some jerk selling pins on ebay...
 

i just thought i might let you know about a little run in i had over email with a particular ebay seller. after trying to email him asking the simple question of whether the seller happened to be a sister / intended to sell to a sister, etc, i received a flaming email from which the following was a part. i figure that alpha delta pi's pins can't be the only that he sells and that you might all want to be aware of him. his ebay name is skidmarks i believe.

"Now that you ask, it was my full intent to insult your organization.
....
IF the pin belonged to your organization, why do I have it with a
reciept for purchasing it from a scrap gold dealer? If I had not bought
these pins they would be large Mercedes-Benz symbols hanging on some persons
neck by now. You need to police your own organization better. If you
consider the pin the property of the group then you had better improve the
organization and the recruiting to get people with a better sense of what it
mean to be a member. They should have a note in thier will requesting the
pins be returned or buried with them. They should send the pin to the
undergrad chapter to be recycled and loved by a new member. Not sold for
scrap by your trailer trash decendents as these obviously were.

Seems like an internal problem to me. Take of your own house before coming
after my property.

Cheers,

Skid

PS I only put the "buy it now" amount up for some stupid sorority chick to
use. Usually one comes along and can't stand the thought of some pig like
me owning a cherished item of thier group and buys it. Works like a charm.
I make a fortune of these fools."

sorry, just had to vent... i tried to do a search on his name on gc to see if it had been discussed but didn't find anything... if there are any other fairly new members, at least maybe now you are aware of this jackass too


:mad: :mad: :mad:

Skidmarks is a pin collector....he has been for a long time, and probably won't quit anytime soon.

This issue has been discussed like 68 times, and unfortunatly for us all, it won't go away either. So, rather than kicking the dead horse again, I suggest you just ignore his rude e-mail and don't lose any sleep....because there is really nothing we can do about it.

I agree, it's best not to get into arguments with these people. Although we all know that THEY are the fools instead of us, there's nothing to gain by sending insulting e-mails back and forth. What he wrote would have made me want to spit nails, too, but try and ignore him. Once people like that see that they can't get under our skin (which undoubtedly some of them love to do), it will take away all the joy they get out of it. I think we should just all take the high road--yes, it's really hard, but...--and work to prevent people like that from getting their slimy claws on any more pins that belong to us.

Actually, that's one reason I don't like to buy pins on eBay. We're trying to protect them, but it has the effect of driving the prices up and making the market ever bigger.

And honestly, I'd rather see my pin "scrapped" and no longer be a pin than be in the hands of a collector.

Re: some jerk selling pins on ebay...
 

All I have to say about that is: WHAT A TOTAL JACKASS. :mad: Of course, you can tell by his username that he's pretty much trailer trash himself. :rolleyes:

okay. to be the devil's advocate here. . . with the exception of him being a complete jerk 'bout that . . . he does have a point 'bout the part of making sure our girls understand the full meaning of those pins. as an alpha gam i have seen pins on ebay that for some god awful reason, are being sold by members. that sucks completely. i mean, i understand a collector selling - money. but when a sister sells her pin, that's just horrifying to me. i'm sorry here everybody, cause ya'll are right 'bout him continuing to collect and sell. but until our members stop selling to places where he buys them, how angry can we possibly get at him. i mean dang. first thing we need to do is look at our own organizations.

sorry for my position on this. cause i hate seeing alpha gam pins sold, but i'm not going to blame a person who bought it outright. i'm going to blame the sister or the brother who obviously didn't didn't want it that much.

keep in mind i'm not including the people who had their's stolen or legitametely lost it.

marissa

ps. do you know for a fact that everybody in your chapter knows what to do with their pin if they don't want it or if they die??? there's half the battle right there.

Selling pins is not illegal. I hate it and it burns me up, but there's not much I can do about it...

But dude, WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS?? I'D ASK IF YOU WERE BORN IN A DAMN BARN, BUT THAT'D BE AN INSULT TO THE LIVESTOCK!!

He's got no business judging who truly "knows the meaning behind the pin" or whatever. That pin has no meaning to anyone outside ADPi. A simple "I'm sorry, to make bidding fair to all I'm not responding to anyone who claims to be from the fraternity" would suffice.

But how much can you really expect from someone whose sn is skidmarks??

C-mum -

I totally agree! If you want to go ahead and sell it fine, but there's no need for the trailer trash remarks or name calling. Does he ever think about the fact that maybe some of these pins come from deceased members with no family and some random person has to take care of their things when they die??? Oh well, karma will bite him in the ass, big time.

I agree, rudeness is never necessary. Here is a similar statement that I found in some recent auctions, which gets the same point across in a more respectful way. I liked it so much that I saved it:

"Only legitimate emails will be answered. These pins were purchased from several antique dealers who bought out estates and sold them to me by weight or value of the pearls and stones. I did not get them for free nor am I bound by any groups bylaws as to “leased” pins being returned to national HQ. If this is your calling in life, please bid and do what you like with them. Please do not send me email telling me to return them to your HQ. Any emails received to this effect will be forwarded to ebay and logged as harassment and your ebay membership could be revoked. There are so many nice ebay folks that I have bought and sold these pins to over the past 5 years. Unfortunately, there are always a few who ruin it for the rest of us! The good news is more antique dealers are selling me and other collectors pins directly and not listing on ebay because they are tired of the annoying emails telling them to return pins to HQ!!!"

Interesting twist about dealers returning to private deals instead of listing on ebay, and lately a few dealers have told me the same thing. They get a little less money selling directly to collectors, but it’s a no-hassle transaction.

wptw

That's right, and I still think we should just write off the pins already on the market as lost and stop trying to get them back through auctions like Ebay. I bet it would lower the going prices quite a bit, which would mean less money for collectors and that would warm my heart, I have to say. Arguing won't do any good--let's just hit them where it hurts. (By the way, I apologise to all the non-rude collectors out there...but, well, a few bad ones ruin it for the whole bunch.)

And while we're at it, maybe we ought to make a bigger effort to prevent pins from getting on the market in the first place. My bright ideas stop there--I have no idea how to do this, especially since I know it'd be really hard and we'll never be able to just eradicate the whole market. BUT...we can make sure that our brothers and sisters know their organizations' "badge rules" (i.e. what to do with the badge upon termination of membership or member's death, etc.), so that less of them might end up in estate sales or (worse) sold by the owners themselves. OK, I know my big ideas hardly ever work, but I would rather DO something about it than run in circles trying to get dealers to come around to our way of thinking, you know?

Yes, there are some honest to goodness colletors out there! Yes some and well all like to buy low, sell high!

While I myself would love to have a full set of all Greek Orgs Badges and Pledge Pins to be placed in My Chapter House upon my deat, I am interested in only LXA Badges!

It depends on each Org. what the rules say about a Badge! If it is owned by the Org. then it should be retruned to the Org!

That is a written contract between each member and their respective Orgs.
If that is so, then who ever it is is holding stolen merchandise!

Some one had a charter of LXA and I e-m them saying that it was the property of the International so it was stolen property and therefore a crime punishable by law! It came off of ebay real quick!

But sometimes thisis picked up in an estate sale when there are no relatives and no one knows what to do with them!

Mine is my property, Mine is in my will as to where it is to go!
I suggest you do the same!:cool:

OH, check with your Internatinational! If the Badge is the Property of the International, just politly tell that person, that it is the property of and is in reality holding stolen goods!

That ought to chap his ass!!:D

I don't think the issue of the pins getting into the wrong hands is always a member's fault. THey could have outlined it in a will, but if the person taking care of their estate doesn't understand how important it is, they won't bother with the whole mess. It's easier to make a quick buck. This is why we must educate our family members on how important it is to us so they will take the time to take care of it when we are gone.

P.S. I was on ebay yesterday and there is another guy who is selling a bunch of pins and has a really NASTY explaination of his feelings. He even laughs in our faces. I don't think his name was Skidmarks, but these two must have been separated at birth.:mad:

That was they guy I was talking about! He had "Ha Ha" after that last sentence I believe. Oh it mad me frying mad!!!:mad: :mad:

It saddens me that this is going on. These pins and badges have a deep meaning and should be treated with the up most respect! It is an honor to own one of these badges. I do believe that every GLO has guild lines on what to do with a badge once that person dies or is no longer in that GLO. It is just very up-setting to know someone is plainly disrespectful to that GLO. No one can never really know where these pins and badges are coming from. A member could have died or the pin could have been in a box that was sold by mistake. It is distrubing to know a brother or sister would knowingly sell or give up their badge. It is true that GLO should make it very clear about how a badge is to be treated and as members we should take that to heart. Maybe the HQ for these GLO should get together and buy these badges and pins back. :(

What exactly did he say? This smacks of a soap opera... :D

Next time on "As Ebay Sells..." ;)

lol!
 

The Days of our Pins
The Young and the Pinless ;)

Re: lol!
 

Yep, and that's why it's on Ebay! LOL! :D

Someone had posted what he said before I posted and I quoted it after my original post. The only thing was that the collector or whatever had "Ha Ha" after it. He was basically mocking our wishes for people to be repectful. I couldn't believe the immaturity. And the dude that posted it thought it was respectful. That's what I found to be REALLY amusing.

With regard to our pins being sold on Ebay, I don't know if many of our organizations have any stipulations regarding the disposition of pins after our passing. In many cases these pins were picked up at estate sales and I wouldn't be surprised if there were also fenced items that had been stolen. In any case, if you feel so inclinded you might want to purchased your organization's pin. I know I have done so recently. I too am concerned about unscruplious (sp) people buying the pins and trying to pass themselves as a soror. On the other hand, if a person is a serious collector and plans to research the sororities and fraternities; display the pins with diginty then I guess I won't object too badly. As for the nasty sellers, you're going to find nasty no matter where you go, so why bother to pick up that thrash? That's my 22cents. :cool:

The seller is not a he. She's a she. And a very active member of her NPC sorority, if I remember correctly. And what I said was: She got her message across in "a MORE respectful way" as compared to the other seller. Having seen quite a lot of these so-called "polite" letters y'all send to pin sellers, I think her message is downright sweet!

I'll post it again, since I like it so much.

HA HA!

...and did you call me DUDE?!
How bizarre.

wptw

Worth every one of those 22 pennies. Well said, Indigo.

wptw

I agree... her response to the Pin Seller Harrassment Squad is much more tasteful/tactful/respectful then the other guy...

But.....

Perhaps it's just me, but I'm actually more troubled by the active member of an NPC sorority dealing pins then the jackass collector....

I mean... the jackass is just that... a jackass... he's ignorant to the cherished symbols of our fraternity... he sees the pins as nothing more than pieces of jewelry... parts of his collection that can bring in some serious profits... just like most antique dealers, the memories and sentimental value placed on the items they sell mean nothing... it's how much they can get for them that is....

Then there's the NPC Sorority member... she IS a member of a GLO... she has been through an initiation.... she knows the meaning of the cherished symbols... she should treasure her own badge... and she should know what badges for other GLOs mean to their respective members... right?

Fraternally,
Mai Ly

Surprise! The "jackass" is also a member of an NIC fraternity.

And so am I. I'm a very serious badge collector AND I'm a very dedicated member of my NIC fraternity. The VAST majority of collectors are fraternity and sorority members. And we aren't "ignorant to the cherished symbols of your fraternity". Quite the opposite in fact. We just see the issue differently than you do.

There is still some confusion out there about the difference between dealers and collectors. Dealers are typically not greek and are in it solely for profit (nothing wrong with that, by the way). The two people we've discussed here aren't "dealing pins" - they're collectors. Collectors are very serious about continuously improving what we have, so we sell off duplicate or less valuable pins to fund the continued evolution of our own collections. That's what you're seeing when you stumble onto one of our auctions. We're generally nice people, but after a few hundred rabid emails we get a little snotty ourselves.

wptw

okay

Actually, we feel that there is something wrong with it...that's why this topic has been discussed so much. Our badges are not "collector's items." They are a testament of our brotherhood and sisterhood and they should be solely for us! :mad:

Then you should continue working hard to prevent them from reaching the open market in the first place. I stand by my statement: Regardless of what these pieces may mean to you and me, once they're on the open market you just can't blame a dealer for selling them for profit, just like he sells a thousand other estate jewelry pieces. That's what he does for living! How is he supposed to know (and frankly, why is he supposed to care) that you object to this?

Think for a moment how you would react if some crazed band started emailing you at work every day and telling you that your job is immoral and wrong, that you should cease it immediately and return all your assets to their HQ. Absurd!

wptw

I have a question for you wptw....
I understand that you are a member of a NIC fraternity. I am just wondering if it does perhaps bother you in a way when you see a pin from your own fraternity for sale? I mean, this could be a brother who had passed on and his family did not know what to do with the pin. I just can't help but feel a little bit of frustration to see a "vintage" pin online knowing it is from a deceased sister. Surely you can understand how I feel, right?

Hi ZTAngel,

Sure I can understand. Yes, it bothers me a little bit when I see a pin from my fraternity on ebay. But only because I really want it for my collection, and I may not be able to afford it. It's the same sad feeling I get when I bring my car in for service and I look around at all the brand new 7 series BMWs at the dealership!

But I don't feel the least bit of anger or outrage toward the seller. That emotion would be entirely misplaced. And that’s what I see in most GC discussions on this issue - misplaced anger. I would love it if every loose badge from my fraternity went to a member. But if that doesn’t happen, then what am I going to do? Get all angry at dealers who are just making a living like they always have? Get all angry at collectors who are just preserving and honoring bits of Greek history like they always have? Get all angry at some poor relative of a deceased member who means no disrespect but has no idea what to do with the pin? Get so blind with moral outrage that I fool myself into thinking the practice is somehow illegal? No. I’ll just quietly rescue as many as I can and save my outrage for something I can actually change.

And the vast majority of the time, the ones I don’t rescue will be bought by...
A) A member.
B) A collector, who will display it proudly in his library and cherish it as much as any non-member possibly could.

I can live with that.

wptw

P.S. Now, if the seller were a disgruntled member of my fraternity, or if the buyer was someone trying to impersonate a member, then I'm sure that would bother me. But these cases are exceptionally rare.

OK, is it necessary EVERY time the topic of pins for sale comes up to turn it into a battle of should they or shouldn't they? This was a thread about eBay pin sellers being rude in their sales spiel. It was NOT a thread about whether pin-selling is wrong. We've been over it before and concluded 1) most Greeks are very much against it but not all 2) obviously collectors and sellers aren't and 3) there isn't any legal recourse unless it is your pin and it was stolen from you. We'll be over it again, too, I'm sure, but do we have to discuss it EVERY time eBay is mentioned?

Just my opinion.