I’m not a pin trader, but at AK yesterday I saw 2 people set up at the picnic tables near the Bone Yard (playground) with pins out on the tables for trading. These were visitors not staff members. It sort of reminded me of Boy Scout patch traders.
They are professional traders. Imo, most of them are there to brag more than to actually trade. I have yet to meet one that is interested in casual trading the way most of us are used to doing Pin Trading.
Every one I’ve approached, was only interested in trading something if you had the original card it came on. The worst I ever had the misfortune to meet was nearly 15 yrs ago at DL. Without a single word of lead-in, I had one of them literally jab at a pin on my lanyard and bark, “You know that’s a scrapper— a fake! You should take it off and throw it away!” I replied that I had bought it at a shop on Main Street not 1/2 hour earlier… still had the receipt in my pocket (although I threw the card away… no reason to keep it). The woman proceeded to loudly call me a liar
and then beckon her buddy over to look. The other woman agreed and then said *
I* was giving Pin Trading a bad name. I told her if she wanted to meet someone who was besmirching the ‘good name’ of Pin Trading, she and her friend there should look in the mirror, then I turned and walked away (& yes, I used the word “besmirching”
). As I walked away, she kept getting louder and louder (she wanted me to keep hearing her) behind me telling people they needed to look out for cheaters like
me. Yeah, right
I’m the cheater…sure.
I hadn’t even asked to trade with those women… hadn’t said a word other than “hi” as I approached. I’ve chatted with other pro traders before… and while they were kinda stuck-up and snooty, maybe even borderline rude,
NONE could Ohold a candle to those last two. I haven’t approached a picnic table of pins again.
As an aside, there’s something else I’ve noticed: I’ve yet to meet another adult (who wasn’t a CM) willing to trade with a child. Sometimes, I think I’m the only one… I hope not. I have a baggie in my backpack with mostly popular character pins that my younglings abandoned after they grew up. If a kid asks about my pins and trading with me, I explain that the ones on my lanyard (or nowadays, my backpack) are my special ones, but I have others they can look at, and they can trade for one of those if they want. I’ve even slipped them an extra if they just couldn’t decide. Sadly, I’ve seen way too many adults at Disney who seem to be related to Foghorn Leghorn: “Go away kid, you bother me!” I can’t stand that, and I never want that to be me.
I did used to be more fun when there weren't so many fake pins, but we still enjoy it.
For me, Pin Trading is all about the fun. And about never knowing what you’re gonna find next. I honestly don’t give a whole lot of scrutiny to pins I trade for, as to whether they’re scrappers or not. If it looks right— no *really* “wrong colors”, or anything that is clearly “off”— and it’s one I like or have been collecting, I will trade for it. My pin collection is not an investment for my financial future (dh would probably say it’s an investment in my future poverty
) I see it as an investment in my future happiness. I enjoy seeing my pin groups displayed in their shadowbox-style frames hanging in my hobby room. I get to remember happy memories of past trips, and dream of future ones. Those memories are what is important— not whether I traded for a scrapper somewhere.
Beginning in about 2017 or ‘18 (5 yrs or so after meeting the poorly behaved pros), I started to notice more & more that many of the pins in the shops on property, and on
shopDisney had “suspicious” traits that have been said to mean they are fakes. So with quality control going downhill and legitimate pins showing “scrapper” traits, how can anyone know for sure anymore?
It was actually after the encounter I described above that I started to research what a “scrapper” is… and started to look at pins with a bit more of a critical eye. What I noticed was that
the pins they’re selling in the parks sometimes have pits in the enamel, rough or sharp edges, small areas where the colored enamel “spills over” into the space next to it, or copyright lettering on the back that is illegible, among other defects that supposedly are tell-tale signs that a pin is fake.
So I’ve given up worrying about “fake vs real”— there is just no way to ever be 100% sure unless you are going to buy every pin you collect directly from Disney & no one else will know for certain yours are real unless you intend to keep them on their cards with the receipts… and of course, that kinda defeats the point of
pin trading. Instead you will just be pin
collecting.