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Cast member pin trading pins- what I learned

Cast member pin trading pins- what I learned
hopemax said:
Many of us follow a rule that if you get a fake on a CM lanyard, and you traded a real pin for it, don’t feel bad about putting it back on. Guests should not have to suffer the financial consequences of Disney’s inaction on counterfeit pins. The better rule is don’t add to the volume of fakes by adding pins that you might have gotten elsewhere that aren’t authentic.
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That makes sense! I think it also depends on the quality of the scrapper. Lots of guests would still be happy with that Pooh pin for example, and don’t really care whether or not they’re authentic. (Spoken from experience both as a trader and from those I trade with.) I myself have traded pins for scrappers since I thought they were cute or had characters I like)


But then there’s the vast majority of lanyard pins, the cheap junk that people buy online. Nobody wants those, and I’ve stopped trading those completely. I’ve been talking with guests and a lot of them admit to buying the online pins, though most of them don’t know they’re fake. I really wish Disney would step up their quality control though.
 
Hey y'all! I was checking my Star Wars pins (the ones I thought are part of the new Hidden Mickey series) and I'll be darned if that's not a big border on the back. Are these fake?

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TheMickeyMouseRules said:
Yes the last batch of legit hidden Mickey pins had boarders. I should post the backs of mine. This would be a good reference. Will try to do it soon.
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Oooh ok! I was super worried that a good chunk of my Star Wars pins were fake. That’s good to hear though! Let me know how nice you get the pics posted so I can compare!
 
Captain Fartbeard said:
Oooh ok! I was super worried that a good chunk of my Star Wars pins were fake. That’s good to hear though! Let me know how nice you get the pics posted so I can compare!
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I took a moment to add the Star Wars pictures first. Will work on others when I have moments.
disneypinforum.com

FYI Backside of Legit Pins: 2022 Hidden Disney Series - Star Wars

The quality control on the 2022 Hidden Disney Series pins was inadequate. As such the legit pins came out with borders on the backside. As an avid Hidden Mickey collector for the past 10 years I make it a point to search out Hidden Mickey's early in the release cycle. Well before there is any...
disneypinforum.com disneypinforum.com
 
Howdy y'all! I had a day off and thought it was going to be an ordinary trading day. Bought some traders from Cast connections, was gonna take a brief walk through Epcot on my way to the star attraction, Emporium at Magic Kingdom for some blitz style lanyard trading. However, it turns out I didn't even need to go to MK, as I stumbled upon a group of traders by Spaceship Earth, many of them with large collections of their own. I was able to make a whole bunch of epic trades, including some major dreamies! Here's the haul I got from the day's trading:

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Here's an up close photo of some of my favorite pins from the day, including some LE pins and one I'd been chasing after ever since I started trading! It's the Koda dancing bobblehead pin. I've seen the dancing character series available at cast connections, with every character available except for Koda. Hence I've been in search of him for a good while, and was super thrilled to land him today! It cost me my last new Stitch hidden mickey series pin, which also happened to be the last pin the other trader needed for their own collection. I'm also super thrilled to FINALLY have the sweet dreams Figaro in my possession! While not a rare pin I've been having "sweet dreams" of finding him. Added some more from that series as well.


I'm also super excited about the brother bear Wilderness lodge and St. Patrick's day pins, as both are LE pins with characters I absolutely adore (I've fallen more in love with Chip and Dale recently and I've always loved BB)



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Speaking of Brother Bear, I also got a couple pins I'm either not sure are real or couldn't find. Starting with this Koda K pin (I'm wondering if the letters series even has any authentic pins lol)

The guest seemed to really love the pin, and I think I traded a new Stitch picture series pin for it so I'm hoping it's real. Haven't seen Koda K on the lanyards either. (At least not yet)




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Here are some other pins I want to verify on here. (you can never be sure about hidden Mickeys)


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For this Chip and Dale one, it has border issues but it might be the same quality control issue that the Star Wars pins had. (I'd prefer for it to be a scrapper, since I traded under the assumption it was and was able to get a 2 for 1 deal for this one and sweet dreams Baloo)


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Then there's this Donald pin, which I just couldn't find. The person who traded it said it was from Boxlunch, but I'm not 100% sure that's the case. Any help in identifying it would be greatly appreciated!

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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I think your HMs are scrappers. As you mentioned, those older HMs are really hard to find now and the odds of them being legitimate any time you see them, let alone from some random park goer, is extremely slim.

For Koda, he should be brown and on your pin he looks almost black. Except his highlights which look lighter than they should be. And the K should be a dark green but it looks also black. (He happens to be one of the last ones from that set im still chasing,)

On Simba, the pad should be all the same color other than the blue drawing but he looks like he has some pink highlights on his nose, etc.
 
The K - Koda is from 2011 and has been highly faked, but are very difficult to tell from a picture.
Simba sketch book is from 2014, has also been highly faked, but based on the picture looks like it might be okay.
Chip and Dale are from the set I commented about, came out of the box with bad boarders.
Donald looks like a Loungefly pin.
 
Ajk said:
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I think your HMs are scrappers. As you mentioned, those older HMs are really hard to find now and the odds of them being legitimate any time you see them, let alone from some random park goer, is extremely slim.

For Koda, he should be brown and on your pin he looks almost black. Except his highlights which look lighter than they should be. And the K should be a dark green but it looks also black. (He happens to be one of the last ones from that set im still chasing,)

On Simba, the pad should be all the same color other than the blue drawing but he looks like he has some pink highlights on his nose, etc.
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Thanks for pointing that out! I wonder where you can find the legit old hidden Mickey pins then. You’re right about Koda being nearly black (especially compared with the dancing Koda pin) Still, I haven’t seen him on the lanyards or pin boards yet so he’s pretty rare even for a fake.

The Simba pad however does appear to be the same color, so it might just be the lighting. They’re both pretty cute regardless so I’d be happy to give them a home, at least for now.

I’m just super happy I finally got my hands on Dancing Koda lol
 
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firechief18 said:
The K - Koda is from 2011 and has been highly faked, but are very difficult to tell from a picture.
Simba sketch book is from 2014, has also been highly faked, but based on the picture looks like it might be okay.
Chip and Dale are from the set I commented about, came out of the box with bad boarders.
Donald looks like a Loungefly pin.
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I kinda want to get a real one now to compare, though I’d have no idea where to find one. I’m not sure about the sketchbook but it looks ok, if it’s a fake it’s a pretty high quality one.

I thought Chip and Dale was fake, so you win some you lose some I guess! I’ll have to look into the Donald pin and see if I can find it
 
"I wonder where you can find the legit old hidden Mickey pins then."

You can't. 😁 Or at least it is EXTREMELY rare. Basically they're all in their forever homes so it's those rare cases of a collection being sold off and having the incredibly good luck to be there when it happens. And to beat the competition. I myself have gaps in my HM collection that go back to some of the earliest releases.
 
Ajk said:
"I wonder where you can find the legit old hidden Mickey pins then."

You can't. 😁 Or at least it is EXTREMELY rare. Basically they're all in their forever homes so it's those rare cases of a collection being sold off and having the incredibly good luck to be there when it happens. And to beat the competition. I myself have gaps in my HM collection that go back to some of the earliest releases.
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Well that’s disappointing lol. I didn’t realize hidden mickeys were so valuable. I’ll have to be super careful with what I do with my current hidden mickeys, (from the new series) as it only seems like they’re climbing in value.



Now I want to find legit versions of these pins somewhere lol. I’ll have to add it to my ISOs. I’m still happy with the ones I have, even if they’re fakes!
 
momin.ator said:
I have a bunch of 2012/2013 HMs from WDW that are authentic in my traders. I bought them to trade at the park
from a DPF member but I feel guilty trading them into the mix.
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I feel the same way. Sometimes I feel like doing a good deed and buying some rare pins from cast connections to drop on the lanyards. But I feel like all I’m doing is rewarding scalpers and bad behavior…
 
hopemax said:
I have to agree with @Ajk, both fakes. Both are supposed to have nubs. These are mine, and I have a high degree of confidence in the authenticity of both.

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Oh ok, I don’t think mine had nubs (and I noticed the Koda K had a really hard time staying in my binder lol should have been a cue that it was fake)

I’ll just add the real pins to my ISO list and put these in the “scrappers that I think are cute and worth keeping” folder.
 
Also, what have yall heard about Disney Character Warehouse? A lot of traders I talked to said it was a great source of Disney pins on a budget (in the Orlando area) because it sells the pins Disney couldn’t get rid of. It sounds great but also a little too good to be true. Is that an actual Disney store and has anyone shopped there? Is it worth checking out?
 
Captain Fartbeard said:
Oh ok, I don’t think mine had nubs (and I noticed the Koda K had a really hard time staying in my binder lol should have been a cue that it was fake)

I’ll just add the real pins to my ISO list and put these in the “scrappers that I think are cute and worth keeping” folder.
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Use scrappers for projects or for thumb tacks.
 
Hi again! Decided to check out a couple pin stores in the area and see if there was anything worth scrounging for. First I hit up the Disney Character Warehouse for some traders (it's about the same price as Cast connections) then I stopped by the Pin HQ store in Ocoee.

The pin HQ was nice, they had a crazy assortment of really cool pins that would break my budget if I bought all the ones I liked. They offered me around $190 for the traders I brought, which didn't feel like a fair value (it included my LE 300 Mulan pin that I saw sold on Ebay for over $300) I did buy some pins though, couldn't resist with the selection they had. I'm posting them here along with some traders I found (all were verified except for Thumper, I'm 90% sure it's a scrapper though the guest I traded it with said they actually got it from DLP (from a lanyard though). I think he's a cute mascot for Flower and Garden festival though so he gets to stay!

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Between bringing Meeko back, Nick Wilde, and Stitch it cost over $50 to bring them into the fold. (not even including the park traders I bought) I think it's about time I start selling some of my pins to help fund my habit, as I'd really love to go back there sometime and explore what they have. I'll have to explore posting some extras on the marketplace and looking up values and such. Time for some research!
 
It is a tough balance when you get the Disney Pin bug. I know I first started, I fell head first into the hobby. I purchased pins but didn’t take much consideration for the end cost. For me, the hobby felt like it was going to be too expensive to maintain and I actually stepped away for a bit.

When I returned, I set some boundaries for myself. I have a monthly pin budget, which helps me to prioritize what pins I purchase. This has helped me curb my impulse to buy every cute pin I see (and Disney does know how to make them cute!) There are some amazing Scrooge pins I would love to add to my collection, but I am going to be hunting for a while to find them at my price point or will have to make a trade for them.

I have only sold a few pins in my time in this hobby. Usually as my tastes change, I move items from my collection to my traders. Others might join the hobby at a later time and consider my older pins more desirable since they can’t readily get them. But whether buying, selling, or trading, it is definitely a good idea to do some research to get a baseline. You never know what pin might be in high demand. Back in 2017, I was trading with cast members on a trip. I came back with a Doctors Day pin from the previous year. Years later when I was looking up the value of my pins for a trade, I found out that it was going for $250+. I was shocked!
 
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