Scrapper or Not Help

[PinPalz]

Just got really into pin trading and have just discovered scrappers and stuff along those lines. Have not been trading with that in mind, so now I want to make sure that pins I plan on using to trade in the future aren't scrappers. Would love some help with these, sorry there are so many! 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25 by PinPalz
trying to fix photos

[Dragon57]

In my opinion you have several fakes.

 

Evil Queen

Thick lines around eyes, font on back for Authentic Official is too large

 

Mickey Apple

Enamel too thin, font on back for Authentic Official is too large, Mickey waffle pattern not clean

 

Alice

Wrong colors for enamel

 

Train

Photo is blurry but the font on back for Authentic Official is too large, Boarder around pin - Mickey waffle pattern does not go to the edge

 

Tower of Terror

Font on back looks messy, Boarder around pin - Mickey waffle pattern does not go to the edge

 

Hopes this helps

[michaelmichael]

Ursula's missing the colour on her upper lip, and it also appears that her enamel is kind of sunken instead of flat and smooth. The other pin from the alphabet series might have the same problem but it's not as easy to tell in the photo. If the Jack-Jack pin is the pin I'm looking at, it turns out it's actually supposed to have places for a chain to attach to the back.

 

I'm most curious about the first two and the ship pin. I found the ship and would have to assume it's been faked judging by the trading ratios, but the Marvel ones look... not that bad? I'd be suspicious of anything labeled with an overseas resort (at least when you're looking at park boards/lanyards, anyway), especially LE pins, but the one thing that strikes me as odd about the Marvel pins is the Mickey head shape, so I'd have to look at a reference to be sure. Consider comparing against the Pinpics listings to be sure. Here's the Captain America one and here's the Iron Man one.

 

Hope this isn't too much information to digest. Being perfectly thorough about your traders means a lot of spot-the-difference games, but tells such as Dragon57 mentioned will get you a lot of the way toward spotting scrappers.

Edited April 25 by michaelmichael

[PinPalz]

Thank you all for the help! When it comes to Mickey waffling on the back, how do you tell whether or not it's fake? What makes it clear the waffling is wrong? Bummer that so many seem to be scrappers, but good to know for the future! Checking the pin listing for the first two it says that counterfeits have been made of the marvel pins, so I'm suspicious of them, but they look pretty good to me? So I'm struggling to tell. Hopefully the site gets the front and back of pins catalogued for reference. The Jack-Jack pin had a little stub on the side I thought was where the chain was supposed to go, but if it's meant to be the back it's probably a scrapper. Could you explain a bit about the enamel being sunken? As for the ship, bummer if it's a scrapper but it's a cool pin so I'm fine to keep it in my collection anyways. Was hoping the train wasn't one because I traded for it with a cast member at the very beginning of the day on his lanyard, but I guess they really are everywhere! 

[PinPalz]

It seems like hidden mickeys tend to be the ones that have scrappers, but do pins you buy also have them? Is there a rough timeline of when a pin is in danger of having scrappers flood the trade boards?

 

[michaelmichael]

Sure! Most official Disney pins will have pretty smooth & uniform enamel that creates a flat plane across the pin, but sometimes particularly cheap fakes will have dips where the enamel isn't filled all the way. As for the Mickey waffling, official pins are usually meticulous about the shape and distribution of the Mickey head - common pins like this should have waffling that's not too smudged nor too sharp, and the pattern probably shouldn't stop before the edge of the pin. (This is not a hard and fast rule nowadays but for Hidden Mickeys assume that it's the rule.)

Also, the base of the head is basically a perfect circle, and the ears are closer to ovals than circles. Doesn't mean there's no natural variation, but if it looks off to you then that's another flag that might help you identify a fake.

 

Theoretically any pin can be faked. However, historically Hidden Mickeys couldn't be bought in the park, they could only be acquired by trading for them (though Disney now sells little mystery baggies with cast lanyard pins), meaning that there was no way to authenticate them by comparing them to a real pin someone bought from the source. HMs also don't usually have features that are complicated to replicate, such as pin-on-pin elements or attachments. It got to the point where, if my sources are correct, waves of HMs were hitting lanyards as fakes before they were even officially released. Whether or not that's true, the fact is that scrappers are an unfortunate fact of life for park trading. There's a LOT of them out there, but you'll get a feel for which ones keep cropping up sooner than you think.

Edited April 25 by michaelmichael

[PinPalz]

What about this one? Enamel and lines seem good to me, back waffling goes all the way to the edge but the ears look more like circles than ovals and the nubs are round more than sharp. Saw that this has known scrappers out there so I want to make sure, is this real or a fake?

[firechief18]

I've never seen a hidden mickey from Shanghai, so not sure. Normally I would have worried about the nubs being rounded instead of being sharp.

[michaelmichael]

Yeah, I'm also not sure if there are any nuances between releases at different parks that would affect things to look out for. Is the pin as dark in person as it looks in the photo? That's the first thing that stands out to me. The Pinpics photo is a slightly brighter white and more vibrant green, though it could be due to lighting or wear. Also I have to be honest and say that while the shape of the Mickey waffling stands out to me as slightly off, I'm not certain that it's a HUGE signifier of a fake. The biggest tell for your pin, I would agree with FireChief and say that's a pretty weird shape for the nubs to be. They should be more or less conical.

[disneyfanatic01]

I believe all of the pins you have are scrapper pins. If you like them then I would just add them to your collection until you are able to find an authentic pin to replace them with. As far as the Mickey Heads on the backs of pins, there are new Hidden Mickey (now called Hidden Disney) pins that have Mickey's that don't go completely off the edge and have somewhat of a border on them. Scrapper pins are usually lighter than an authentic pin of the same size. They would possibly have rough edges, very glossy paint that shines, dips in the enamel, the enamel may look like it was painted on with a paint brush instead of filled, colors are usually off...for example a Tinker Bell Tsum Tsum may have orange skin instead of peach. The nubs on the back (either side of the post) will usually not be sharp and symmetrical. If you have a Hidden Mickey the numbers on the back should be evenly spaced (4 of 5 and not 4of 5 or 4 of5). Hope this helps! Oh, one more thing...please do not rely on the "magnet test" as that is not a reliable way to tell a scrapper pin from an authentic pin at all. As some authentic pins will stick to a magnet while some scrappers will not and vise versa.