Pin Trading - Beware of pins from Spain...

[shannonandtom]

We were at the parks and our kids were pin trading with some cast members. I noticed one of the pins my son got was of lesser quality just by looking at it. I flipped it over and it was made in Spain and didn't have the official Disney Pin Trading logo on it. It was so cheap looking it appeared to be plastic. I since have noticed more of these popping up so if you care about the quailty of pins you are trading for, be sure the back has the Disney officail pin trading logo on it and they are made in China.

 

[kelleigh1]

I thought the CM's weren't allowed to trade the non-official pins.

 

[Kimberly815]

Sorry to hear that you didnt' get what you bargained for.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[karrit2000]

Beware the pin sharks that strip the Cast Members of good stuff & leave this garbage. They are apparently tradeable but I'm not sure why. I've almost gotten duped a few times but usually catch myself before making a trade. An easy tip for spotting these cheapies is they are usually very small & the lines between colors are usually black.

 

[CarnotaurDad]

We just returned from WDW and there were a lot of these Spain pins. They say Sedesma on the back and, according to most of the CMs, they are tradable and they had no issue with them. They are really cheap, compared to the normal pins, and hopefully will go away at some point. However, they appear to be accepted by most of the CMs.

 

[Figment2]

The only way they will go away is if everyone stops buying them. Most of those are put on lanyards from new people (not seasoned pin traders) who buy them cheap off websites or ebay.

How do I know this - because there are a lot of new people who ask the question, "where can I get pins cheap."

JMHO.

Cyn

 

[daisax]

Pardon my naivete... but if you traded for it, presumably you liked it, right?

It's kind of like kids trading baseball cards -- sometimes they'll make dopey swaps, but if it's what they want, you let them do it. And you don't let them anywhere near your Honus Wagner.

If it was attractive enough that you wanted it, I don't see what the problem is unless your long term agenda is to sell them.

 

[oogieboogie]

the problem is that these pins (sedesma is what they're known as) can be bought for cheap ($1-$4 each) and then traded with the CMs for pins that are worth at least $6.50. Some people then turn around and sell teh $6.50 or more pins on Ebay, thereby making a nice hefty profit for themselves.

This is especially true if the pins that they traded for was a limited edition pin or a cast lanyard series pin which could fetch $12-$15 a pin.

 

[karrit2000]

I've seen people with bags of these pins go from cast member to cast member stripping them of good pins. Last year I saw the same two people doing this 3 days in a row. I don't believe they were newbies, they knew what they were doing and seemed quite proud of themselves.