Ok... back to Disney and back to pins. One of the great pleasures my family and I have at Disney World is found in pin collecting and pin trading. We buy tons of pins, mostly off of the Disney Store site (since we live in Chicago) and a bunch more whenever we visit Disney World. Unfortunately, we also keep most of the ones we buy. Pins are for the most part EXPENSIVE. There are large, limited edition pins going for $20 on the Disney site right now... pin sets going for $150. So we buy those to keep those. So then how do we get to trade for the cast member pins, which you can't buy, you can only get by trading with a Disney employee?
Our answer... eBay. There are pin lots being sold on eBay for as low as $1.40 a pin, with wonderful descriptions of how these are collected by people who live near Disney and trade year round. It all sounds so great until you being to think about how they can afford to be trading and reselling for so low, when the average "low" price pin at Disney is maybe $3. So I did a little research and discovered a horrible, dark, evil secret about these Disney pin brokers.
Most, if not all, are not legitimate Disney pins. They're made in China, most likely in the same places that make the real pins, just made "after hours" or these are the defects that didn't past muster. And comparing some of the pins we've gotten with ones we've already traded for... some are a little off in color. Some have strange markings. Some are missing features. They call these... scrappers. Here's an example of a real and a fake counterfeit.
And a big sinking feeling hits me that I'm dong something wrong to taint the wonderfulness that is Disney - which is all about fun and excitement and good family values.
So I'm calling out to other Disney pin traders... are all these Disney pin lot dealers on eBay corrupt and evil, taking advantage of a genuinely enjoyable hobby for young and old alike... or might be some be legitmate? There are quite a few. I've already purchased another 200 for trading on our next trip... but I'm thinking this will be my last.
Unless someone out there can convince me that this can actually be a legitimate method for collecting and trading. I'd like to think it is, because it's a great way to accumulate enough pins for my kids to trade. Otherwise, pin trading is going to be limited to 5-6 pins versus 40-50. Which brings up another topic... why are Disney pins so gosh darn expensive? For a company that puts out 10000 pins a year, you think they could make a few of those in the $1-$2 range for the kids.
Boy, all this talk about pin trading is getting me excited about the trip! 26 more days! Woo hoo!