AP IN ITEM TITLES:

Unfortunately, the AP designation has become somewhat ambiguous in it's use on eBay as an acronym for both 'ANNUAL PASSHOLDER' and 'ARTIST PROOF'. I have been pin collecting and selling on ebay for over 8 years, and to the best of my recollection, AP was first used to mean annual passholder. The first passholder pin listed on Pin Pics is number 53 listed on 1/13/2000. The first pin listed under the category of artist proof is pin number 8313 listed 11/26/2001, over a year and a half later. If you use artist proof as a search term on Pin Pics, you will find various mentions of artist proofs before this date, but in each case it is either part of a set (usually framed), or an unauthorized release.  So, when you see 'AP' in the item title, don't assume anything.  Read the description, ask the seller, or do whatever it takes to clarify the situation, if it isn't obvious.

ARTIST PROOF PINS-- MORE VALUABLE?

I think Disney's decision to muddy the waters of pin collecting with 'artist proof' designations on the back of pins is regretable. I think it is quite sufficient to produce limited editions, but most of the time, they do not even enforce these.  Consequently, many once valuable LE pins have been devalued by the Chinese factories producing more and selling them to non-Disney resellers, many of whom reside on ebay, and sell unauthorized Disney pins by the tens of thousands. I have observed numerous times in the past 5 years, that previously undiscovered 'artist proofs' of pins that had no 'authorized' artist proofs available, suddenly would appear in substantial quantities from these same sellers of unauthorized pins (aka 'scrappers'). Obviously fakes, given the quantity and timing, they nevertheless fetched good prices... for a while. Then the discriminating collectors caught on, and artist proofs have been held in some disrespect since, even though many are legit. There are still those who think they are special, however, and so there will always be a market for them, but I doubt most will turn out to be any more valuable in the long run than their non-proof counterparts.   And, if you are not specifically looking for an artist proof, for most collectors I would not recommend paying more for a pin just because it is marked AP on the back.

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