Scrappers on Ebay

[Kitty]

So I was on ebay looking at pins, and I have to ask, how can you tell? I saw a bunch of WDI pins for bid for less then 10 dollars, which card backs. I know you can buy card backs and just fake them, but how do you know if they are fake? Like is there a world were people are actually selling them for penny's? Are the pins just not that popular?

 

[*Firefly*]

Your first question about how to tell: Look at the seller's info! If they sell thousands or tens of thousands of pins, and have multiple negative reviews sighting fake or scrapper pins, and they are not located near DLR or WDW, or any combination of those three red flags, it's probably too good to be true! Another sign is not posting pictures of the backs of the pins. There is no sure fire way to know for sure if the pin is real but there are ways to limit your risk.

Your second question: Yes, the scrapper sellers! They pay pennies for them from the factories in China.

Your third question: Sometimes, everyone has different tastes so some themes, characters or properties just aren't very popular.

 

[hopemax]

Also, is their feedback private. Is their location Hong Kong or China and they are selling US Based pins. Another thing is that a lot of the scrap/overruns are missing the inventory control number that is stamped on the back of the officially released pins. These are the numbers stamped or etched onto the back of the pins that start with P or FAC.

There is a list of bad sellers that floats around Facebook, so I think most of us know the "worst of the worst" just based on the seller name now. Although, some people buy from those guys and then resell, and it's harder to build a list of who those people are. But once you know a few of the worst, you can look at what they are selling, then if you look at a different seller and see the same mix of pins then you know those are bad.

 

[ArttheAnimator]

Based on personal experience, anyone selling more than just single pins seems to be dubious. They constantly describe them as 'tradeable' rather than authentic - and claim they got them in the parks, only to later say they had a 'supplier', as I found when complaining to a seller. I had just got into pin collecting and wanted some fun surprise pins, was a real waste of money. I kept them rather than sending them back though, in case they resold them on, and just gave them ratty feedback. The bad sellers don't always have bad feedback - they can get rid of most ratty feedback under the pretense that it could be resolved and offer a refund, only to resell the same dodgy goods to someone else. Also their email went from being well written to dodgy, broken english.

I'd just avoid ebay entirely unless you are buying one specific pin, imo. A trader or seller really doesnt need ebay to reach their audiences.