Confused

[isatricia]

I purchased some pins off ebay thinking it was be a fun and easy way to get started. I have the pins and spent a long time one night looking on pinpics and found very few of them. I am still confused on how to tell if it is counterfeit or a scrapper. Most of the pins I received are "Hidden Mickey" and they have no pattern on their back. Although I can't find anything that says for sure, but I am guessing this means they aren't real. There are a few that have the patterns and 2 appear to have the pattern run off the edge. My guess is that I got taken and should report this to ebay. I still don't know what the other things to look for other than the pattern on the back.

 

[LadyArmonua]

Not all HM pins have patterns, some just have a textured back but are stamped with a box that should say what number the HM is out of (ie: 2 of 5), have the official Disney trading logo with the correct year on it and the ever present (C) Disney, CHINA box somewhere as well.

Sometimes it's really hard to tell if a pin is fake or not as some counterfeits can be well made but usually you can tell by general thickness of a pin (most fakes are thinner than their official counterparts), whether the paint is too vibrant or dull or streaky/blotchy, there can be dips in the paint or some places won't be cut out completely where there shouldn't be any metal showing at all. Particularly with the HM pins a good way of telling when a pin might be scrap is by taking a good look at the Hidden Mickey icon somewhere on the pin. A lot of the time on fakes the little Mickey head is malformed; the ears are either way too small or oval or the whole thing looks disproportionate.

If you aren't sure about certain pins, just ask, likewise for not being able to find certain pins on Pinpics. The people here are generally pretty helpful. If you can take pictures of your pins, all the better because that tends to help others see for themselves what issues you might be seeing with your pins.

By the way, welcome to the board and pin collecting and trading. ^_^

 

[isatricia]

I didn't get the best picture:

After looking at each pin closely, I see rough spots on the edges of every one and on a couple I see paint divots. I am glad I didn't tell my daughters about pin trading.