[Exhibitman]

FWIW, when I started collecting pins years ago virtually none of them had the dangly crap on them. A few years ago I started seeing them more and more on eBay. IMO the vast majority of them are Frankenstein creations of vintage pins, charms and mini-pennants. As I am not expert enough in pins to separate the modern monsters from the real deals I simply will not buy any pin with 'pin-nuts'.

ETA: what the other guys said: learn first then make purchases. And I'd start with just a few items that you want to keep, not with thousands of dollars of stuff you hope you can flip. This is a hobby that requires considerable expertise at the dealer levels and novice collectors are setting themselves up for losses if they try to buy high end stuff to flip before learning what they are buying.