Pin trading - getting trader pins before arriving

[scubamouse]

Who have people been using to get good trading pins lately? I think I used pinfinder or pinseller before but it's been a few years. Are either of them still good options or is there anyone on ebay that's also really good?

Thanks

 

[Cherinva]

I've purchased mine from EBay....do be careful to check out the seller. I know a lot of people frown on EBay because you can get a lot of people selling scrappers...but for me, I don't trade for monitary value, I trade for the fun of it...I've been very lucky that I've gotten "real" pins.....

 

[Missytara]

We had a five year old go with us last year and got a ton off of E-bay. They were all in excellent condition.

A little tip too; we got her dress for Cinderella for the BBB off E-Bay as weel, and the quality was better than the ones at the Disney Store and much cheaper.

 

[scubamouse]

Do you have ebay sellers you recommend or do you just scour the reviews? We've always gotten excellent pins from pinseller or pinfinder but the prices seem to be higher than I recall

 

[KJay]

Use this thread on the collector's forum to find reputable sellers who don't deal in scrappers:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2213419

I recently bought a bunch to use for trading on an upcoming trip. I searched ebay for "disney pin booster sets", found a bunch I liked, then compared that list to the safe sellers list. I found several safe sellers w/ great deals on pin sets, and bought only from them...

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

while you shouldn't buy from scrappers nowadays with the upswing of people buying huge lots online and trading them in the parks a good chunk of the pins CM's have on thier lanyards now are scrappers. I always buy my pin at Disneystores but am sick of seeing my kids trade time and time again and come away with scrappers 15 pins each for our kids last trip they traded almost all of them and ended up with over 50% scrappers so it seems the fight is almost useless anymore. So while I'll technically say avoid the scrappers I wouldn't put alot of research into finding real deal valid pins if you are just going to trade them anyway.

 

[LovinPooh]

there are a bunch of bad sellers on there...but there are some really great sellers too. Just gotta read the feedback. I have bought from a few people that just seem to be selling their personal pins they dont want anymore.
And the link to see who is good and who isnt is awesome. I have used it plenty.

 

[scubamouse]

I'll check the thread next but how do you tell what scrappers are on CM lanyards? Do they keep them on the lanyards and then let kids trade them?

 

[Reddog1134]

I'll check the thread next but how do you tell what scrappers are on CM lanyards? Do they keep them on the lanyards and then let kids trade them?

Sometimes it's obvious. I've seen a pin that said "Lanp" instead of "Lamp" and Pooh with a red arm.

Sometimes it's not so obvious. I've seen pins with rough edges and pattern details on the back that were off center.

Other times you really can't distinguish between a real and a scrapper because they are made by the same manufacturers. The (non-physical) difference is that they are made above and beyond what Disney has ordered in an attempt to make money in the gray market. These "extras" lack quality control and sometimes use inferior materials.

 

[skullsplitter]

while you shouldn't buy from scrappers nowadays with the upswing of people buying huge lots online and trading them in the parks a good chunk of the pins CM's have on thier lanyards now are scrappers. I always buy my pin at Disneystores but am sick of seeing my kids trade time and time again and come away with scrappers 15 pins each for our kids last trip they traded almost all of them and ended up with over 50% scrappers so it seems the fight is almost useless anymore. So while I'll technically say avoid the scrappers I wouldn't put alot of research into finding real deal valid pins if you are just going to trade them anyway.

To yur point it's gotten so bad that at least one good ebay dealer has stopped selling. I've bought from her on past trips. For our trip this year I notcied she was not offering pins. I emailed her about that and her response was that it is getting too hard to find legit pins at DL to trade for so she has stopped selling pins on ebay.

 

[Svenskaishockey]

We got a bunch at disney store outlet for $1.99 each. They were red and yellow priced pins if i remember correctly

 

[Dorisk3]

while you shouldn't buy from scrappers nowadays with the upswing of people buying huge lots online and trading them in the parks a good chunk of the pins CM's have on thier lanyards now are scrappers. I always buy my pin at Disneystores but am sick of seeing my kids trade time and time again and come away with scrappers 15 pins each for our kids last trip they traded almost all of them and ended up with over 50% scrappers so it seems the fight is almost useless anymore. So while I'll technically say avoid the scrappers I wouldn't put alot of research into finding real deal valid pins if you are just going to trade them anyway.

I was going to say this as well. Most of the pins will be from ebay anyway, there is no need to tear out your hair finding so called legitimate pins when all you'll get in return are the ebay ones anyway.

 

[jlevis]

while you shouldn't buy from scrappers nowadays with the upswing of people buying huge lots online and trading them in the parks a good chunk of the pins CM's have on thier lanyards now are scrappers. I always buy my pin at Disneystores but am sick of seeing my kids trade time and time again and come away with scrappers 15 pins each for our kids last trip they traded almost all of them and ended up with over 50% scrappers so it seems the fight is almost useless anymore. So while I'll technically say avoid the scrappers I wouldn't put alot of research into finding real deal valid pins if you are just going to trade them anyway.

Which is why I won't trade. As a pp said, I'm not in it for monetary value either. However, I do want a nice collection of legitimate Disney pins. If all I wanted was junk then I'd just buy off of ebay.

 

[Bettie]

I hate it, but I have also decided to stop tearing my hair out and spending lots of $$$ per pin when my kids are just going to trade for whatever CM pins thy see that they like. It would be different if I felt like I was responsible for introducing a bunch of fraudulent pins into the market; the reality is that the market is already saturated with fraudulent pins. Disney could crack down on it if they wanted to, but they don't, so I'm going to stop wasting my money on pins for trading when I just get scrappers for my trouble.