Brand new, flawed pins?

[Ach West]

I bought several blind-boxes of the Lion King laughing pins, trying to get Zazu (spoiler: I did not get Zazu) while I was on vacation . . . & when I got home & had a chance to examine them more closely, I was surprised (& horrified) to realize how many of them have flaws!
(These are all freshly opened, purchased directly from Disney.)

New photo · Saturday, May 17 📸

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Perfect Mufasa. | Mufasa with a tan muzzle & missing half of an eyebrow. | Mufasa missing an entire eyebrow.
Perfect Simba. | Simba who also has a tan muzzle . . . & has mis-colored blotches on his shoulder & the top of his face.
Pumba who has a drop of black enamel mixed into one of his tusks.

Is this common?
I'm guessing I should still be able to trade Pumba at least (mentioning the flaw of course!), since it's a minor flaw . . . but do any of the rest of the flawed pins still have value, or should I just throw them away?

 

[TheMickeyMouseRules]

Pins are inexpensive, mass produced, vacation souveniers. Or fun accessories for your backpack. etc. They are not flawless works of art.

Each traders will need to determine their tolerance for manufacturing flaws. My personal tolerance is pretty high. My first thought when looking at your LK pin picture... there is nothing wrong with these pins. But after reading your description, I guess I see what you are seeing now.

Yes, disclose before completing any trade. That is probably the best way forward, but these are not worthless as traders. Don't throw them away.

 

[hopemax]

Pins have always had production imperfections and sometimes worse. I've been collecting since before the start of Official Disney Pin Trading for the Millennium Celebration and I can look at the pins I purchased during those early years and they have dips, color errors, marks, etc. Some years were worse than others, depending on which factory Disney was using at the time. But during all those years, people weren't looking at them up close or with jewelry loops or any of the enhanced inspection that people use now. I understand when people are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on low LE pins they want perfect pins. But I end up wondering if collecting actual jewelry might be a better use of their money as those aren't intended to be cheaply made, mass-produced trinkets. Or stick with a supplier like Artland / Pulse Gallery. The fact that these predictable and expected issues weigh on every trading level to the point where traders ask if brand new pins should be thrown away, makes me sad and frustrated.

So no, don't throw the pins away. Disclose, and wait for a trader that doesn't expect perfect pins.

 

[firechief18]

The factories used to have a really good quality assurance process. Unfortunately the rejected pins made their way into circulation anyway. Through alternate markets, usually sold in bulk lots really cheap.
Since COVID the QA process has been questionable and the previously rejected pins end up being sold as is.

 

[Ach West]

I know pins are mass produced, but I thought that four of the eight pins I got from this series having flaws was a little extreme. Especially since none of the other Disney pins I've got have had serious flaws. (I also don't think I would go so far as to call pins 'inexpensive', more moderately priced.)

I'm very surprised by the response here - from some of the replies on my introduction thread, I was under the impression that I was going to have a very hard time trading common pins at all, I didn't think anyone would want a common pin that had an obvious flaw.
I wanted to ask ahead of time because it's very important to me to be a good trader.

 

[hopemax]

The "inexpensive" refers to what Disney pays to have them made. Not what they charge to people.

Lots of people want common pins. Lots of people want LE and hard to find pins more. Lots of people have mature collections so they've already tracked down a lot of the common pins they would be interested in, so their ISOs are tilted to the stuff they haven't found yet. But there are always new common pins to track down. Mailing costs are a deterrent for "one for one" common trades, so a lot of those transactions either happen "in person" or via Pin & Pop Trade Arcades, where you can ship multiple trades in one package.

Given the state of theme park trading boards and counterfeits, if people saw your common but flawed pin on one of those boards they would still be happy and likely end up trading for it because it's real. Some people can extend that to non-CM trading too.

 

[dznycrzyfmly]

Honestly, I'd probably trade for any of those pins if I saw them on the boards. I would just let folks know when trading if they were interested. Sucks quality control is slipping a little but overall still good AUTHENTIC pins are better than fakes/scrappers.

 

[Ach West]

Thank you everyone for the advice; I'll include these once I get my trade thread set up.