Good/Bad Internet and eBay Pin Sellers

[MountNittany]

Posting to link in OP
Fantasy pins are described below from Dizpins

Originally Posted by Dizpins

Q: What is a fantasy pin?

A: A fantasy pin is different from a bootleg pin. A fantasy pin hints at a Disney character or theme, but does not infringe on Disney copyrights. You will not see faces or read copyrighted Disney wording or fonts on fantasy pins. They are made with the love of Disney in mind, but are not illegal. Fantasy (Unauthorized) pins are not to be traded or sold on Dizpins. Please see the following links for pictures and information on fantasy pins:

[mhalpern]

First let me say thank you to those of you who have commented on this post and who are trying to educate us amateur pin collectors. That said I have to agree with the saying Ignorance is Bliss! I want to go back to the days of believing that everyone on ebay is honest and if you get a good deal it is because you are lucky!!

Of course I ordered from a few of your not recommended ebayers before I discovered this post. I order a somewhat expensive pin from nannub. I was happy because it was one I had my eye on and the starting bid was much cheaper than others who were selling the same pin. After reading this post I compared the pin to the pinpics description and it seems to match it completely. I also bought a small lot from theatreandfilms. I paid $21.50 and free shipping for 20 pins. The little voice in my head said this is too good to be true. Again after reading this post I went back and with my untrained eye examined all the pins I got from that auction. I didn't see anything on the front or back to make me even remotely suspicious.

I don't want to inadvertently support those who are circumventing the system but it's so hard to know who to trust. Based on my personal experience I wouldn't know that the two I mentioned are ones to be weary of.

[pixiewings71]

Originally Posted by MountNittany

Posting to link in OP
Fantasy pins are described below from Dizpins

Well my Meg fantasy pin has Meg's face but it's not a Disney pin, no copyright and her hair is hot pink. LOL But it does show her full face.......

Originally Posted by mhalpern

First let me say thank you to those of you who have commented on this post and who are trying to educate us amateur pin collectors. That said I have to agree with the saying Ignorance is Bliss! I want to go back to the days of believing that everyone on ebay is honest and if you get a good deal it is because you are lucky!!

Of course I ordered from a few of your not recommended ebayers before I discovered this post. I order a somewhat expensive pin from nannub. I was happy because it was one I had my eye on and the starting bid was much cheaper than others who were selling the same pin. After reading this post I compared the pin to the pinpics description and it seems to match it completely. I also bought a small lot from theatreandfilms. I paid $21.50 and free shipping for 20 pins. The little voice in my head said this is too good to be true. Again after reading this post I went back and with my untrained eye examined all the pins I got from that auction. I didn't see anything on the front or back to make me even remotely suspicious.

I don't want to inadvertently support those who are circumventing the system but it's so hard to know who to trust. Based on my personal experience I wouldn't know that the two I mentioned are ones to be weary of.

Did you read why we put Nannub on the bad list? It's not because he is selling bad pins, you probably got a pin that's absolutely real, BUT he's on the list because he trades scrappers to newbies and tells those newbies to buy $$$ LE's in the store so he can sell them.....
As for theatreandfilms they have all the red flags.....large lots at starting bids of .99 cents, no pictures of the actual pins you're getting.......almost 2 full pages of just pins, all in lots of 20 & 30.....just not right to me......but I've never used them so I can't say for sure.

[pixiewings71]

Just a bump

[ariel71]

Hi all,

I swear I'm not a troll... I just generally lurk since most of my questions about my upcoming May trip (first since '96!) can be answered with a little searching.

I had some misgivings about buying from Mouse Pins Online since they had some of the red flags listed in the first post. However, they were also listed as a "green" seller, so I took a chance. I will admit I'm new to pin trading, but after comparing the pins I received to pinpics, I don't believe they're authentic pins. Two of the pins I received had the exact bootleg characteristics identified by pinpics, most of the others had the disclaimer that the pins were known scrappers, and all came in the little plastic bags that I now know is another red flag. Although they still meet the trading qualifications (metal, (C) Disney mark, etc), I would recommend at least changing that seller to yellow.

[pixiewings71]

Thanks for your feedback Ariel. I haven't used MPO for quite some time now. I've heard others say that they feel the pins from MPO are scrappers too, they might be, it's hard to know for sure. If you're truly unhappy with them contact MPO (I think his name was Peter but I may be wrong) and let him you're not happy and see if he'll take them back.

[MountNittany]

Should I change MPO to orange or keep it green?

[pixiewings71]

Maybe change it and link to Ariel's post.

[mommyintn]

Originally Posted by ariel71

Hi all,

I swear I'm not a troll... I just generally lurk since most of my questions about my upcoming May trip (first since '96!) can be answered with a little searching.

I had some misgivings about buying from Mouse Pins Online since they had some of the red flags listed in the first post. However, they were also listed as a "green" seller, so I took a chance. I will admit I'm new to pin trading, but after comparing the pins I received to pinpics, I don't believe they're authentic pins. Two of the pins I received had the exact bootleg characteristics identified by pinpics, most of the others had the disclaimer that the pins were known scrappers, and all came in the little plastic bags that I now know is another red flag. Although they still meet the trading qualifications (metal, (C) Disney mark, etc), I would recommend at least changing that seller to yellow.

Great, I just ordered to 5 pin grab bags from Mouse Pins Online. I guess I should've looked at the last page of this thread before doing so. I just checked the first page because I was thinking of buying from someone on ebay but they were listed as red. Hoping for the best here!

[jubilli]

I recently made several purchase of pins on ebay and had some names to add/comment on...

I purchased a Hidden Mickey Sebastian (2009) pin from disneypinpros and it is definitely a scrapper. It has scratches all over the front going in the same direction, the front is not shiny,the silver linework is obviously thicker than normal and it just looks horrible in general. I compared it to another scrapper that I got from trading and it's pretty similar. He is insisting that he received it from a cast member through trading, but I hardly believe that unless it was previously purchased off of ebay and then traded. I'm not entirely sure what feedback to leave for this seller because he does offer refunds if not satisfied, but it's not really worth it when I have to pay for shipping back.

I purchased 4 of the other Hidden Mickey pins from that Little Mermaid set and a Princess Puzzle piece pin from tjtreasures2006 and these look wonderful, I can tell that they are authentic. I would recommend buying from this seller if you are in the market for pins.

I also purchased single pins from sleepys_emporium and fox_trading_co and both were great transactions.

[Anjelica]

Originally Posted by jubilli

I recently made several purchase of pins on ebay and had some names to add/comment on...

I purchased a Hidden Mickey Sebastian (2009) pin from disneypinpros and it is definitely a scrapper. It has scratches all over the front going in the same direction, the front is not shiny,the silver linework is obviously thicker than normal and it just looks horrible in general. I compared it to another scrapper that I got from trading and it's pretty similar. He is insisting that he received it from a cast member through trading, but I hardly believe that unless it was previously purchased off of ebay and then traded. I'm not entirely sure what feedback to leave for this seller because he does offer refunds if not satisfied, but it's not really worth it when I have to pay for shipping back.

I purchased 4 of the other Hidden Mickey pins from that Little Mermaid set and a Princess Puzzle piece pin from tjtreasures2006 and these look wonderful, I can tell that they are authentic. I would recommend buying from this seller if you are in the market for pins.

I also purchased single pins from sleepys_emporium and fox_trading_co and both were great transactions.

Did it come in a little "baggie" with the staple?

[jubilli]

Originally Posted by Anjelica

Did it come in a little "baggie" with the staple?

Actually it didn't, but I could just tell that it was horrible quality. Compared to the rest of the pins from that set, there is a definite difference.

[ariel71]

Originally Posted by mommyintn

Great, I just ordered to 5 pin grab bags from Mouse Pins Online. I guess I should've looked at the last page of this thread before doing so. I just checked the first page because I was thinking of buying from someone on ebay but they were listed as red. Hoping for the best here!

I did the same, and they had positive comments on other threads as well. It was only after I had the pins in hand that the red flags were obvious. I'm aware of the ongoing ethical debate threads regarding scrappers. I wanted authentic/legal pins, not just "tradable", but that's a personal decision. I only wanted to caution others about my findings in the interest of full disclosure. Hope you have better luck.

[ilovetivo]

So I've been reading for hours & hours about pins.

I'm hoping to keep DD (5) from being interested in the pin trading on our 1st WDW trip. (I'm sure it's fun, it's just the time and expense and energy that concerns me).

Will people or CM's automatically approach her if she's not wearing a lanyard? Can I avoid her noticing what's going on w/ the trading CM's?

If I don't pre-buy anything, and dd's really feeling left out, are the starter sets on disneystore.com the same price at WDW? Like this one http://www.disneystore.com/parks-pin...1254747/14717/

However, if I buy the princess starter set, she's not going to want to trade those pins

If I want to get just a handful of pins before we go, but I want to spend the least amount possible, what should I do? What's the minimum I can get away with? (Disneystore.com - cutie 7pc sets for $30?)

Honestly, we really don't care about the quality or being a "collector". It'd just be for DD to get some she likes. But I don't want to buy fakes on ebay to trade and put them in circulation. I'm also assuming the cm's notice most fakes and won't trade for them.

Thanks so much!! It's really all so confusing.

ETA: Before reading here, I almost bought from ebay dopeyspins. I didn't find info about them searching here, but now I think they're scrappers, per the posts I've read about how to ID a scrapper. Then I almost bought from MPO, until reading the recent posts.

ETA #2 - how often does disneystore.com or their outlet have new inexpensive sets or sales? What's the lowest per item they do?

Thx again!

[jubilli]

Originally Posted by ilovetivo

Will people or CM's automatically approach her if she's not wearing a lanyard? Can I avoid her noticing what's going on w/ the trading CM's?

...

ETA: Before reading here, I almost bought from ebay dopeyspins. I didn't find info about them searching here, but now I think they're scrappers, per the posts I've read about how to ID a scrapper. Then I almost bought from MPO, until reading the recent posts.

As a current seasonal Merchandise CM, I can tell you that CMs generally don't approach guests regarding trading, unless we can see that they are looking for pin lanyards to trade with us. Pins are everywhere all over the parks and most of the merchandise CMs do where them, so if your daughter will be in the shops a whole lot, she'll probably see it happening but it could just seem like a thing that goes along with the atmosphere. It's way less prominent in the lines for attractions and food locations.

And as for dopeyspins, I would say do not buy, unless you want scrappers that you'll want to trade. As far as scrappers go, it's a circle of doom, because they get traded to the CMs and then the guests trade to unknowingly get the scrappers. This ebay seller recently changed their username too, so that is suspect. They were selling as tradepinsforyou which is a name in the red on this thread, I believe.

Hope that helps you in your decision about pin trading!