/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

>>10223711
For Disney pin collecting:

Watch for bootlegs/fakes and scrappers.

Bootlegs are pins made by Chinese factories who are illegally using the Disney molds to produce low quality pins. You can find lots of bootlegs/fakes for cheap on ebay and they do unfortunately get traded in the parks by people who usually don't realize that they're fake.

Scrappers are from the official "Disney" production runs, but they were too low quality for Disney to sell. Although Disney has been slowly upping their official pin quality in the last few years, even official Disney pins--in my opinion--don't have great quality, so scrappers are even shittier.
Here's a good guide to spotting fakes: https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140526/18214/7-ways-tell-if-disney-pin-genuine

To avoid fakes, I only buy them from the stores or from people buying them brand new from the parks.

If you're looking for Stitch pins, here is a database with all the official ones: https://www.pintradingdb.com/pinList.php?catId[]=27

This does breakdowns by park/company as well.

You can also look for fantasy pins, which is a pretty way of saying "unofficial pins that aren't legal but Disney looks the other way for the most part." Fantasy pins are usually higher in quality than official Disney pins and have more details and interesting designs. Best way to find them without diving into the whole fantasy pin world is looking on ebay or on Instagram with the tag "fantasypinsforsale" Just be aware that you may be paying a lot more for them than a typical $10-15 official Disney pin because they tend to be much larger and they have small production runs.


>>10224235
Tokyo Disney does not do trading, but there are pins to buy. There's no guarantee what will be available when you go, but if you ask a cast member they may be able to point you in the direction of Stitch pins, if you're specifically looking for Stitch.