Pin trading starter sets

[verlee]

How much does a starter set cost at the parks? Online I think they were around $24. I was thinking it might save me $$ to buy some pins and a lanyard on ebay?

 

[imthatgirl]

You can save a lot of money by getting them on Ebay. A friend of mine paid $20 for a lanyard at 20 pins. They were all pins you wouldn't want, but she was able to trade for some great pins. She even got the whole villain set...and the pin that was only distributed to travel agents.

 

[Lees3rwe]

If I am remembering correctly, the starter sets are about $30 and come with 4-6 pins.

 

[Lynn57]

I also recommend ebay. That is where I got my pins that I wanted to trade. Some I wanted to keep, but many were not pins I would buy, so they were perfect for trading. It was much cheaper as well

 

[t_catt11]

We've bought so many starter sets in the past (the ones without a lanyard are much cheaper). However, if you're just looking for mins to trade, you can buy them online in lots (from 25 up to 200 or so pins) for much cheaper. We did this for our last trip, and LOVED it.

 

[itsmetigress]

please be very careful with purchasing pins from ebay...most of the pin lots sold there are fakes...which is why they are so cheap.

 

[stargazertechie]

please be very careful with purchasing pins from ebay...most of the pin lots sold there are fakes...which is why they are so cheap.

This. 99% of those large lots are scrappers/counterfits

 

[imthatgirl]

This. 99% of those large lots are scrappers/counterfits

It's pretty easy to determine on Ebay who you should buy from and who you shouldn't.

This is completely false that 99% are counterfeits. Just be careful and only by from Top Rated Sellers.

 

[BebopBaloo]

You can find good pins on ebay for reasonable prices, but yes most of the 'lots' are full of fakes. Just search and be careful. If an ebay seller is putting up several duplicates, they are probably fake. I just had a bad experience, but fortunately learned a bit in the process about what to look for. Read the seller's feedback. A lot of seller's with scrappers will have a high rating, but look at the small percentage of negative comments to see what they say.

Food for Thought / Not trying to start a fight:

I know some feel that it is okay to get scrappers, because hey you're having fun and your kids are and they won't care if they get a scrapper, or not. I get this, but.. it would be so nice if the scrappers could fall out of circulation. I don't expect to receive a great monetary amount one day for the pins that I am collecting, but I would like to have a collection that is full of pins that are authentic and have fun memories attached.

Happy Trading!

 

[ksloane]

Yes, yes, yes. Buy on ebay. I've done this for each of our trips and will continue to do so...actually about every few months I go look at just buy a set of 25 - 50 so that we keep a stock.

There are some bad ones out there, but I've bought at least 10 times and not received any bad pins. In fact, we frequently get them so good that we don't want to trade them....

Just look at their feedback and such....there's some junk on there, but there's some good stuff too.

ETA: one thing I look for in the actual auction listing is that there are no euro, sedesma, or ProPins(?). Not looking at an auction right now, but I think those are the three. If that line isn't there, I don't even look at their feedback.....

 

[downsouthca]

I got a set of pins from this site. Their pin lot did not have any scrappers.

http://thepinstation.ecrater.com/

You can get a lanyard only for cheap on Ebay.

 

[deannanb]

I bought pins on ebay - and once I got them - decided I needed more because they were so cute! Buy more than you think you might need!

I let the boys pick out their lanyards while we were at our hotel. Got them excited about it.

At the end of each day we would take off the pins we were saving and put on new tradable pins so the lanyards wouldn't be so heavy.

 

[jjsdad]

I got a set of pins from this site. Their pin lot did not have any scrappers.

http://thepinstation.ecrater.com/

You can get a lanyard only for cheap on Ebay.

Is that site legit or have they been known to sell scrappers?

 

[verlee]

Yikes! I just wanted my kids to have some fun trading and now I am a little nervous about the whole process. I feel I may unknowingly commit a pin trading faux pas. Oh well, I did buy some pins and lanyard on line. The seller was top rated and I did not see anything unusual but I guess that does not mean much since I would not know unusual if i saw it. We will see what happens Hopefully we do not contribute to the scrapper problem....

 

[jjsdad]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. To be honest i've done it through ebay twice and they seemed to be legit. I used someone with 100% feedback and tons of sales, even checked the pins on some website that shows you how to tell which are real and which are scrappers. Some people really take the pin trading seriously and are true collectors so they don't like the non legit pins to get put into the system but to be honest from what i've seen those people are out for specific pins which are limited sets, cast lanyard sets and all sorts of other stuff you would never get from an ebay seller so I don't think it really effects them in teh long run (i'm sure i'll get flamed for that comment). My son could have a book full of scrappers for all we know, if he does it doesn't make a difference to him. Have fun trading! My one piece of advice regarding the pins is this, try to go with a theme once you are in the parks. My son did this and was searching for a kermit pin to fill his set and it took all trip to find it. We literally found it at the one disney shop that is in the dolphin when I was checking out of the hotel. It was a big event.

 

[verlee]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. To be honest i've done it through ebay twice and they seemed to be legit. I used someone with 100% feedback and tons of sales, even checked the pins on some website that shows you how to tell which are real and which are scrappers. Some people really take the pin trading seriously and are true collectors so they don't like the non legit pins to get put into the system but to be honest from what i've seen those people are out for specific pins which are limited sets, cast lanyard sets and all sorts of other stuff you would never get from an ebay seller so I don't think it really effects them in teh long run (i'm sure i'll get flamed for that comment). My son could have a book full of scrappers for all we know, if he does it doesn't make a difference to him. Have fun trading! My one piece of advice regarding the pins is this, try to go with a theme once you are in the parks. My son did this and was searching for a kermit pin to fill his set and it took all trip to find it. We literally found it at the one disney shop that is in the dolphin when I was checking out of the hotel. It was a big event.

Thanks! I am excited for them to have a new experience at the parks.

 

[Raenstoirm]

I am going to agree 99.9% of ebay are scrappers. That being said you can still trade them and honestly no pins have any real value. No one is going to buy your cherished collection EVER so go and have fun with it. If you know what to look for, you will see a difference in the "real" vs "fake" pins. Below is a pic of some of the pins I got last trip. As you can see with the pennants I have two blue and two purple (there is only one of each color in the set) and there is a slight color difference between the "real" and "fake" ones. I got all of them from cast trading so the CMs trade scrappers as well.