Woooooow. Maybe if we all comment? I just commented, and this is what I posted:
"I'm glad to hear that your children enjoyed pin trading. It's a great hobby! But I would like to say that one needs to be aware that there are "scrapper" (fakes and factory imperfections) being sold on eBay, usually in large lots for very cheap prices. These pins have imperfections on them including rough edges and off colors. A good percentage of these sellers are illegally bringing these pins into the US to sell to unsuspecting pin traders (I'll admit, I did buy pins like this when I first started out, and now I regret having done so. Lesson learned!) These fake pins flood the parks and make it harder for people to trade for the real deal. All that is left on lanyards are bad quality pins that do nothing to help the pin trading hobby. If you are looking for some good pins to trade, I suggest purchasing Booster lanyard sets from the parks or Disneystore.com. Most are at reasonable prices, trade well, and are guaranteed to be real pins.
This is just a warning about eBay sellers listing pins at under $2 a pin. Just think about it, if a pin costs around $6 each at the parks and online, how to they get enough to sell at such a low price without loosing money?
There are also some great pin forums for people getting into the hobby. Dizpins has been out of date for some time. Might I suggest DisneyPinForum.com or PinTalk.com. You can also find people selling pins at very reasonable prices, and each seller has a feedback score similar to that of eBay.
I hope this helps you, your children, and all other Pin Traders. It's a great hobby!
- Alex"
Let's see if it stays up.
