Currently bidding on a quill?
 

I'm bidding on a quill right now that I'm absolutely dying to have! I want the quill personally, but I also REALLY don't want it to go to a non-sister.

Ebay won't let me see the full usernames of the people I'm bidding against, so I was wondering if any of you happened to be bidding.

Then, even if I can't have it, I know it's staying in the possession of the sisterhood.

Not me, don't have the money for any of those quills :( Which one are you bidding on? Good luck!!

It's a 3 pearl, gold quill. I was given one as a gift, and it fell off one initiation and I never saw it again :( I want to replace it (to the best of my abilities).

There are a bunch of people bidding against me, so I guarantee it will go out of my price range.

Oh, yeah I see it. Very pretty! Cheap right now, but then again there's 6 days left on it. I don't know if you've bid too much on eBay before, but in my experience, you should definitely make sure you're at your computer within the last hour of the auction. The bidding usually speeds up around then.

Good luck!! I hope you get it so that we know it's in good hands!!

Good luck getting it ... if you don't you might consider contacting HQ about getting
a refurbished quill.

there is another one listed - only one bid so far - $55.00 - less than four hours left in the auction - it is a beautiful badge.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1924-Fraternity-...d=p4999.c0.m14

Holy cow! That is some find! Thanks for posting it! I wish I had the money, I would definitely bid on it.

Geez, you would think the lister would have looked up Greek letters...it's going to be hard to find under just "sorority or fraternity pin"!

oh - I really hope someone can reach the Dartmouth poster - the badge is stunning! all those pearls... sigh... have my fingers crossed that someone from your sisterhood will pick it up. The price is incredible.

I'm almost tempted by that one, since I likely won't get the other, but I'm really into the 3 pearl setting.

I don't believe they make this setting anymore. I count 19 pearls...currently the crown pearl badges have 15 I believe.

EDIT: I just checked the current bidders history... definitely a collector. I will try to wrangle it from him/her, but s/he seems like a pro...

THANKS FOR THE FIND AzTheta!

I have learned that the older badges are often of much better quality; that's true of many of the theta badges that I've seen. wonder how that one ended up on ebay? good luck to you in your search.

dartmouth panhel - check your private message inbox in a minute or so

you are most welcome. and good luck to anyone who might be bidding. I met an incredible AlphaXiDelta member this summer and was quite impressed.

I really hope an AXiD ends up with that one. I just realized, that's probably a very rare badge! The pearl ones today have 15 pearls, that one has 19. I wonder when that kind stopped being made...

ETA: Ha, whoops, I totally did not see your post, DP! :)

if one of you is successful, I'd love to hear about it. Good luck...

I'm bidding on it, so I spent some time looking closely at the setting. I think that this was originally a crown pearl badge with 20 pearls (which they stopped making a while back) and it lost a pearl. Or it's possible that they used to make 19 pearl badges as well as 20, but it's unlikely.

I had a question for any quill enthusiasts: I've seen (on ebay and otherwise) some badges that look like current double crown pearl badges with 15 seed pearls, but the pearl at the "point" of the quill is a diamond. Is/was this a standard option, or is this a customized quill?

ebay bidding words of advice - CLICK TO WATCH the item, rather than bidding on it (this will bookmark it for you). Then make a calendar reminder to go back within the last 15 minutes or so of bidding on something that you want. I learned early on that I've lost out on items, or ran the price up early on with other people who wanted it. You should wait until the last minute or so of the auction and bid as high as you feel comfortable bidding, and that way, you wont be suckered into bidding outside of your personal price range, and you will win it, as long as someone else doesnt bid higher than your price range at the last minute.

This was "standard" if I'm correct, because the way the order form use to be filled out, you could mark if you wanted to replace any particular pearls with a diamond. I dont know if this is still an option.

PM me with your email address if you want to see samples of the new quills that are being offered to the NMs this year. The document I have is copyrighted so I don't want to post it. I hear that the pictures on going to be on the FHQ website SOON! :)

Oh, I think you're right! If you look at the top, it looks like a piece is broken off, where the 20th pearl would be. Still, an amazing find!

20 pearl Quills were an option until sometime in the 1960s. When I initiated in 1971 we only had choices of the 15 pearls, plain, or 3 pearl tiffany setting.

Diamonds have always been an option. My Quill is 15 pearls with a diamond in the tip. One of the Quills I have from ebay is a 1928 Quill from Alpha Chapter and has 19 pearls and a diamond in place of the 20th pearl.

There were also options in the 1940s for closed crown setting for the pearls.

Ahhh Alpha Chapter! You are a pro at this! That's a truly amazing find!

I asked the seller about the 19/20 pearl question, and he said it didn't really look like there was one missing, but who knows. I still want it.

BUT, I keep getting outbid, so we'll see. I can't go much higher than it's at right now.

I lost it... in the last 4 seconds.

It's frustrating because the final bid was only a few dollars higher than my max bid, but I have to keep telling myself that
1) I had to draw the line somewhere
2) the winner's max bid may have been much higher

The winner actually wasn't the person who I'd been bidding against originally. Maybe she's a sister... fingers crossed!

Plus, on the bright side, now I can keep saving for a brand new colorful quill!!

yes there's a piece missing from the quill in the picture .. the end of the shaft with the pearls should be even with the barbs of the feather .. (if that made any sense).

that's to bad you lost the bid ...

I got the one from Alpha Chapter when ebay was relatively new but even then I paid way to much for it.

I got a 3 stone tiffany setting with light blue, dark blue, and yellow sapphires at convention. I really think the new ones with the sapphires are going to be very popular.

Yeah, I just looked at a bunch of new options. I really like a lot of them! I wish they let you have the 15 stone, d blue, l blue and yellow alternating, but still.

I'm going to still bid on the 3-stone pearl one, and we'll see about the new ones. To keep it even, I'd want a white gold one, but if i got the dark blue/light blue alternating (which i would since I don't have any "crown" style quills), i would want yellow so it could be double blue stones and gold.

Interesting.

The quill may not in fact have been from 1921. I can't quite read the picture on this one, but many quills listed on ebay are misinterpreted.

These day, quills have your chapter number-member number. Lots of sellers are assuming those are dates. Hmm... something to watch out for.

Yes .. prior to about the mid-1960s the quills have the initiate's name, chapter, and initiation date. Sometimes the initiation date is just month and year but usually month, day, and, year.

I don't know if it's changed, but the number on my quill is my member number. I initiated in 1985. When the numbers broke 100,000 maybe they changed it (?). When I went to register on InCircle I had to pull out my quill and read the very fine print for these old eyes to input the number for registration.

I hate that people sell quills on Ebay, but at least if they are, I'm glad they're going to Alpha Xi homes.

That's my feeling too. Sometimes I feel bad for encouraging the sellers by showing interest, but then again, if someone other than a sister is going to buy a quill, I'm going to be damn sure they pay as much as possible for it.

I just corrected a seller on a different quill. His quill said 30-942, and it tell everyone it's from 1942. I'm hoping that maybe if he has to take the year down, people will be less interested.

There's no way that Quill is from 1941. Its Alpha Eta, Purdue, chapter #30 Initiate number 941. Has to be after late 1960s.

I thought I counted it out to be Alpha Zeta, University of Oklahoma.

If this is the case, the chapter closed in the early 50s and reopened in the mid '80s, which is when (by my guess) the badge is from...

But what you missed is that Alpha is chapter "0" ... PM me if you're interested in why. So chapter number 30 is actually installed chapter 31 or Alpha Eta.

What's up with all the quills on ebay these days. There are like 6!

Wonder if the pin collectors saw our new quills and are unloading their inventory to make room. Cynical, but those are my thoughts.

WOW. This is either custom, or an old style they don't make anymore. And a huge diamond. Out of my price range though (I doubt it will go for less than $250).

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-ALPHA-XI...item518d63e8c3

whoa ... that's a style I've never seen before. I'm betting that its custom. The number on the back doesn't seem to be a normal membership number.

Thanks for posting the link.

On eBay

15- pearl Quill. Looks like the pearls are not crown set:

Ebay Item number:
110469898372

auction ends Dec 20, 2009
I'm not the seller, nor do I know anything about the seller.

Just found another very rare one. The pearls also do not look crown set AND its a $20 badge.

OMG the starting bid is VERRRYYY low...I know it prob will be discovered soon and won't stay this way, but I'm putting a bid on it now.

Here's the number #120506998611

ETA: Shoot, and two hours after poster this, I've been outbid. :(

I'm going to wait til about 10 minutes before it ends in a few days...

It's a vintage crown pearl (20 pearls instead of 15), but the setting does look a little different than the other 20 pearl crown settings.

ETA: It really does look a lot different, but the one exlurker posted doesn't look very old. Hmmm... maybe aftermarket? Then again, both badges do seem to be pretty old, so maybe it's just a style they don't make anymore.

The one I'm building on is definitely an old one, it says that it's marked as "Ruth Walker '20" on the back. The one exlurker posted has the newer chapter number and member number markeing on the back, which they started doing in the 60's so it's at least that old.

I just can't believe that I've never seen a Quill with this type of setting and that there are two currently on ebay!

these two Quills are both "closed crown" set and I've also seen it referred to as channel
set. The one with the chapter number and member number has to date from between 1964 and 1970 as that's when they stopped engraving the member's name and stopped offering the closed crown setting.

The pearls in the one from 1920 seem to be set deeper .. but that may just be an artifact of the picture.

Uggghhhhh it's now officially out of my price range. Yeah $46 isn't that much, but it is for a broke college student lol

Here's to hoping that it finds its way to a sister...