My 4 year old Daughter and I have been trading pins for about a year now and in that time I have come to the conclusion that each pin collector is going to have to determine for themselves the morals and ethics surrounding scrap pins.
With the above said, I HAVE seen if full view of the public "PRO PIN" traders trading with cast members pins that are notorius as known scrapper pins. You will find deviant behaivor in all walks of life and you can certainly find it in of all places, Disney pin trading. It is unavoidable when someone tries to place a $ value on something.
You only have to watch maybe a few ebay pin lot auctions to find that these lots are a hot commodity. I have to believe that this demand for cheap pins is NOT driven by folks new to pin trading but maybe by the very same folks that are yelling the loudest against them, other serious collectors
To this day the pin trading guidlines remain as such. Pins must be metal, in good overall shape and have the Disney copyright logo. It must portray a Disney event, character, or attraction. as collectors we cannot expect Disney to control scrap pins. I certainly cannot control what others spend their money on. If you want to buy pin lots from ebay to make your experiences with children more enjoyable, then I say fire away. I would believe that 99.999989% of pin traders/collectors have knowingly traded a scrapper pin.
I don't think that ebay lot sellers are all that deviant. Not any more than some of the rude, "take a pin off of a sleeping baby's lanyard" collectors I have run across. All the pin lot auctions I have seen indicate they are fully tradeable and actually fall within Disney's trading guidelines, regardless of their origins.
Another point, collectors are in direct control of their collections. No one is forcing unauthorized pins into anyones collection. I often hear folks say that CM lanyards are full of scrapper pins and I say, don't trade for them then. Tell the CM your suspicions and maybe they will remove the pin.
lastly, to my Daughter and I, ain't no way i'm ever going to know the difference between scrapper and a real pin. To my Daughter, a Tinkerbell pin is just that, a Tinkerbell pin, regardless if it was lying on the floor at factory in China.......We all have to make our own decisions. I also know that just because Disney CM will trade scrap pins with guests doesn't make buying cheap Ebay pins right, But I will say that I have purchased lots from some of the good pin sellers and the bad. I have traded Alot of those pins, kept alot of pins as well because we just liked them. I also buy $200-$500 worth of real Disney pins from the park pin stations every time we visit. So, if I have traded scrappers at one time to a CM then so be it. I cannot any longer worry about scrappers if I cannot even identify one.......
sorry, I just know i'm headed to the flame pin on this one.