is Disney using scrappers, or are the scrapper manufacturers distributing faster?

Hello all!

I was very lucky to spend a few days at WDW recently, and traded for a lot of the HMs. Usually I stick to the ones that have been released in the current year, to avoid most of the scrapper issues. And up to this point it has been fairly successful- never had an issue with scrapper pins on currently released HMs.

But this year was very different. For the first time, I can say that about half of the HMs I traded for were of scrapper quality. Some were of first quality, but some had issues. There were minor divets, not too bad. Mostly it was a problem with completely dull finishes- no shine at all.

For example: I found 2 or 3 of each of these pins:


For each pin, I got 1 or 2 that were fine (normal shiny finish and few or no divets), and 1 or 2 that were scrapper quality (total matte finish, no shine, some divets).

Now we all know that the higher the production number of a pin, the worse the quality (Like the mystery tins always seem to have more divets in them that the regular, individual rack pins and LEs). Could Disney be ordering so many of the HMs that they have lowered quality standards? Or gone with lower standards for lower prices?

Or are that manufacturers just getting really bold & fast about scrappers, and selling them illegally at the same time as they are selling to Disney?

So disappointing......

bold and fast. "scrap" versions of hidden mickey pins have shown up in parks months before the actual release in the parks.

Does that mean disney doesnt occationally have a less than perfect pin come out of their bags? Heck no, it happens a lot. I just try to only keep ones that I find that are clean, shiney and paint filled.

What a bummer. It seems like last year it was not nearly the problem it is this year (for the HMs, at least). Or maybe just traded a lot more this year.

The scrappers of the Wave 1 zodiac pins didn't come out until months after the release. The scrappers of the Wave 2 pins (the first two pins I think are Wave 2 from WDW) came out within weeks of the release (or possibly a week before).

Sad

I tried to ask an employee about what happens to unwanted pins at a trading night at the Comtemporary. They really don't want to talk about it, but it sounds like they don't get rid of them. I was basically told the most they do is send them overseas to other parks.

At DLR we were seeing scrappers of wave 2 months before release. And not just DLR's wave 2, but WDWs!!!

Hey, let me ask a question. How do you know when its a mistake from Disney or a scrapper or fake? I know some pins its just obivious. But, what about those that you may find and its questionable. How do you know?

pin2pin1 said:

Hey, let me ask a question. How do you know when its a mistake from Disney or a scrapper or fake? I know some pins its just obivious. But, what about those that you may find and its questionable. How do you know?

Click to expand...

WELLLL you can't know 100% that a pin isn't fake, unless you bought it straight from the park. So no telling there, even if it looks 100% real. And if you are wodering about a pin, you could always post about it in the "pin comparison" thread for help!

pin2pin1 said:

Hey, let me ask a question. How do you know when its a mistake from Disney or a scrapper or fake? I know some pins its just obvious. But, what about those that you may find and its questionable. How do you know?

Click to expand...

pin2pin1, since it is so hard to tell the difference- if it is possible at all on some- I just tend to focus on the quality of the pin. No one really wants a pin with a lot of divets, no shiny finish, a lot of errors, or rough/sharp edges. Even if it is a "real" pin direct from one of the parks, but just poor quality, I do not really want it.