Fake Dangles do exist.... I think

[Pinfun]

Hi. My name is Becky. I'm a new pin-addict. OK - casual collector for a few years, recently turned more serious. Anyways, I bought some on eBay fairly recently (yes, my bad) from one seller who has a mixed bag. I bought the Disneyana 2000 Small World series - pretty sure those are all real, checked the fronts, the backs, the cards... all looks good but I would appreciate knowing if anyone is aware of counterfeits because....

I bought #409 (the Small World Dangle for Mexico). I don't have a real one in hand yet - but I feel confident this is fake. The back impression for the top dangle is small dots, the back impression for the bottom dangle is waffle, the back stamp is the 2000 Hand in Hand stamp, there's only 1 pin post as opposed to the 2 posts I can see for 'back' pictures of other small world dangles from other sellers, and the price tag has printer bleed on the UPC. I would love to be wrong. But if I'm right - I figured this community should know because the only info I found when searching "counterfeit dangle" on here was a general feeling that dangles were too much effort to counterfeit. Possibly not.

I would post pictures, but haven't quite figured that piece out yet.

 

[-em]

Was the seller from Orlando area? They recently dumped a ton of old pins (Including the pins you mentioned) at a cast sale- a lot were in good condition others not so much.. I know a good majority of the small world dangle set was there (since I kept getting texts asking if I needed them)

first off the set never sold well and is over 16 years old so the odds of it being 'fake' are astronomically low- because you are lucky to get 2-5 Each for them if they don't break so not worth the effort to fake.

It's statistically just damaged/ not made right. On the really old pins the backs can pop off and leave little to no mark. Back then fakes didn't happen (not till 05 at the earliest) so manufacturing issues just were 'unique backs'

I dont think I have any dangles left in my house as I never liked them or they've fallen apart but will check.

 

[starry_solo]

Post pictures by uploading to your PhotoBucket or Flickr account and select the proper URL.

 

[Pinfun]

Interesting to know, thanks for that detail. But here's a picture of the back anyways so you can see why I think it's very peculiar. https://flic.kr/p/LobgQe

Did they really make multiples with different backs? Because I did find another eBay seller who posted pictures of the back of the Mexico Dangle - both 1/2s had the large waffle pattern.

 

[BilgeRat]

Did they really make multiples with different backs? .

I own several examples of older pins that have identical artwork, but have different backs. This can occur when a pin is re-released. Off the top of my head, #456 and #27907 are pins that I own that are identical, except for the backs.

 

[hopemax]

I collected this set way, back when. Half the pins I bought at a CM discount store in about 2001 for $1. The other half, I traded for, mostly in the years pre-counterfeiting. 6 of my pins have 2 posts, 5 have 1 post. The backs are all over the place. Some just have a copyright box in the main pin, some have have a copyright box in the main pin and the dangle, some have the 2000 style box, some have a 2001 copyright, some have matching waffles between main pin and dangle, some are different.

The ones I know 100% I bought at Disney have 2001 backs, but the pins were released in 1999, which means that 100% there were multiple batches of these pins sold. When pin trading first started Disney was unprepared for the enormous interest. The time pins sold out was measured in hours and days, and so I'm sure those first 2 years, they were constantly reordering stuff to meet unanticipated demand. They likely also had to use multiple factories.

The point being, I'm sure there are variations among these pins, and I'm sure they are due to manufacturing processes and not because someone was counterfeiting them. Like -em said, the real scrapper/counterfeit problem started about 2005. There were counterfeits before 2005 but those were for pins that were worth $100, and these never qualified as pins people were interested in counterfeiting.

 

[Pinfun]

Thanks for the detailed feedback. Even if they are legit, it's helpful to hear from someone who bought them at Disney because even the way the seller handled my concern about their authenticity was fishy (emailed me directly, not via eBay).