Need some help with potentially fake pins

[disneypinphreak]

Well I decided that I wanted to get back into the "game" of pin collecting. I went a little crazy last week and ordered a bunch of Hidden Mickey pins on ebay. It was just too easy because they were only $.99 a piece. Now that I received them and am looking at them a bit closer there are noticeable differences in some of the pins. These are the pins I'm referring to...

http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=66614&sid=9059.1298535802 (sorry I couldn't find the page that had all the colors listed)

I have noticed some differences in the pins. First off, 2 of them have smaller HM heads. The logos on the back look different and the pebbled metal on the back looks different. I'm am so new to this and my problem is, I don't know which one is the real one or which one is the fake one, if indeed they are fake or real at all. I'm guessing the one with the smaller hidden mickey head is the fake one, but I don't know.

Here are the pics I took myself. I tried to get them as detailed as possible.



In the third picture the orange pin (the one with the smaller hidden mickey head) is on the bottom. Also the logo on the back of the orange pin is smaller.

I'm hoping at least some of these are real, but my luck they could all be fake and this post could be pointless...LOL

Also since I bought them on ebay how do I go about letting the seller know they are fakes? I don't want to worry about the hassle of sending them back and filing a dispute with ebay. They only cost a buck after all...

 

[Roxane]

Those pins are all known to have unauthorized copies. I think all the bulk sellers on E-bay selling for $1 a pin are selling fakes they get from China really cheap.
If you don't want to return the pins for a refund, there really no point letting your seller know they're fakes, they already know. You could leave feedback to warn other buyers though.

 

[disneypinphreak]

Is there any idea on whether they're real or fake? I just want them to put aside so I don't end up trading them at the parks. Now that they're out of circulation so to speak, I don't want to put them back in.

I didn't realize the HM pins were so counterfeited until I looked up the pins on pinpics AFTER I purchased them. I guess I learned my lesson. When I collected even a few years ago there were fakes, but it was right around when the HM thing started so it didn't seem like there were that many. When I started years ago (around 2001) there were fakes but they were few and far between....I miss the old days sometimes...it seems like buying pins is like buying Coach bags...you never know what you might get..lol

 

[Tabbikat2219]

They dont look the same as mine and I bought mine in the little baggies Sorry

 

[disneypinphreak]

Do you have any pictures of yours? How do they look different?

 

[maakea2010]

Hello, New to Pin trading. We were at Epcot today and there was a guy selling in front of the PIN station and he had certain ones in his book and some on a board on a table and we brought them home and they are using the wrong numbers on them (saying 6 of 10 when the real number is like 2 of ten). We should have looked up this stuff before, did not realize so much scammers going on!!

 

[earthbound]

Hello, New to Pin trading. We were at Epcot today and there was a guy selling in front of the PIN station and he had certain ones in his book and some on a board on a table and we brought them home and they are using the wrong numbers on them (saying 6 of 10 when the real number is like 2 of ten). We should have looked up this stuff before, did not realize so much scammers going on!!

If you are talking Hidden Mickey pins then it is usually a good idea to do some homework first, maybe print out a copy of the set for yourself. I doubt very much that this "guy" was selling his pins inside EPCOT as this is a "no-no" on Disney property & if caught he would be in serious trouble & evicted from the park.

 

[Geoff]

Hello, New to Pin trading. We were at Epcot today and there was a guy selling in front of the PIN station and he had certain ones in his book and some on a board on a table and we brought them home and they are using the wrong numbers on them (saying 6 of 10 when the real number is like 2 of ten). We should have looked up this stuff before, did not realize so much scammers going on!!

Whoa, yeah, that guy better have not been selling pins on ANY sort of Disney property, its an instant way to get your pass/ticket revoked and banned from the park. I go to DLR Anaheim once or twice a week to trade, and I saw someone get escorted away by security just for having money on the table... Poor guy was only paying back another trader for a burrito someone got him, but they saw the money on top of the pins on the security cam, and it took three months to sort out. Just don't do it, ever.

And yes, any pin you can buy on eBay in bulk (20 pins for 15 bucks etc.) are almost guaranteed to be fake. I tried 7-8 sellers way back when I started, and every last one of them sold me fakes except for one, and all the pins I got from him were scrappers; they looked like they had been sitting in the bottom of a pond for the last two years, or left out in the middle of the freeway for days. The only ones I trust on eBay are some (and I mean SOME) of the harder to get pins, and pins that come on the original card, preferably with some sort of proof of purchase like a receipt. Also, I trust pins that never have or will be faked, like http://www.pinpics.com/cgi-bin/pin.cgi?pin=56075 .