• Guest, Help The DPF Community Thrive - Join Our Donation Drive Today!

    We're launching a special DPF Donation Drive to ensure our beloved forum continues to flourish. Your support is vital in helping us cover essential server costs and keep our community running smoothly — This is more than just a donation; it's an investment in the future of our community.

    Join us in this crucial drive and let's ensure our forum remains a vibrant and dynamic place for everyone.

    Please visit the DPF Donation Drive Thread for details and instructions on how you can make your donation today!

New collector - totally demoralized

Status
Not open for further replies.
New collector - totally demoralized
A

Agogley

New DPF Member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Messages
40
I really just started getting into collecting, mostly for my kids. I found this site when I was looking up pins. After seeing all the scrappers and fakes, I knew I traded for many. In fact, on my latest trip I started wondering why so many of the same pin looked completely different. Now I know. I'm fairly upset and will probably stick to buying pins for my kids. I'll have some they can trade for fun, but no way am I making this into a hobby.

Honestly, I can't tell if some are scrappers or not. The total fakes are a little easier with the borders. But I'm totally demoralized!
 
Welcome to the forum !
But I would say - don't be demoralized over scrappers !!
I know that it seems really scary, and like you're never going to have good 'non counterfeit' pins, but all of that is rubbish !
I think that trading with cast members, if you've seen the pin a lot that day just stay away from it if the quality looks off.
But trust me - we do have a lot of fun here and we meet lovely people and in the end we have beautiful pieces of metal to show for it ! Who cares really in the end, if one or two of your children's collection pins are scrappers, as long as they like them ! Please don't be discouraged :)
get to know us
 
I'm not so much concerned about the members here, who I will start to look at for trades. But obviousy, trading with a cast member is a 50/50 proposition even when you know what to look for.
 
Welcome to the newbie's let down - we've all gone through it. Please know that we've all felt what you're going through now, and though it may seem like a crapshoot when trading with CMs, sometimes, it's not always about the pins - but moreso the interactions and stories behind them. Some of my husband and I's favorite times to look back on are associated with scrapper pins, and the search to find the real deal, and the sometimes eventual "I don't friggen care anymore if it's a scrapper or not, so long as it looks alright!" just to finish off a set. (I realize some of those reading this will shudder in horror that I just admitted to that, but in reality, if we come across a scrapper version and a real pin version of the same pin - we'll put the scrapper in our collection, and retrade the real one. . we're not too picky about scrappers being in our collection - so long as it's not obviously horribly a scrapper pin. *commence shaming process here*)

All of that being said, it can be discouraging to know that the real pins you purchase will most likely result in scrappers from CMs - but this is where time invested in educating yourself about the basics and "give away clues" of scrappers comes in, as sometimes you can avoid them just by looking a lil more carefully at them. Give it time, any hobby has it's learning curve, as does this one. And in that time, not only will you learn more than you thought there'd be to pins, but will probably also make a few new friends who can help you along the way.

Welcome to the forum. . . And just remember - have fun, and ask yourself if at the end of the day, was it worth the smile you/the kids/the family had on their faces when they found a really neat pin, or one they had been searching for, or one they never knew they wanted. Chances are, it will be. :)
 
Agogley,

I started collecting 2006 and didn't educate myself until Aug this year:( But I moved on and put my scrappers in a hall of shame bag!!! Don't let it turn you off, there are alot of great people on DPF.
 
I'll definately give this forum a go and try to trade a few here. However, I don't think my overall collection strategy is going to change. I'm going to buy pins to commemorate certain things and tell a story. I'll let my kids trade for fun and will try to weed out scrappers/counterfeit. But otherwise, it seems that collection is too risky given the prevalence of fraud.

I appreciate the support and today I do feel much better about things.
 
New as well and am HORRIFIED at how many are sold on Ebay. I keep seeing certain sellers sell LE 250 pins. Repeatedly. *sigh* When I was entering my pins in PinPics, I found I had 3 scrappers. Ezra (HHG), Vincent (V), and Slave Minnie. All traded from Cast Member Lanyards...


Also demoralized at those who have taken advantage of my newness. I traded out really good pins (some LE 500's, some just really old and desirable) to some really unscrupulous traders.
 
Last edited:
I'm right there with you...having spent LOTS of money on pins since 2007 and not having a clue about scrappers, counterfeits, etc. I was one of the naive people that thought it would have to be legit if we traded with CMs. I'm afraid to look at our pins that we've traded for and figure out if they are real or not...and how do you tell a 7 year old that they aren't and she can't take them back to trade this time! :-(
 
Last edited:
Hi
If you all have Pinpics accts..please add to your profiles here on DPF!I welcome all of you here to DPF!I trade with newbies all the time
and I do not trade scrappers

Judy
 
Hello and welcome! And yeah... I went through the same disappointment with scrappers; discovered that nearly EVERYTHING I got from the park and from an ebay lot were scrappers. A whole huge lot of them were, anyway.

I'm heading to DLR in two weeks and I still intend to trade with cast members because it's fun; I just intend to look over each pin before I trade it. That probably means taking more time and making fewer trades, but I still like talking to people. :)
 
Hi, and welcome, I too had the newbie shock about scrappers, and thought about not getting into this, but love to collect. We are going to disney next week and are going to trade with CM for the fun of it, I have invested in pins that I am willing to trade with them and feel good about putting good pins into the system and hopefully I educated myself enough to spot some scrappers, but the pins we will collect on our trip will be for us and I know my son will love doing it and have great memories.
 
Hi, welcome! Same here. Started buying/trading in August and traded with cast members in London disney stores. Not a good experience. Scrappers all over the place. I have met and traded with some lovely people on here. It's a great hobby and part of the challenge is searching out those scrappers and getting a good trade. Don't give up!
 
Hi, I know what you mean. A couple of years ago, my dd(10y.o) and I went to DL and she loved pin trading. It was worth it for me to watch her face glow whenever she traded with others. We ended up in a shark's pit(I did not know that then) and I was disappointed how she was mistreated by others. I took her away and she continued to have a lot of fun trading. I found this site about a year later and now learned a whole lot more about pins. I do mostly buying and rarely trading due to the previous negative experience. This is a hobby and if you enjoy it, then it is worth it to deal with scrappers nuisance.
 
I think I more disappointed by the fact that I spent good money trading for counterfeit. I'm definately going to examine trades more closely and probably get even tighter on pins I collect, most of them coming from purchases I made myself.
 
CMR626 said:
Welcome to the newbie's let down - we've all gone through it. Please know that we've all felt what you're going through now, and though it may seem like a crapshoot when trading with CMs, sometimes, it's not always about the pins - but moreso the interactions and stories behind them. Some of my husband and I's favorite times to look back on are associated with scrapper pins, and the search to find the real deal, and the sometimes eventual "I don't friggen care anymore if it's a scrapper or not, so long as it looks alright!" just to finish off a set. (I realize some of those reading this will shudder in horror that I just admitted to that, but in reality, if we come across a scrapper version and a real pin version of the same pin - we'll put the scrapper in our collection, and retrade the real one. . we're not too picky about scrappers being in our collection - so long as it's not obviously horribly a scrapper pin. *commence shaming process here*)

All of that being said, it can be discouraging to know that the real pins you purchase will most likely result in scrappers from CMs - but this is where time invested in educating yourself about the basics and "give away clues" of scrappers comes in, as sometimes you can avoid them just by looking a lil more carefully at them. Give it time, any hobby has it's learning curve, as does this one. And in that time, not only will you learn more than you thought there'd be to pins, but will probably also make a few new friends who can help you along the way.

Welcome to the forum. . . And just remember - have fun, and ask yourself if at the end of the day, was it worth the smile you/the kids/the family had on their faces when they found a really neat pin, or one they had been searching for, or one they never knew they wanted. Chances are, it will be. :)
Click to expand...

I have to say I have been trading pins for a long time and this is the first time I have ever heard of scrappers( I only started educating myself about disney pin trading for a few weeks now), but to be honest I don't feel that picky about them. If I come across the real deal I might get it, but if not I won't be heartbroken. I have to agree with CMR626' attitude when it comes to having scrappers in the collection.

I'm more irritated by counterfits. I have actually found some and keep them rather than trade for them. I wouldn't want others to have to deal with them and I'm going to start taking pictures of them as a "counterfit refernce source" for others.
 
Agogley said:
I think I more disappointed by the fact that I spent good money trading for counterfeit. I'm definately going to examine trades more closely and probably get even tighter on pins I collect, most of them coming from purchases I made myself.
Click to expand...
I see your point and I think the same thing might have happened to us as well. Based on our past experience, this is what we plan to do. When we take pins to the parks, I buy grab bags from here since I know they are authentic. My dd does most of the trading and personally I don't expect to add much to my Tbell collection from the parks. I enjoy watching my dd trade and she loves doing it. Once we come back, she keeps most of the pins in her collection. What she does not want, I go through them and if any of them are fake, I dispose them. If they are real, we keep so that we can trade them in parks with our next visit.
 
We had the same thing happen to us. We raced around the park for weeks trying to complete our sets (hidden mickeys, because, "how cool, you can't buy them!"). Anyway, we (not our wallets) had a blast trading with Cast Members and then one day we were told about scrappers. We got the hang of it a little and to our knowledge (and what other people told us) we started to weed out possible fakes. Our sets turned out to be fake - but at the end of the day we didn't care. We cared about the memories it brought us AND how much fun we had. Yes, they're not authentic, but they're just going to sit on our very first lanyard to remember how much fun and happiness this hobby brought us. The best thing you can do now is move forward and learn. Learn what the signs of fake pins are (so that you trade for authentic pins) and not feel like you lost money on a fun hobby.

The best advice: If you're not sure it's real, don't trade with a Cast Member (OR a guest for that matter).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top