by M. Sparga

Created on: August 12, 2009   Last Updated: January 04, 2011

Fantasy pins, scrappers, bootleg and counterfeit pins have seeped into the market for Disney pins. If you're a trader or collector, you would do well to arm yourself with as much information as possible about these unauthorized and unofficial pins, especially as you look into possible trades or purchases.

Fantasy Pins

Fantasy pins are arguably the least of the offenders, since they don't actually break any copyright issues. A fantasy pin is a fan-made pin whose design hints at a Disney character (or ride, or font, or other intellectual property), but it doesn't actually show the whole thing. You might see a set of hats, for example, that look like they would belong to a group of familiar Disney villains. There's just enough there to give you the idea of the villains, but the characters themselves aren't actually shown.

Since these pins aren't official Disney merchandise, they can't be traded in the parks.

Scrappers

Many of the official Disney pins are produced in factories overseas. Sometimes after the full run of a certain pin design has been produced, a factory might use the same mold to manufacture additional, unauthorized pins of the same design. These "scrapper" pins might end up being sold to individuals who turn around and sell them on the secondary market, such as auction sites like eBay. Disney gets no profits from these pins. Sometimes scrappers even wind up getting traded in the Disney parks.

The challenge with scrappers is that they're made to resemble the official, authorized Disney pins. In some cases it's nearly impossible to tell the two apart, but sometimes there are dead giveaways, including differences in paint color, fuzzy font where it should be crisp, or other slight details. A good source for comparison is the online database PinPics, or DisneyPinForm (the spiritual successor to Dizpins).

Bootleg Pins

Some pins look legit, but they're actually a design that Disney has never released. These pins use Disney intellectual property outright, without permission, sometimes to pair a Disney character with another popular brand, such as Coca Cola, or sometimes to put a Disney character into a decidedly un-family-friendly pose (as is often seen with the popular characters Jessica Rabbit and Tinker Bell, for example).

Again, sites like PinPics and DisneyPinForum are good sources for learning which designs are authorized and which are not. It goes without saying that bootleg Disney pins are not tradeable.

Obviously, the safest way to guarantee that you're dealing with a 100% legitimate, authorized Disney pin is to buy it directly from Disney, either at one of the parks or through the online store. Other than that, just make sure you carefully inspect a pin before you trade for it in person, or if you're buying or trading online, check the other person's feedback and references. Just do the best you can to be a savvy trader.

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