Pin Trading

[MJCota]

So I decided to save money on the pins, since I know my son will want to trade, was to buy them off ebay. I got my first package yesterday and they are so cute!! I made sure they were authentic and only bought from the US. We get our 2nd package I just bought this week. We will have 65 pins to share between the three of us. My husband already took out ones he doesn't want to trade. I find it funny and adorable how excited he got over the Dumbo pin. It's his favorite Disney movie. Hm..I wonder if he'll ride dumbo alone...

So..anyone else do this too? I ended up paying around .45 cent per pin in the end! Great deal.

 

[NormC]

I buy ebay traders before every trip. As long as you have the Mickey backs and the Disney stamp on the back you are good. Take them out of the little individual baggies.

 

[dreamfinder]

They all have the Disney World authenticity on the back. I sure hope they are real, is there a way to tell?

The backstamp is meaningless. Just like how you can walk through parts of larger cities and be offered "authentic" Coach purses for a fraction of what the real ones retail for that have the right tags and logos and everything. Odds are if you paid less than $3 per pin, they are scrappers/fake. Or if they came in little baggies, or if the seller offers dozens of lots of cheap pins, or says that the pins may not match the picture, those are all giveways for scrapper/fake pins. There are usually clues to if they are scrappers/fake. The pins weight a little less than the real ones, still have flashing on the edges, paint isn't clear/right color, etc. Unless you handle lots of pins or compare it to one bought directly from a rack at Disney, you may not be able to tell.

Thank you NormC! I was nervous that they wouldn't be tradable

As long as the pin meets the guidelines posted above, it's technically tradable. However, whether you should or not is a decision that you need to make yourself. Keep in mind that many of the pins on the lanyards came from the same exact places. So when you start seeing every lanyard with some of the same pins, well that's probably what the wholesalers in China were selling for the last few months.