Pin trading?



Oddly enough, this morning I spoke with someone I know at the DL gates shortly before the park opened. He and his wife are avid pin traders. He has more than 15,000 pins in his collection and he trades both in the park and in the picnic area just before the park gates. Apparently Thursdays are new pin days and he's often in line at 5:00 at the Disney store in Hollywood along with hundreds of others. Often times the new pins are limited and not everyone that comes actually gets one. I know that there are a number of other traders throughout the park as well.

One thing that I'd never heard before was this tidbit about fake pins. How common are they in DL? Exceptionally. He told me that 95% of the pins that CMs have to trade are fakes. Apparently what a lot of people do is buy large lots of cheap fake pins and then trade them to CMs for real ones. As I've often heard and as many of you know, CMs have to accept trades, even if they're fake.
 
One thing that I'd never heard before was this tidbit about fake pins. How common are they in DL? Exceptionally. He told me that 95% of the pins that CMs have to trade are fakes. Apparently what a lot of people do is buy large lots of cheap fake pins and then trade them to CMs for real ones. As I've often heard and as many of you know, CMs have to accept trades, even if they're fake.
The percentage of fakes is what deters me a bit from trading. I know trading is about what pin I like and what pin someone else likes, and if it's a fake but I still love it, then no big deal. But I don't want to trade a fake (even if I'm not aware) and "short change" someone else, you know? Those pins are spendy--I think the most basic are like $10 now--and I would hate to inadvertently trade a $2 fake for a $10 real.... But I guess that's the potential nature of the beast.
 
Avid pin trader here.... to piggyback off of what Wonkakid and Iakasmama said, the quality of the pins from Disney is also declining, so telling a fake or "scrapper" from a bought disney pin in the stores is also getting more questionable. There are some tale-tell signs if it is a fake, so keep an eye out and happy pin trading!
 


So if my son wants to do a little trading with cast members just for fun, is it better to buy the pins online since what he'll get in return are "knock offs"
 
I've checked a bit and the "real ones" can be bought online for a bit cheaper than through disney as well. Thanks for the advice. I hope this didn't upset anyone with the question about the "knock offs"
 
I like to do pin trading, but I agree with lalasmama that the percentage of pins that are not official (e.g., scrappers, counterfeits, and fakes) is pretty high. While I'm not sure I'd go with 95% high, I'd definitely say that more than 75% of pins you see on the pin boards and on lanyards are probably some type of scrapper/counterfeit/fake. The out-right fakes (ones that aren't based on any official Disney design) is pretty low, but scrappers (a pin that looks legitimate, but is not. It can be a factory overrun (i.e., the factory was contracted to make 1 million, but they made 1.1 million instead) or a pin that has some kind of error that should have been "scrapped") and counterfeits (copy of legitimate pin made by someone that was not authorized by Disney) are pretty common. While some unofficial pins can be easily identified (e.g., Belle's yellow dress is green or Ariel has blonde hair), some are virtually indistinguishable from the one you see in the park for sale. If you're going to start pin trading in the parks, getting scrappers/counterfeits are probably just something you'll have to accept.

So if my son wants to do a little trading with cast members just for fun, is it better to buy the pins online since what he'll get in return are "knock offs"
This is one of those catch-22 type of things. Financially it makes more sense to buy cheap pins to trade because of the high potential to get scrappers/counterfeits/fakes, but at the same time, it means you would be contributing to the problem. If you really wanted to try to find less expensive pins online, I'd try to focus on people that are selling pins still on their cardboard backing and, if it's a set, still sealed. Avoid anyone that is still selling lots/grab bags of loose pins (those are probably counterfeits to begin with).
 
The percentage of fakes is what deters me a bit from trading. I know trading is about what pin I like and what pin someone else likes, and if it's a fake but I still love it, then no big deal. But I don't want to trade a fake (even if I'm not aware) and "short change" someone else, you know? Those pins are spendy--I think the most basic are like $10 now--and I would hate to inadvertently trade a $2 fake for a $10 real.... But I guess that's the potential nature of the beast.

We just returned from a Disneyland trip a week ago. My boys bought several packs of pins and then they each traded one with a castmember. I'm pretty sure they traded 2 real ones for 2 fake ones. My middle son was pretty bummed when he got home and starting looking it up that he had traded his hard earned money for a fake pin. I felt bad for him so I went online and bought him a real pin to make up for it. I should have known better and told them not to trade for it but it had been so long since I've been to Disney and I had forgotten about all the fakes. My younger son probably got a fake pin too but I don't think he really cares.
 
pretty much any pin lot on eBay is fake.

thousands and thousands of pin lots. All fakes. No matter what the feedback says.
 
yeah eBay, instagram, amazon... how they get your money is by using "authentic" and "tradeable" as key or tag words, well yes, these are technically "tradeable", but they shouldn't be. for me the pin trading is more about the experience, as long as you have that and know you might run into a fake at times, it is still worth it.
 
we keep the ones we buy (like my race ones or special ones of Walt and think that I got. we don't trade those.) we know that if we trade with a cast member to complete a set or just because we like it. That we may have a high % of having fakes in our collection but we have just accepted it again. But we still enjoy trading even knowing that. It won't be worth cash 20 years down the line lol
 
Same here. We keep all our big money purchased ones. We learned that lesson long ago. We do trade ones we have traded for in the past. My kids tastes have changed a lot over the years. Last time my daughter brought all her princess pins she used to love and traded for other things she likes now. Younger girls were so happy to get the princess pins they were trading with her in line waiting at the pin boards. My son used to love the bear ones, I forget his name, little plush looking bear guy. He was trading those last time for more Star Wars type pins. We trade with stuff we got in trades over the years.

We also try and put down pins that are different than what the board has at the moment. So if it is heavy with princess we will put down other things for variety. My kids love trading pins. Have even given some kids some of their pins when they didnt have anything to trade with. We were at the pin trading spot on Main Street one evening and a little boy loved a Donald Duck pin that was on the board but he didnt have a pin to trade with and they didn't know about pin trading. My son gave him one of his so he could get the pin he wanted. It was really sweet. My son was looking for his last two bowling pins, pin in the series one day and a guy in line behind us had one and gave it to him. Should have seen my sons eyes light up, it was precious and we all thanked him.

I think by and large the pin trading people are a great group of people. :) We have also had adults elbow my daughter to get in front of her to get a pin they wanted on the board too, so there is also not great people. HA HA HA Enjoy!
 
yeah eBay, instagram, amazon... how they get your money is by using "authentic" and "tradeable" as key or tag words, well yes, these are technically "tradeable", but they shouldn't be. for me the pin trading is more about the experience, as long as you have that and know you might run into a fake at times, it is still worth it.
I think PinTradingDB is legit. It’s hard to tell when it’s not endorsed directly by Disney. It is a good site though because you can look pins up by character.
 

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