Website For Confirming Genuine Pins

[KyloRenCollector]

I'm probably years late on this, but I thought of this a little while ago and it's been in my head ever since.

I know that most of the effort against scrapper or fake pins is to teach the common trader or buyer how to identify scrappers or fakes in order to stop the market, but what if there was a way that people could verify that a pin was authentic? Here's what I'm thinking:

Somebody makes a website with a bunch of people on it who are very good at identifying authentic pins from fakes. If somebody wants their pin verified, they send in pictures and some of those people look at the pictures and figure out whether or not they're fake. If they think they are authentic, then the site gives them some sort of 'Certificate of Authenticity' and they can use that to trade and sell online a lot safer than before.

Like I said, probably years late or maybe just a crappy idea (which is why nobodies done it before) but I've been thinking about making it and thought I would maybe work on it as a project. Just wanted to hear your thoughts before I put any work into this.

 

[bookhugger]

Most people use the photos and descriptions on PinPics.

 

[bookhugger]

Possibly Pin Trading Database too but there aren't a lot of pins there.

 

[Chusaurus]

There are several Facebook groups dedicated to this. Great idea though. You can also ask here in the pin comparison subforum.

 

[KyloRenCollector]

Most people use the photos and descriptions on PinPics.

Obviously, people do that. But I'm sure that there's a whole lot more people who aren't good enough at identifying them. The idea behind a site like this would be to allow even the most unexperienced trader to safely trade.

 

[hopemax]

The problem is even the most experienced pin collector in the world can't usually tell bad pins from good pins from a photograph.

A. A lot of people's photos just aren't good enough.
B. Color differences that are very noticeable when holding a good pin in one hand, and a bad pin in the other are not always very noticeable in a picture, or if you only have access to one pin.
C. Pins often have multiple production runs and from different factories, sometimes over a period of years this leads to variations in AUTHENTIC pins.
D. I follow some of the FB counterfeit/scrapper groups, and the number of people who get the answer wrong is pretty high. Many traders today are simply too new to the hobby to have seen authentic older pins. I have a big concerns that the better produced counterfeit pins are being accepted as authentic because a lot of people just don't know any better. So when a real one pops up, it must be bad. Or people see something older, don't recognize it so it's bad. Or someone is asking about an older pin that has been widely counterfeited so it must be bad, and they disregard the circumstances in which the person is asking about (I collected in 2002, do I have something good. I got these from someone I know collected at the beginning of trading).

I've been doing this since the beginning of pin trading, I have over 11,000 pins, and I don't feel 90% comfortable with knowing what is good and bad. Especially, without having a known authentic right there to compare it with. To be blunt, you are asking for the impossible. You may find 1 or 2 collectors with the collections that are large enough, and were acquired directly from Disney that a person has the experience to do it. But they would still be ignorant of the variations within authentic pins (affecting open edition and hidden Mickey type pins). And would they even want to participate in an endeavor like this? Be responsible for someone else's pins? Who would want that liability?

 

[KyloRenCollector]

The problem is even the most experienced pin collector in the world can't usually tell bad pins from good pins from a photograph.

A. A lot of people's photos just aren't good enough.
B. Color differences that are very noticeable when holding a good pin in one hand, and a bad pin in the other are not always very noticeable in a picture, or if you only have access to one pin.
C. Pins often have multiple production runs and from different factories, sometimes over a period of years this leads to variations in AUTHENTIC pins.
D. I follow some of the FB counterfeit/scrapper groups, and the number of people who get the answer wrong is pretty high. Many traders today are simply too new to the hobby to have seen authentic older pins. I have a big concerns that the better produced counterfeit pins are being accepted as authentic because a lot of people just don't know any better. So when a real one pops up, it must be bad. Or people see something older, don't recognize it so it's bad. Or someone is asking about an older pin that has been widely counterfeited so it must be bad, and they disregard the circumstances in which the person is asking about (I collected in 2002, do I have something good. I got these from someone I know collected at the beginning of trading).

I've been doing this since the beginning of pin trading, I have over 11,000 pins, and I don't feel 90% comfortable with knowing what is good and bad. Especially, without having a known authentic right there to compare it with. To be blunt, you are asking for the impossible. You may find 1 or 2 collectors with the collections that are large enough, and were acquired directly from Disney that a person has the experience to do it. But they would still be ignorant of the variations within authentic pins (affecting open edition and hidden Mickey type pins). And would they even want to participate in an endeavor like this? Be responsible for someone else's pins? Who would want that liability?

The way I see it, people have already been doing a process similiar to what the site would do for a considerable amount of time. If you buy a pin online, you would more than likely check to make sure that the pin was authentic from photographs. Sure, there's always the fact that you check to make sure the sellers reputable, and I'm sure there are a hundred other things, but the fact remains: people are constantly checking for authenticity through pictures over the internet. While I find your concerns valid (and they certainly put doubts in my mind about the project while making it) I think that there has to be some better way to do this.

 

[Kiragigi]

Like Sara said, there are several Facebook groups that do this already that I find most helpful and educational.
Personally, I’m probably marginally better than average at identifying fakes/scrappers, but I need to feel/hold/touch pin to get a sense of whether it’s authentic or not. Can’t exactly do that electronically.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[watzshakinbacon]

My bf and I def had a similar idea, but maybe creating an app that can do some image processing to see if yours if real or not. BUT... it'd be really hard to get a good training set lol

 

[Disneychildwithin]

I'm not on facebook so I would love to have a reference site where I can contact the administrators and ask their opinions on certain pins. I'm awful at telling scrappers/fakes apart from the real deal, so having somewhere to go and feel comfortable communicating with someone to pick their brain would be great. Sometimes you hold back from asking because you don't want to bother someone or take their time, but if the site is dedicated to that it would feel more welcoming to requests.

 

[pinnochiolover]

Would this website charge for this service ? Sounds a bit like the service Pinpics was offering, whereby the pin gets a rating and is put in a box. Don't think they do it anymore, and I really didnt like the idea of a pin sealed in a box.

Pin collecting is time consuming, determining whether a pin is authentic can be exhausting. .. Scrutinising weight, colours, back stamps, enamel condition etc etc, so this sort of thing needs to be kept within reason, otherwise it sends you mad ! Knowing what to look for comes with experience, and years of it, even then its easy to miss something and get it wrong, its just about being in a comfortable place with yourself and your decision making when trading or buying. Getting into a group and going to pin meets is invaluable help.

I certainly agree with HOPEMAX's comments, and I am comfortable with how things currently work in the community.