New Buzzfeed article encourages fakes.
5. Upgrade your Disney pins with cast members.
"Buy a bunch of cheap Disney pins off eBay and bring them to the parks. The cast members wear lanyards with a lot of cool collectible pins just waiting for someone to ask to trade. It's a cheap way to get souvenirs and it's kind of fun to see who can get the coolest ones." —yosephu
On the last day of our trip to DLR, my husband and I camped out at the Starbucks in DCA (Fiddler Fifer) to get shelter from the 90 degree weather. He went to the restroom near Humphries and stopped in to check the pin board on the way back. He said that the CM was turning people down and letting them know their pins weren’t real. Sort of applauded the action, however... the pins the CM had to trade were also scrappers.
I didn't know Cast Members are allowed to do that either. I believe that Cast Members at DLRP are allowed that sort of discretion in declining trades, but that is the exception, not the rule. It's my understanding that unless something has changed, Cast Members at DLR/WDW are REQUIRED to accept in trade ANY Disney pin that has Disney's backstamp that isn't already on the lanyard. I don't know about pin trading policies at Shanghai or HKDL, but I know that pin trading was banned at TDR for reasons that have nothing to do with this ... but I digress.Wow... I didn’t know they were allowed to do that! At least he was trying? Yikes.
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As to scrappers . . . a friend did a fun experiment. She got a Tsum Tsum pin and someone told her it was a fake because of colour and the back edge and something else. So, she went to MK and bought 5 more of the same pin and they each were totally different. Multiple shades of colour. Some smooth edges, some not. Some wavy enamel, some smooth. It was very interesting. I got an Obi Wan pin from the park and a known scrapper version, and you know . . . the scrapper had better enamel and smoother edges than the Park bought one.
Then, on the other side, I traded for a couple of these cute square cartoon face Pooh pins, and one was really nice feeling and the other weighted less than a penny and was super rough. You could tell just picking it up for the first time!
So, some I can tell, others I can't.
Yeah, this is why I don't bother trying to tell if something is a scrapper or not. I've watched "experts" at PTNs in the past identify something as a scrapper, when it was an official pin from one of the HM bags. Unless the pin is a hot mess, there's just no sure-fire way to tell if a pin is a scrapper.
I just don't do HMs. And if I must (like with the Duffy series), I buy the bags they eventually release.
As for all the other, non-HM pins out there...I just try and be really, really careful with who I trade and buy from. If it's something I know was counterfeited, I ask if they bought the pin from Disney themselves. I haven't had that many issues, so I guess it works.
Re: your last point, about Disney not caring about scrapper trading. I think you're kind of right, but I think it's more like the amount of money and effort it would take to shut it down is not worth it to them. I think if there were a quick and easy fix that didn't cost TOO much money, they would shut it down. But I think they saw the writing on the wall and realized what a chore it would be.
When it comes to HMs, Sis and I just don't care. It got too much of a chore to stay on top of what has been scrapped, etc. and what hasn't. Also, we aren't HM completists, so just trade for the pin we like from whatever release. So, we decided we didn't care for ourselves.
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