Question about counterfeits

[Guyver68]

So I've been reading every post and article I can find about bad pins and from what I've seen two things are happening:

• More bad pins are available than ever and constantly increasing
• Disney QC is getting more and more lax

My question is do you think there will come a time where we are unable to tell the difference between a good counterfeit and a legit but poorly made pin? Is there any kind of "acid test" that will show what is truly a real pin and what is a counterfeit? I would imagine someone in China is producing higher quality counterfeits and shipping them over or will soon to try to beat out their competitors. If you had a good looking counterfeit would you keep it?

 

[Psycho Pixie]

We already have a hard time telling the difference. Some of those counterfeits out there are getting really close!!! I state this again, but I don't want it to high-jack your thread... Counterfeiting profiteers would be KILLED if we had a legit grading and authentication system.

Here on the forum, there's a section called pin comparison. There's some really good stuff on there. I think there are also some good info bites in the pinpics "pin university" and their forum.

 

[Guyver68]

Hi-jack away! Do you think we as a group could come up with a process to grade and authenticate pins? I feel at some point since Disney doesn't require the companies in China to destroy or return the molds someone will begin making top notch rip-offs that can't be detected as fakes. It would be nice to get something in place (even if it only catches half - that's pretty good!) before that begins to happen. The scrappers are easy to tell but I'd sure like to know if I was plunking down $50 for a counterfeit or legit pin.