I have purchased three sets from PINDERELLA"S CASTLE in the past month.
All were excellent, and looked exactly as described in the auction.
I think if you follow some basic guidelines, you will be fine no matter who you buy from.Ive purchsed at least seven sets of traders from ebay.
The guidelines I use.....
1. As with all Ebay purchases, check the feedback.......97% or higher for me
2.Don't buy "grab bag" pin sets.you have no idea what you are getting.
3.Look for auctions that specify"no propins or sedesma"
4.Try to find auctions where the pinsets are actually depicted in the auction.I always buy pins only when they are the ones actually shown in the photograph
5.You can get much better deals by buying sets as opposed to individual pins.Do a search for "disney pin lot" and you will get better results .
I hope this all helps .My DD11 got into it last year big time. I had bought her a set of traders on Ebay before we left, and she spent pretty much the entirety of her day at DHS doing nothing but pin trading.She had a cold and felt lousy that day, and really didn't want to ride anything, but pin trading kept her busy and her mind off how awful she felt, and that day ended up being one of her favorite days ever in Disney.I have already purchased two sets of traders for our trip in April, and actually the pins were so good from Pinderella's castle, that she is going to keep five of them for herself, and trade the rest.
Another tip......
LOCKING BACKS!!!!
Use the black Mickey heads if you can't find locking backs, but we've lost several pins along the way because of cheap backs that fall off.The Mickey heads are better than the usual metal backs.