DLR - Scrapper crack down

[MedicChris]

Hey Folks!

Yesterday, in Disney Grand California Hotel. A person was pulled to the side because he was trading scrappers and was threatened by security saying that if he traded one more scrapper, he will be kicked out of the park. I know this guy, and he was only trading the scrappers he got from guests. I think Disney is trying to crack down on the fakes but to go after someone who is genuine and honest is not right. I have a "kids book" that I trade any pin for any pin. Not any more. I will only trade pins that I inspect.

If they are going to crack down, they need to post signs up, train all employees on what the scrappers are, and to deny any trades with fake ones. Also, they should have the pins made here in America, where they can have better control over the pins.

 

[imatronaholic]

If Disney is going to have a crack down like this, they need to ensure that all CM's have no fakes or scrappers on their lanyards. I have met so many people that just don't care if the pins they trade at the parks are real or fake. I don't see how they are going to be able to successfully police pin trading. So if I go up to a CM and see that they have fake pins on their lanyard, am I supposed to call security?

The CM's voluntarily wear the pin trading lanyards. Maybe, next time we go to the parks, I will go up to all the CM's that I see with lanyards to inspect their pins, and if I detect a fake, should I scream bloody murder?

 

[imatronaholic]

Yea I totally agree. They should add a rule in the trading pin etiquette that cast members don't have to accept scrapper pins.

It gets me mad that when I go to a cast member all their pins look really fake and I don't want to give up my good pins.

Most people can't tell, 100% of the time, if pins are real or fake, even the most seasoned pin trader. I have even heard of a Disney manager making a scene regarding a pin trader and the pin in question was authentic. You know, if something like this happened to me, I would insist that all of the pin lanyards that CM's use, be brought to me immediately for inspection. This is absolutely ridiculous and will probably be the end of pin trading in the parks. :rant:

 

[imatronaholic]

Someone should make a youtube video rant about fake pins on CM lanyards and take a gun and shoot them. The pins, shoot the pins. Hmmm, that sounds familiar.

Note: This is a joke. Just kidding.

 

[johnny58]

Sadly, It is moments like this that really take away from pin trading =/

 

[latemetal]

I have a hard time believing a story like this, especially from someone's first post. Disney has never shown an interest to stop scrappers. If they were serious, they would first, educate their cast members not to have scrappers/fakes on their lanyards. They should still accept them from guests as a courtesy but not release them again to another guest. Also, as sad as it is, scrappers and fakes are allowed per the current pin trading guidelines, if they wanted to not accept them, they should update the rules to state that and publicly tell their guests about the fakes and how to avoid them.

 

[RiftRaftStreetRat]

I call shenanigans on this post.

 

[tinkerbellfan117]

It's getting ridiculous at DLR. I cannot find a good pin anymore.

 

[KT07]

lmao...yes...yes...dlr sucks so bad....so selll your pins now and leave the hobby... you can start to collect stamps or sumthing

 

[karkura]

I know this new member. There is no reason for him to put a fake post. He would not do that. He is a very nice pin trader and a nice person so please welcome him.

 

[karkura]

Now, commenting on the post. I have been trading pins at DLR for many years. There are occasions where a cast member will refuse to trade and get angry when they are just fed up getting scrappers. It happens. That is probably what happened here. I am sure it was not a serious threat, just anger that finally boiled over.

 

[LuvSimba]

The parks need to crack down on the people running around the parks with baggies full of fakes/scrappers. It's not hard to spot them and if you get close, you can see in their baggies that they have nothing but pins on the fakes list. I see them all the time at WDW. They make no effort to hide what they are doing. Usually the whole family is involved with their own baggies and lanyards full of that junk. That is who Disney needs to crack down upon. But, I doubt they will.

 

[Trade Winds Pins]

Over the years, I've found most DLR (my park) CMs just don't really care if you tell them a pin is a scrapper, even if you define the term for them. I've even found this to be true when I tell them a pin (usually a dangle, sometimes a silder) on their lanyard is broken! Some will just leave the pin on the lanyard! (Again, not all CMs, some are good enough to at least remove the pin from the lanyard.)

Even if every single CM is taught what counterfeits and scrappers are, think about it for a minute: Do you think they have time to inspect every single pin they are trading on their lanyards on a daily basis, even if they are willing to do that? Nope. Disney needs to have (moral--or at least highly-paid ) people policing pin manufacturing at the source--in China--and have their (huge) legal team crack down on everyone in the illegal business/importing end of it, and until they do, scrappers and counterfeits will continue to exist and be passed along to the unsuspecting (a lot) and uncaring (unfortunately a lot of those too) pin traders and CMs. I don't even bother to say have the pins manufactured here in the USA--great idea, *nevah* gonna happen.

 

[markheardjr]

The parks need to crack down on the people running around the parks with baggies full of fakes/scrappers. It's not hard to spot them and if you get close, you can see in their baggies that they have nothing but pins on the fakes list. I see them all the time at WDW. They make no effort to hide what they are doing. Usually the whole family is involved with their own baggies and lanyards full of that junk. That is who Disney needs to crack down upon. But, I doubt they will.

I use baggies for traders, it's just easy to zip and unzip and they are clear so you can see. I am not wearing a fanny pack, like those are better? I'm also not buying a trading book. They get enough of my money for pins already. I wear a keeper lanyard, not a hidden mickey trader lanyard. So baggies just work. Don't knock it.

Now the baggies with the pins in their own individual plastic pouches, those are fake. The real ones come as a set in rolled up plastic. Not individually like the scrappers.

 

[jchampl]

I can tell you, there is no program in place for this at WDW. We only sort out the scrapers the best we can at pin replenishment.

 

[coblj003]

I can tell you, there is no program in place for this at WDW. We only sort out the scrapers the best we can at pin replenishment.

I agree, a CM can turn down a pin that appears to be beyond Trading Standards; In regards to many unauthorized pins though, as long as it has the Disney tradmark or trading logo that pin may be tradeble. Pin Replenshment can do their best to sort bad pins from the tradeables but some scrappers might still make it through; as it's up the individual CM's or areas to trade in bad pins, that can turn moot if they don't bother to go do so leaving bad pins on their lanyards.

In regards to the DLR crackdown. Whether or not this legit or not is open to speculation but I've been hearing trading horror stories left and right so I wouldn't be suprised. The only way security would intervene is if they had solid proof, you yourself said he was trading scrappers. Is he a frequent trader there? if so, some CM's he traded might have gotten suspicous of his behavior or they went to the higher ups to look at said pins.

 

[MedicChris]

sad to say, but this story is true. Will be happy to introduce you to the person it happened to.

The story on the wire is that DLR does not have enough replacement pins to get rid of all the current scrappers on the lanyards. When I was in the park today, I traded a few pins off the CM lanyards and went into city hall and made a complaint of the scrappers. I am just going to keep doing that until disney does something about it.

 

[elaw]

I can tell you, there is no program in place for this at WDW. We only sort out the scrapers the best we can at pin replenishment.

When we went to WDW in Nov, we took the backstage magic tour. One of the stops was a tour of the utilidors under the Magic Kingdom and as our group was walking down one of the several hallways we went past a woman sorting pins and setting up the lanyards. we immediately stopped to talk with her .... unfortunately we couldnt talk long (it wasnt a part of the official tour) but we asked her about what she was doing. She was sorting pins and told/showed us how she would look for scrappers and counterfit pins and put them in a separate bin and they would not be put back in circulation. So as far as I can tell, there is an effort by Disney to remove them from circulation ... they just handle it all backstage.

 

[coblj003]

Personally I think that tactic will back fire as A) they can't accomodate for all pin traders. While it may work initially, after awhile Disney will think that you are shark wantingn to intentially trade in bad pins. B) I don't think it's the case that DLR has enough pins to replace the bad pins at once, rather that there are too many guests that trade with scrappers; moreso I think the problem is only exacerbated by the pin replenishment guidelines if that similar to WDW. A CM lanyard can only replenish up to six pins a day off a 12 pin lanyard. Let's say a CM starts out with 12 good pins, by the end of the day he has none. The next day he goes to replace 6, but is left with 6 scrapper pins. The CM will have those same numbers of scrapper pins unless it is traded for. Also take into account the stories that DLR CM's don't really like to carry pin lanyards, sigh.

sad to say, but this story is true. Will be happy to introduce you to the person it happened to.

The story on the wire is that DLR does not have enough replacement pins to get rid of all the current scrappers on the lanyards. When I was in the park today, I traded a few pins off the CM lanyards and went into city hall and made a complaint of the scrappers. I am just going to keep doing that until disney does something about it.

 

[bfogartyjr]

It is interesting that if Disney accepts scrappers some people here will complain that they are doing nothing. If they refuse to accept them, other people will complain here that they are being mean/rude to traders.

Welcome to the land of Nowindia.

 

[spartan117]

Its horrible they never refresh at dlr.

 

[Bluie]

Yea I totally agree. They should add a rule in the trading pin etiquette that cast members don't have to accept scrapper pins.

It gets me mad that when I go to a cast member all their pins look really fake and I don't want to give up my good pins.

This is a hot topic for sure!
The issue with CM's not accepting a pin because they suspect it is a scrapper is that it may create a situation when the pin is actually real. Disney may want to instruct their CM's to accept the pin but then if they think it may be a scrapper, to put it asside and maybe in a "Scrapper Bin" in their employee area to be inspected at a later time by an EXPERT.

Say a kid got a scrapper by accident somewhere and then tried to trade it again with another CM and the kid was denied.....that's not a very magical memory!

In the end, there will always be bad people who do shady things at our cost.......no matter the hobby!

 

[chipdale123]

The problem is that the CMs, not to be rude, are kinda clueless. Most of them see a Disney theme on a pin and say 'oh okay', when they don't even know if the pin is real. CMs with lanyards should know the difference between a real pin and a fake pin.

I also find it a pity that there are more FAKE pins than there are REAL pins- well, it seems like it. I went to the store next to Star Tours at DLR two days ago and looked at the pin book, and I saw no real pins. . . :cry:

 

[starry_solo]

The parks need to crack down on the people running around the parks with baggies full of fakes/scrappers. It's not hard to spot them and if you get close, you can see in their baggies that they have nothing but pins on the fakes list. I see them all the time at WDW. They make no effort to hide what they are doing. Usually the whole family is involved with their own baggies and lanyards full of that junk. That is who Disney needs to crack down upon. But, I doubt they will.

I too use a baggie for my traders (that I trade with cast members). I have CD cases and a binder for trading with people at the barrels, but unless I get something good from a CM to put into my book, into the baggie it goes!

 

[Abyssinian28]

Over the years, I've found most DLR (my park) CMs just don't really care if you tell them a pin is a scrapper, even if you define the term for them. I've even found this to be true when I tell them a pin (usually a dangle, sometimes a silder) on their lanyard is broken! Some will just leave the pin on the lanyard! (Again, not all CMs, some are good enough to at least remove the pin from the lanyard.)

Even if every single CM is taught what counterfeits and scrappers are, think about it for a minute: Do you think they have time to inspect every single pin they are trading on their lanyards on a daily basis, even if they are willing to do that? Nope. Disney needs to have (moral--or at least highly-paid ) people policing pin manufacturing at the source--in China--and have their (huge) legal team crack down on everyone in the illegal business/importing end of it, and until they do, scrappers and counterfeits will continue to exist and be passed along to the unsuspecting (a lot) and uncaring (unfortunately a lot of those too) pin traders and CMs. I don't even bother to say have the pins manufactured here in the USA--great idea, *nevah* gonna happen.

ALL of this.