from eBay that aren't scrappers, and some that we bought from sellers on the Dizpins sale board. DH has pulled a few from his "keepers" that he has decided to part with if he sees a pin he likes better.

Those first 2 auctions don't look too bad. The seller does sell a bunch of pins, but the lots aren't the same 10 identical pins. And the auction says "no scrappers" so if the pins are scrappers you would be in a good position to dispute the charges!

The third one the pins look funny. It might just be the quality of the photos. I know that Minnie in the astronaut suit has been reproduced as a scrapper, so I would probably stay away from those pins. The seller doesn't list a return policy which is usually not good.

 

[BigGreen73]

The things that worry me about that auction are that "These are SOME of the pins you MAY receive." This guy can send you whatever he wants. He also has no return policy. If he sends you scrappers you will have to dispute it through payPal and/or eBay.
I see at least 7 pins in the picture that have scrappers floating around. Not saying his are scrappers, but they could be. The other thing is by not specifying WHICH pins you get you can't tell if he sends the same pins to everyone, which would be an indication of getting them direct from the factory. I usually look at a seller's closed auctions to see if all the pins are the same (lots of them are) then I know to stay away.

I have never ordered from Pinsellers, but I have pins from Pincastle. Unfortunately they are all mixed together now and I don't remember which ones came from them. We bought TONS of pins from maybe 20 different sellers before we realized the huge scrapper problem. Not good.

I would look for auctions that specifically say NO SCRAPPERS.

Great advise. I will not buy any lot that states "These are SOME of the pins you MAY receive" either. This just leaves too much room for disappointment and a rip off.

 

[DisneyJo]

What do you think of these?

TIA

 

[BONITATIME]

They look like some of them are Sedesma and some are Berteloni