Good/Bad Internet and eBay Pin Sellers

[Mikikael]

Originally Posted by Mummy2Sydney

Hello everyone, this is a great thread but I'd like to ask for recommendations. we are looking to buy pins specifically to trade on our next trip. Our girls are 6 & 8 and don't mind what they get....can you recommend a seller who I'd get the best bang for my buck with?

I go through thepincollection a lot and never had an issue. Most pins are going to have dozens of sellers. You should pick one with the lowest price and the best reviews. 1-2 bad reviews do not cancel 200+good. Also look at shipping. I rather pay an extra buck on the pin then see someone try to overcharge me for a stamped envelope.

[SupernaturalMommy]

Originally Posted by Mikikael

I go through thepincollection a lot and never had an issue. Most pins are going to have dozens of sellers. You should pick one with the lowest price and the best reviews. 1-2 bad reviews do not cancel 200+good. Also look at shipping. I rather pay an extra buck on the pin then see someone try to overcharge me for a stamped envelope.

For point of reference I buy and sell on eBay. (I trade tons on a monthly basis at a local meet and always need new pins, and sometimes I buy more than I am able to trade. Other times I just decide I don't want a character I collected anymore so I get rid of them.)

You can't always judge by shipping, although there are a lot of people who do overcharge. I have posted about a few of them here. I've been charged $12 for a shipment to find the seller actually paid more than that (not to mention the fact that eBay takes a minimum of 9% of whatever the seller charges for shipping and Paypal another 2.9%. A lot of sellers have that built into their shipping charge as a handling fee.) Then I've been charged $3 which I thought was reasonable to end up getting a plain envelope with the pin shoved inside and a stamp on it, as pointed out, so I basically overpaid by more than $2.00 for one pin.

If you are buying pin lots, flat rate shipping is common because the sellers often use flat rate mailers or ship first class in padded mailers and the cheapest a pin can be shipped that way is $1.64 with commercial base pricing discount from eBay. Add in their packaging costs and everything else eBay allows you to add to handling, and the cheapest flat rate shipping is around $2.00 (if the seller buys their supplies in bulk and uses eBay shipping) and in that case, the seller still loses money on the shipping because of the eBay fees, but you will still find people who complain about that. I see it in the eBay forums all the time. Buyers want free shipping because that is what eBay shoves down their throats, but what they don't realize is that sellers who offer free shipping are adding it into their item costs. So, if you buy more than one item, you may very well be overpaying. I like to see my shipping cost, not see it added into the price since I usually buy in large quantities.

Look for sellers who sell pin lots for around $2.00 a pin ($50 for 25 pins is common) and don't charge more than around $5 to ship those pins. Don't buy lots where the same seller is selling the same lot of pins over and over because you will probably get scrappers, and if it is less than $2.00 per pin on a blind lot, they often are scrappers as well. You can find new on card lots for around $2 per pin all over eBay.

I've posted about a lot of good sellers with pin lots in the last few pages of this thread. And, I am brutally honest with all aspects of the transaction. However, it is true that one or two negatives or neutrals doesn't mean the seller is bad. You need to look at the patterns, see what the comment was specifically, see how the seller responded. If the seller got hostile in their response, you probably want to stay away. Also, look at the feedback left for others by the person who left the seller that feedback. They may have a pattern of negging sellers. I've seen that and tend to just ignore those negatives knowing the seller probably didn't deserve it.

Well, that is my education of eBay lesson for the day. Hope you find what you are looking for. I leave in 11 days for my long trip and can't wait! I have a LOT of pins ready to go!!!

[macleod1979]

I would agree. Ebay is the way to go.

[Ashlotte]

Hi,
We're new to pin trading (as of September), and since we got back from our trip, I have been trying to read up on everything I can to educate myself. This is a great thread! I wish I had seen it before I had bought on ebay.

I just wanted to add that seller disney.crazy is selling scrappers. We bought two lots from her and some were obvious scrappers based on poor quality, while others looked legit, but after looking them up on pinpics, are also known counterfeits.

Also, I did not buy from coolstuff2005, but just looking at this pin (sailor Chip shown with teeth), shows that he is selling counterfeits. Pinpics specifies that that particular pin (Chip with teeth versus without) is a fake. http://www.ebay.com/itm/DISNEY-CUTIE...item1c2d5336eb I wanted to get his name added to the list.

Thanks!

I just purchased two sets from themuchnessofdisney and was happy to find her listed on the good sellers list. I don't have them yet, but am very excited to receive them.

[SupernaturalMommy]

Originally Posted by Ashlotte

Hi,

Also, I did not buy from koolstuff2005, but just looking at this pin (sailor Chip shown with teeth), shows that he is selling counterfeits. Pinpics specifies that that particular pin (Chip with teeth versus without) is a fake. http://www.ebay.com/itm/DISNEY-CUTIE...item1c2d5336eb I wanted to get his name added to the list.

I've had multiple bad experiences with them :-( They are on my bad list...

I'm on my way to Disney in 2 days for a 9 day cruise/park trip. Have lots of pins to trade!!! Thanks to this thread I found some great sellers, and posted about some not so great...

Be careful everyone. The Black Friday deals ebay is trying to get sellers to push could get you a lot of icky pins if you aren't careful.

[The Fox Menagerie]

Have fun on your trip Mommy! And thanks for all of your updates on pin sellers, we've been able to pick up lots of pins for our trip next year from your suggestions.

[Avojeo]

Hello!!

Has anyone bought from zayleigh797? I looked at her feedback and no one was discussing scrappers? If anyone has and had scrappers please let me know!!

Thanks

[SupernaturalMommy]

Originally Posted by The Fox Menagerie

Have fun on your trip Mommy! And thanks for all of your updates on pin sellers, we've been able to pick up lots of pins for our trip next year from your suggestions.

Glad to help. Leaving tomorrow...

[maburke]

Originally Posted by Avojeo

Hello!!

Has anyone bought from zayleigh797? I looked at her feedback and no one was discussing scrappers? If anyone has and had scrappers please let me know!!

Thanks

No firm evidence, but with Buy it Now prices this low, it sets off alarm bells for me. Also, people buying two lots describe getting exactly the same pins in both. That's a a sign of buying cheap imitations in bulk & then splitting them up. Also, the description reads "100% trade able" nothing about authentic or genuine.

I'd stay away.

[SupernaturalMommy]

Was just trading in the gift shop at Old Key West and they have a life preserver of pins. They just came out with bags of fresh legit Disney pins and I asked why they were replacing so many pins and they said they were getting rid of all the pins they think are fake!!! (Right after I got what I think is a fake pin... drats!)

[scrapbunny]

Wow! I know pin trading will be fun but getting the pins to start is going to be hard! After bidding on a few lots today before I started searching the newer posts I'm glad I didn't win any. I found a seller selling "authentic" pins where you get what is pictured and they seem good. The seller is cuquicollectables. Anyone know if this is a good seller? I did a search of the thread but didn't find anything.

[Holeshot1982]

Hey guys, need help checking out a couple of sellers... Tried to search this thread but came up empty....

I've just started collecting the 100 years of dreams series and there's 2 sellers it looks like I'll be doing a lot of business with.... hopefully... Of course both have great feedback with high numbers.....

auctionmst - Store - The Pins that Mickey Built

dreamsworldwide - Store - Dreams Online

dreamsworldwide concerns me the most, all the pines are new in the package and a lot of them the sellers to have multiple.... Anyone have any experience with either one of these sellers?

[The Wise One]

I bought about 50 pins this past week, not all have come in yet but here are some reviews:

stitchsglitch: Awesome seller! Got a GREAT price on the Princess Crest mystery pins and the Heroes/Villains packs. Came sealed with the Disney price sticker still on them. I'm actually ordering two more packs from her today. She also upgraded me to priority shipping for free.

cosmogheetuffy: Also a great seller! Got some awesome pins new on the card. Totally authentic.

zayleigh797: on a whim I bought a random lot of 25. I got a mix of authentic and scrappers. I guess it's to be expected for $14. I'll just use the scrappers in my scrapbook for decoration.

joeandbecca1224: Got a great authentic pin at an awesome price! Reasonable shipping costs.

gyantzpod: Got a wonderful Belle pin new on the card at a great price. Always a great seller.

123goinggoinggone : I honestly can't tell if this pin is authentic or not. It LOOKS good, but there are mixed reviews on Ebay about this seller, and I got it pretty cheap.


midnight-trader : another one that I just can't tell if it's real or not. I *think* it's authentic, it's heavy and has all the right markings and looks good. But again, I got a REALLY good price for it too.

[RCEliot]

Does anyone have experience with Disneyatmidnight1? I thought their sales looked pretty good, but then again they're only asking $1 per pin as starting price. FB says they're slow at shipping, but nothing about scrappers.

Also, I ordered some lots from Domimgood and main.street.mania. I know there's posts from the past about Domimgood but the pins I ordered from him are just for my personal Disney stuff. I have a huge collection of really random Disney things that is in a closet in my room. I'm going to stick the scrappers on the corkboard in there because why not.

The ones from main.street.mania I'm not so sure about. People are saying they got some scrappers, people are saying they got a bunch that were messed up, and people who say they've been traders for awhile are pleased and had "a few scrappers" here and there. I don't know what to think about these.

I assume my best bet would be, after getting the pins in the mail, to check them online and compare to the images there, and then the ones I'm unsure about take to Disney when I go next year.

Oh well. I'm just starting out as a trader (mainly just to try and get Disney stuff for my collection, though) so I'm struggling to figure out this stuff and get into forums like this and learn good from bad pins/sellers.

Thanks for this thread. Already helped me cut out some things I was looking at bidding on.

[SupernaturalMommy]

Originally Posted by scrapbunny

Wow! I know pin trading will be fun but getting the pins to start is going to be hard! After bidding on a few lots today before I started searching the newer posts I'm glad I didn't win any. I found a seller selling "authentic" pins where you get what is pictured and they seem good. The seller is cuquicollectables. Anyone know if this is a good seller? I did a search of the thread but didn't find anything.

I just bought 6 sets of the "what you see is what you get" auctions from this seller. Some of the auctions said authentic, some did not. I was hoping they were just trying to switch up their titles a bit. But, a few of the ones I got were certainly scrappers... one had a really horribly done backstamp on it that was pushed so deep into the pin it looked like it was almost to the surface of the pin. A few had HORRIBLE brush strokes in them. One of the pins had a border around the Mickey ears on the back. I know that is not a tried and true way to tell, because I did get a pin direct from Disney that had that, but in general they say it is a bad sign. Plus, as mentioned in the past, I am anal about shipping and packaging. They sent me an invoice for $18.99 for combined shipping. The tracking number they uploaded to ebay was bogus... it still never even shows as scanned in much less delivered, and that is because the package I got in the mail had no tracking on it at all. They threw the pins into some random box from some small electronics they had around the house, wrapped it with a piece of computer paper that had the shipping information hand written on it, and sent it out. They made a fair profit on the shipping.

Bought a bunch of random stuff from gama6252 and was very happy with it. Well packaged. Came in the Disney shopping bag (as well as being well packaged) and all came new on cards.