One of the most popular activities for guests at any Disney resort is pin trading. The trend was inspired by pin trading activities at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Disney’s vast collection of pins includes special designs featuring attractions, resorts, characters, special events, holidays, and more. Guests can buy many pins directly for their collection, but the fun is in trading them. There are many pins that you can only get by trading with Cast Members because they’re never sold in stores.
The problem with pin trading is that there are a lot of counterfeits out there that look extremely similar to the real thing. Most Disney pins, both real and fake, are manufactured in China. When a factory finishes with a legitimate run of real pins, they often discard the old mold. These same molds are then used in counterfeit production runs to create pins that can look nearly identical to the real thing.
The following qualities will help you determine whether a pin is real or a fake. These elements will ensure that you’re looking at a genuine pin but are not necessarily present on every pin that’s authentic. Just because a pin lacks one of the criteria, it’s not necessarily a fake. Having one or more of these features does mean that your pin is almost surely real.
1. Look for the official Disney Pin Trading logo
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Disney Pin Logo
Every official Disney Pin should have a Pin Trading logo on the back. The main part of the logo is a classic Mickey head with a banner across the middle. Inside the banner it will say “Pin Trading,” with the release year beneath it. Newer pins have the Mickey head logo set atop a crest shape, making it look even more official. It should also say “© Disney.”
2. Look for a stick pin closure
Wrong Pin ClosureTrading pins don't have this closure.
Official Disney trading pins have a stick pin that pokes a hole into an article of clothing and is held on by a rubber Mickey Mouse shaped pin back. If the closure is anything else, it may not be the real McCoy. Please note that if the pin back doesn’t look like Mickey, it doesn’t mean that it’s a fake. The original pin back may have been replaced.
3. Look for prongs on the back
With and Without ProngsThe pin on the left is authentic
Official Disney Pin Trading pins usually feature at least one prong to keep the pin from spinning. Larger pins boast two small prongs while smaller pins usually offer one tiny prong. These prongs, or nubs, are little more than raised bumps so they’re easy to miss, but a nub or two on the back is an excellent indicator that you have a genuine pin.
Comments
I totally agree with the comment that these "tips" only apply to recent pins. I started collecting in 1999 - the store pins - in preparation for the beginning of the Y2K celebration of pin trading that Disney was launching. I have thousands of pins. I had a cast member on my trip in January try to tell me it wasn't a legal pin trading pin because it didn't have all of these tips. Well - I promptly went to have a discussion with guest services. The newer cast members don't understand and they follow these current guidelines. The original pins when pin trading started and made hundreds of thousands of dollars for the company don't have this. But they are still REAL pins.
Just starting to get into Disney Pin trading collecting so this has been very valuable.
The problem with this article is that it is only good for RECENT pins... for any pins older then maybe like 2012 (or even more recent) all of these are not true. I am a former trader, and a former cast member. I also have a pin collection of older pins that are limited edition, cast exclusives, overseas pins that are GENUINE and most of them DO NOT meet this criteria. So while this may work for recent pins, any of the more hard to find, older pins - it's not relevant. BEST way to know if it is a true Disney pin or not? Check to make sure it has the copy right on it or not. Disney cast members CAN NOT trade it if it's not a pin with a copyright disney... if it's not something they would trade - it's not a true Disney pin. Also - the second one is a BUTTON not a pin - buttons aren't tradeable ;-).
hey, I'm a intermediate pin trader, trading since 2009 and i just got back from my trip to Disney in florida and I was talking to a cast member from the pin traders tent in downtown Disney who seems to really know his stuff. he told me that if the pin is magnetic then its a fake. official Disney pins arn't magnetic he said. now im a little worried about some of my pins cause I tested them and four of them are magnetic. is this true they are fake?
This is a true. I was a merchandise cast member last year and that was one of the ways we would test to see if they were real, as well as all the ways listed above. While a few genuine Disney pins may be magnetic, the majority aren't so if you have a few magnetic ones check for weight, coloring, copyright, and weight and metal used. Hope this helps :)