Pretty much 99.9% of what’s on trading boards are scrappers, so dont invest too much. Once upon a time, I would go and buy such eBay pins, only I was investing heavily in them! Like a whole dollar, even more! Basically, I wanted my very young daughter to enjoy in the trading hobby without me going “NO! OMG! WHATS WRONG WITH YOU?!? I JUST PAID $20 FOR THAT!!!” Because they were a whole dollar, versus a random lot of 50 for $5, I felt like I was honestly giving back to the community, even though they were technically counterfeit. They were actually nice pins, actual characters even. Problem was, they were too nice, and most time my daughter didn’t even want to trade BECAUSE they were better than the crap offered on the boards. But the few times she did trade, at least someone else ended up with something quasi-nice.
We are going in 9 days, and my trading supply is running low. It would appear that the days of $1 pins are over, as all the Chinese sellers are charging shipping now. With shipping charges, that’s over $5 for one pin. I am fortunate enough to live near a
Disneyland/store outlet. So my goal is to check out what they have. At $5, I may as well trade a true authentic pin. ...but still run the risk of keeping it. I wonder if the removal of free shipping will finally curb the scrapper issue.