To emphasize this point, remember that the use of boxes of side length r E → 0 as E → ∞, which measure the length of a form of E (rn) ⋅ rn as n → ∞, and we measure the area of E (rn) rn ⋅ 2 when n → ∞
Hill estimator is always positive, but Pickands estimator can lead to positive or negative values. So, if the true extreme-value index is negative, it is likely that you will obtain Pickands 0.
If Pickans estimator gives a negative value, then you can also compare the result with other estimators making no assumption on the sign on the extreme value index: maximum likelihood, method of moments, ... If all of them yield a negative value, you should not use Hill estimator which is limited to the positive case.
you can also have a look at the confidence intervals to see if they include positive values or not.