Where to pin trade?

Tori H.

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Hi, guys, I'm new to pin trading. I started my collection when I went to Disney World in January and traded with a bunch of cast members while there. Unfortunately only recently did I discover that many of the pins I traded for were fake and now I'm out a bit of money :(

I didn't realize how many fake pins are floating around the parks and online and there are a lot of older pin sets I'm interested in but now I do know where to get them if I can't get them online and I can't trust the cast members to have real pins, either...
 
Hey Tori!

Im not an expert on pin trading or anything but have a few tips! I am not local to any parks, and many locals might have better advice since they trade more often. I, like you, went through my scrapper phase when first starting out trading. One of the resources that I found to be very helpful is PinPics.com, they will have scrapper notes on particular pins that you are questioning if you are looking at an eBay listing for a particular pin.

Also, if you are on Facebook there are MANY groups that sell and trade pins via USPS. Looking at eBay sellers rating and buyers comments will help you to weed out the bad sellers, as well as asking FB groups for info on particular sellers or for their recommendations. If you are looking for older sets, hidden Mickey ones, there will always be the chance that you might get a fake. Looking through as many listings for pins as you can, comparing the seller reviews and even asking for close ups of backs and fronts from buyers and then comparing them to the PinPics pictures/descriptions will help too. Look for misspellings on the back of pins and rough edges. In the end you may never know if it is authentic unless you purchase the pin directly from Disney.

Trading in the parks takes experience and luck! (And time and money) You will soon be able to spot a scrapper from a mile away (the really bad ones! lol) Keep at it! You'll soon be a full on addict like the rest of us!
 
I am sorry to say this, but scrappers are pretty common and it's very hard to avoid getting scrappers if you trade or even purchase pins via third-party sellers. We used to have a thread here with a listing of good and bad eBay sellers, but it has kind of died down because of some pretty mean-spirit conversations. Part of the problem is that it can be very hard to identify a scrapper. Some are pretty obvious (e.g., Ariel with brown hair or Belle's ballgown is green), but others can be virtually impossible to tell unless you had a real pin side-by-side. In terms of the older CM sets (e.g., Hidden Mickey's), at this point, there is no way to really know if you're getting a legit pin or a scrapper (I'd guess more than likely, it's a scrapper).
 



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