Fakes all over DLR

It was so frustrating seeing how many fake pins there were on every lanyard we saw.
Definitely takes the fun out of pin trading! I kept having to tell my son not to trade for pins he wanted because it was so obvious they were fake. So frustrating!

It is really frustrating. In fact. I hate it. What will it take for Disney to notice?

It is so annoying! I hate trading a pin that I paid good $ for and then getting a scrapper for it.... it's ridiculous.

I used to have a hard time telling what pins were fake, but these are super obvious! Cast Members don't notice all the fakes pins???


On a good note, my son got one of the family portraits off a lanyard, that was cool!

It's frustrating, I long for the days where we complained about all the Disney Store 100 years pins on lanyards. Some of those are hard to find now.

Disney DOES notice that the receive fake pins. That is why recently the cast member book trading at Westward Ho! will no longer be taking place.

They can't simply deny scrappers from guests because, how discouraging is that for people just getting into it? They don't know when they get a scrapper and they don't realize their passing it on.

I do know plenty of cast members though that WILL trade the scrappers but simply pocket them to avoid further trading. Why not all of them do it, I'm not entirely sure, but most cast members aren't pin traders, so I'm sure some just can't tell the difference or are too busy to really check them.

In Disneyland Paris we have the same, it really is frustrating :-(
Sometimes they have a good cast lanyard pin on their lanyard, but most of the pins are scrappers....

It's the same the whole World over - I was in DLP in December & WDW in February & the number of fake pins was very apparent as was the number of "traders" who continually took pins out of a plastic bag to trade - no pins visible on any lanyard!! I'll be in DLR in August, no doubt i'll see the same fakes yet again!!

I think it really is a shame that some traders put scrappers up, when I'm going to DLP I don't even look so often on the CM lanyards anymore, are all the same pins and most of all scrappers

A lot of the new traders don't even know that they're doing it. In fact, I would say many of us traded a bag of scrappers or two we got off of e-bay before we realized, or were fortunate enough to have someone explain to us what was really going on. What frustrates me is that most of these scrappers are sold on eBay, and it's obvious that they're doing it, but despite the number of times I report these sellers, eBay never does anything. 100 pins coming from China for $45, and the seller has had 1,200 transactions. Is eBay really that stupid to think some guy 10,000 miles away from Disneyland has somehow come across 120,000 pins and has decided to sell them for a fraction of their value?

If Disney really wanted to squash scrapper trading in the parks, all they'd have to do is apply a little pressure to eBay.

You can't just limit this to the new traders either, there are several "sharks" that do this as well as cast members that buy ebay pins and trade them. My cousin is an ex cast member and doesn't believe me that the pins she gets on ebay for ~$1 aren't real so I have stopped trying to convince her otherwise.

I wish there was an easy solution to this horrible problem

Dont trade with CM's? There's the solution. It's hard and sad but it's true. To avoid scrappers don't trade with Disney Parks Employees. But it's really hard not to.

But I was actually contemplating this subject last night. A petition could work, but would it? There is obviously awareness of this issue. And placing a petition online somewhere could make a difference. But it seems, socially, petitions aren't what they used to be. Companies view them as people who signed a piece of paper to give them (Or it would seem.) But even with alerting Disney of this issue, they aways turn the other cheek. A protest could work also, but not many would participate, and I dont think we'd get anywhere realistically. People love this hobby. Even if we didn't purchase pins from the parks or online for a day, there would be something to draw us back in.

I dont know what else could work. Just a little dream I suppose.

I only trade with CMS if I see newly released Hidden Mickeys or a pin that's clearly off the rack.