Wanna look like you are in a GLO?
 

At first I was a little pissed at these people.. It's pretty rampant on Ebay as well. It's something folks buy and sell and there's no way to stop it.

Someone buying your badge really isn't a big deal. Might as well be just another trinket in their jewelry cabinet.

It's not just something 'bling bling' to show what organization we're in. It has special meaning, in many cases, secret, special meanings about the purpose of the organization.

If folks want badges they can just go to masters of design and buy them -- they don't ask for ID or anything. It's what the badges stand for that matters.

Your absolutely right Ktsnake, and i've argued that position before (most specifically to the debate over the Beta regalia that was found on ebay earlier this year).

Looking over this site though, these guys seem to be a bit more noble than the typical ebay seller - at least they seem to want to give badges to actual members, and they seem to be pretty knowledgeable as well. They nailed the descriptions of the Beta badges I looked out. All in all, I suppose this is better than ebay.

It doesn't even really bother me that they sell on Ebay... Especially if it's an estate sale. It gives brothers the opportunity to pick up a new badge for far less than they'd have to pay for one from Masters of Design. I've seen our badges going for around $15.00 (the standard ones).

If you want a Sigma Nu badge (a damned fine looking badge in my opininon) just surf on over to Masters of Design with your Mastercard/Visa/Discover. They'll set you up. If you want to know what the hell it means, become a candidate and you may one day find out!

A buy back program? I can really think of so many better ways to spend those national dues... Like buying property, opening chapters. Badges are just symbols, and to non-members they're not really even that.

I would have to agree with KTSnake. I would much prefer my dues and such to go towards programming, opening new chapters, etc rather than purchasing back badges or pursuing legal battles with people selling them. Badges are symbols of our membership and should not be taken lightly (and I would NOT want to see my badge on a non-member). If there were a ritual book for sale - that's a completely different story (though the 'important' stuff isn't in our ritual book. . . :) )

Sarah

they can sport the pins and lie
but they don't know ritual
and that's what sets the boys apart from the men

Really? Our badges are listed at BurrPatt.com but you can only order them through IHQ, and they definitely do a check to make sure you're a sister.

Let me kick the dead horse a little bit.

Yes, it may sting a little to see your badge/pin for sale on ebay or this other site, but it is 2003 people, we're lucky they weren't selling decades ago.

Nothing we can do except save your allowance and buy them up, or stop sobbing and go on with life.

Are you sure? I would think that Masters of Design would be obligated to let your GLO do "due diligence" first and ensure that the person ordering the badge is legit? (I mean, wouldn't your GLO threaten to drop them if they did not do any checking?) Did you try to order a badge under a non-member's name? Maybe that might be worth a try, just to see how thorough they are?

I know that on Burr, Patterson and Auld, you can order DG badges & stuff, but it all gets "cleared" through our EO first, before the goods are shipped out.

AOII Badges can only be purchased through our Headquarters. Also, it sickens me to see badges on E-Bay, especially when they are not listed properly or they are sold to a non-member. However, we all know what are badges to mean to us and if a non-greek wants to collect them for their beauty, I can respect that. Has anyone ever purchased one from E-Bay before? I tried to bid on an AOII badge once but some non-member kept on out-bidding! I couldn't keep up with his money!

We've bid on a few of the really old badges and have managed to get some. We have a group of women who are usually willing to put in a bit of money to get the good ones. We then donate them to our museum. A few months ago we managed to get one that had belonged to one of the charter members of our Rho chapter.

We do have members who individually bid on ours as replacements for a badge they lost (or had stolen). But a lot of the time you can get a new one cheaper from M of D.

We've decided to focus our efforts on educating our members about what to do with their badge when they die so maybe not as many will show up on the market to begin with.

Also, like what has already been said, our badges have to be ordered from Headquarters and can't be ordered directly from M of D.

Random EBay badge-related comment:

There's an old-style QC badge on EBay right now, and I've never seen one before (my boyfriend is a brother so I check for their badges from time to time). It's really nice:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=11145

http://ebay0.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_...25b4d7/i-1.JPG


I hope a QC brother ends up with it!

No one verified it with me (or at least I don't remember them doing so) when I ordered my jewelled badge.

Maybe they verified it with Nationals? Did you give them name, initiation date etc?