Sounds awesome! I'm going to get on eBay today and order a big lot! How many should I get to start? I know some of the lots on eBay ensure that they are authentic.
Unless you are paying several dollars per pin, odds are the lot isn't authentic. Even if they guarantee the pins are, or that they are tradable in the parks, most likely they are fakes/scrappers/counterfits whatevers. If it is a smaller lot where the pins pictured are the exact ones you will get, and it is a few dollars or more per pin, then they may be real. (From someone selling their collection or something similar) But these people that offer multiple lots of large quantities of pins are usually a dead give away that something isn't right.
We thought that all cast members wearing pins traded with kids. Until my 7 year old son asked to trade with one and she told him, "No, I already have one like you want to trade. You have to trade one I don't have it." When he told her that he wasn't interested in trading any of the others he had, she told him, "Well, you could go buy one I don't have, and then I'll trade with you." I was absolutely floored.
It may have not been the best way to tell your son, but they were correct. They are not supposed to have more than one of any given pin on their lanyard. Some will, but they aren't supposed to.
Good to know! I'll probably try this before my December trip! Is there any way to tell if they're authentic?
It depends on the pin. Check out PinPics.com to see perhaps the best known database on pins. Many times when people have confirmed that fakes/scrappers/counterfeits (referring to all 3 solely as fakes for ease of typing for the rest of this post) exist, they will post on there, normally with pictures and a description of why it is a fake. However, different factories produce the same pin (both legally and illegally) so there are going to be differences and just because it doesn't match a known fake, doesn't mean that it isn't. General rules of thumb to look for
1) The fake pins weigh less. Hard to be certain unless you have a scale and a known good pin, but after handling a bunch of good and bad ones, you will notice that some definitely are lighter
2) The fake pins are thinner. Once again, not the easiest to tell, but most likely they use less material (and a lighter material) to make the pins cheaper to produce.
3) The colors are off. Comparing to a known good pin, some are obviously wrong, others are things like Donald's beak being more a nuclear greeny yellow instead of the normal yellow.
4) The edges are messy. Most fakes will not properly trim the edges, You end up with bits of flash (like on cheap plastic toys) where it went over the mold a smidge. Also, pins that should have small cut outs (next to the thumbs on some of the vinylmation pins) are often not cut out.
5) The backstamp isn't correct. Sometimes they will have the completely wrong backstamp. IE A 2010 pin with a 2012 trading logo. Some pins were produced over multiple years, so variants exist, both others are blatantly wrong. Some pins have a backstamp pattern (usually Mickey heads). The fakes the heads will often not go all the way to the edge, or will be mishappen (Mickey's ears look more like balloons with a little stem connecting them to the head).
Once again, PinPics usually has a section on fakes and how to spot them, and often update their forums with known scrappers.
The fakes fall into multiple categories. Some are straight up fakes. Pins made of Disney things that Disney never actually made pins of. Logos taken from other merchandise is a common example. Or Disney characters doing things they shouldn't be. Scrappers are pins that were made as part of the run, but should have been scrapped. Either they weren't 100% up to standards, or the over run. Normally a factory will make say 550 of a LE 500 pin. That way if some come out wrong, they can still fulfill the order without having to run off just a few later on. So if any of those extra 50 end up not being needed, they are supposed to be destroyed, but often end up being "saved" from the factory and then sold on eBay. Counterfeits are just that. Some are made in unauthorized factories, others just in unauthorized runs. IE a manager has a 3rd shift come in and make pins when they were only supposed to have 2 shifts.
I love the whole idea of pin trading but I couldn't do it!
