What happened to the pins Cast Members trade?

[wearegoingtoDisney]

Just back from trip after a few years of not trading. In the past my kids purchased the lanyard with the trader pins on the lanyard and began pin trading with the cast members. Over the years we have traded for some nice pins. This trip I bought some pin booster packs for the kids to trade. I was very disappointed with the selection of pins CM have for trades. I didn't see a pin that they actually sell in the booster packs or from the starter lanyards on the pin boards or the CM lanyards. I have read about scrappers and fakes. Are most of what the CM are trading scrappers and fakes? Or are the CM given those small little pins to trade with guests? What would the point then of buying the expensive started pin sets or booster packs to trade one of those expensive pins for a little CM pin?

 

[figment_jii]

I've very rarely seen any of the individual pins that they sell for trade on CM lanyards or pin boards. I suspect those are just to expensive for folks to purchase for purposes of trading. I have seen a lot of CM lanyards with the booster/starter set pins. The CM lanyards also have a lot of pin designs from the hidden Mickey series, which are only available via CM lanyards (i.e., they are not sold). That being said, yes, I think the CM lanyards and pin boards do have a lot of scrappers, fakes, and counterfeits on them.

 

[supernova]

Let's remember a couple of things here:
1) Disney is not out to lose money on pin trading. They're not going to load up cast member lanyards with anything too valuable.
2) I can't see Disney purposely placing scrappers on the cast member lanyards. Throughout the day, the public trades off pins, whether they know it or are oblivious to scrappers, to the CM lanyards. So any bad pins you find are probably due to the public, not to Disney.