Help with possible Little Mermaid counterfeit

[JAllenWood]

First off, do any of you have this pin:

Pin 48748: Little Mermaid - Ariel Shell Border with Flounder

I purchased one via the bay and I'm thinking it's a counterfeit. The one area that makes me think this is Flounder's eyes. In the above picture from pinpics, they appear to be filled in with white enamel. On the one I received the eyes are made up of the base metal. Every thing else on the pin looks like it should (at least to my eyes anyways). For those out there with a legit pin, can you verify that his eyes are white or metal?

Also, do any of you know of any counterfeits in circulation of this pin:

Pin 23942: Princess Swirl Series (Ariel)

If so, do you know of any telltale signs of a fake?

Gosh, these counterfeiters are really making it tough to collect nowadays.

Any help with either of the above is greatly appreciated!

Jesse

 

[dmoney79]

i have the first pin listed...i'll look when i get home...i know mine is legit because my sister bought it for me when she went to wdw a couple of years ago

you can see it up at the top of the lanyarnd on the right there....

 

[JAllenWood]

Yes, please let me know. Thanks, Danielle!

 

[erudolf]

You might just have a damaged pin of the first one. The enamel could have just fallen out. I've had it happen with pins before.

 

[flaneur]

Flounder pin purchased at WDW in October 2009. I just pulled it out to check, and it has dull metal eyes -- not white. Hope that helps.

 

[JAllenWood]

Thanks for your responses everyone.

Michael, thanks for posting the pics of your pin. Does your pin match mine?

Also, the pin is not damaged. There is no indention in the metal for the eye for any enamel to go. I took some pics of the pin:


Notice Flounder's eyes. They are just solid metal. Here is a close-up:


And the back:


Those of you that have this pin, does this look legit to you?

Jesse

 

[hopemax]

I don't have this pin, so I can't really compare. But if the only thing that has you questioning is the eyes, it is probably ok. The Pinpics description says this pin was released with either a 2006 or 2007 backstamp, so they had to have had at least 2 batch runs. And if flaneaur bought it in 2009, there was probably a 3rd run, maybe even more. Maybe the 2006 version has white, and the later versions do not. Usually, with the counterfeits while there might be one super obvious thing you can point to and check (like a wrong color, metal not punched out, wrong backstamp), once you have figured out it's a bad pin, you can look at the pin again, and notice the more subtle differences like the thinner metal, lack of a shine, roughness, fuzzy fonts.

And the counterfeiters stay away from pins with "features" pin-on-pin, dangles, etc. I don't know if the glitter and the swirly stuff is enough of a more expensive feature that they would stay away from or not.

 

[JAllenWood]

Thanks again for everyone's help. I'm starting to think it's safe to consider this a legit pin. Thankfully! :hs:

 

[flaneur]

Michael, thanks for posting the pics of your pin. Does your pin match mine?

I will have to check the back again, but the front matches. I really need to upgrade my phone, camera is awful.

 

[opaleyes]

Just another chiming in. I have this pin with the 2007 back stamp and Flounder's eyes are filled in. I didn't buy it direct from Disney, but it came with it's original backer card.

 

[JAllenWood]

Just another chiming in. I have this pin with the 2007 back stamp and Flounder's eyes are filled in. I didn't buy it direct from Disney, but it came with it's original backer card.

That seems to be the consensus among those that have the legitimate pin. It's weird how the pinpics photo shows white enamel in the eyes. Ah well, who knows where that pic came from? :dunno:

Thanks for chiming in!

 

[Ferret]

just thought id share pics of a pin i traded for in the parks this week but i dont remember if it was a guest or cast i traded with sorry just my 2 cents:wavey:

 

[eyhahndisney]

OK -- daughter

 

[JAllenWood]

just thought id share pics of a pin i traded for in the parks this week but i dont remember if it was a guest or cast i traded with sorry just my 2 cents:wavey:

Oh wow...interesting. So, on your pin the eyes are filled in. Also, you have one post and the one I have has two. I think the dates are the key here though. Yours is 2006 and mine is 2007. I guess they did change the design on the later pins. This is really helpful. Thanks for sharing the pics!

 

[walrus]

We know in the same year they will change slightly designs, colors , manufacturers, number of Nubs, location of pin/ nubs.
So Little things like that are not always the indicator.
heck we stood there at wdw looking at pins on the rack and found Le tink pins that were mispainted and should have been scrapped! side by side on their shiny new cards.

 

[JAllenWood]

We know in the same year they will change slightly designs, colors , manufacturers, number of Nubs, location of pin/ nubs.
So Little things like that are not always the indicator.
heck we stood there at wdw looking at pins on the rack and found Le tink pins that were mispainted and should have been scrapped! side by side on their shiny new cards.

Wow. Yay, Quality Control, eh?

 

[Geoff]

Just my two cents; after reading this post, I took a look at the rack in Little Green Men at DLR Anaheim tonight for you (I meant to check like a month ago but forgot). All the ones for sale in the actual store had filled in, all metal eyes. I own one myself that I bought off the rack in the same place and his eyes are not filled in but mine is older. I know I might be bringing old info to the table, but it might help you feel just a little better.

 

[rubyslipperedgoddess]

I'd like to remind everyone too that sometimes the pictures on pinpics are artist's renderings and not the actual pin and sometimes they are pictures of prototypes and once put into production for us to buy they change slightly. Just things to remember when comparing actual pins to pinpics pictures.