Another beautiful badge on eBay
 

Hey Thetas, I'm currently bidding on a Theta badge on eBay, but as I am a poor college student with no money I probably won't even to make the reserve on it. It's old, from 1909, with seed pearls surrounding the main badge, very pretty. The other person bidding so far is definitely a pin collector---I looked at his/her other items purchased and there was a Tri-Delt pledge pin and another frat/sorority badge for a GLO I'd never heard of, just in the most recent purchases. If you're in the market for a vintage Theta badge, check it out and try to wrest it away from this pin collector. Hopefully the reserve is within my range, but if not, at least a Theta should have it. Right? Anyways, here's the link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3930006815

Good luck!

badge
 

I saw this badge yesterday... it is so unusual looking! Sweetie, I know you are bidding, but I can pretty much guarantee you that the price on this is going to be very high before the close. I'm not even going to try... bank account ain't that generous!

Not very many of our badges of this vintage come available. Not to worry, there are several Thetas who watch Ebay for our things. I know a couple of Thetas that I bet will put in a bid in a few more days :D Since this is identified correctly & easy to spot, plenty of our alumnae will certainly get in on the auction!

It is really so sad to me that this Theta, who was probably quite an independent and strong woman, is having something so precious sold off to the highest bidder. She would probably smack this granddaughter if she could.

Excuse me for crashing, but I found one of your pledge pins on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...953310147&rd=1

Good luck!

I dont think this one is ours, though it does look quite similar. IT looks to be purple and gold, ours has black and gold and is more diamond shaped.

Hey ladies, sorry to crash!
I found this badge (link down below) tonight on eBay and thought y'all might want to know. It looks pretty old, and it's pretty obvious it's not the standard shape now since it's listed right under another one. The seller claims it's from 1883. Right now the high bidder is "kaokite," so it's hopefully going to end up in her hands; I just thought y'all would like to know just in case she loses her high bid spot.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...964358981&rd=1

Not to fear! If kaokite is bidding, I bet that badge will be safe! I can't wait to see it when the link comes up (still down).

wow! what a treasure! maybe i'll get it for my mom. i have hers, so she only has a plain standard issue one. i'll keep an eye on it. thanks for pointing it out!

speaking of badges
 

Hi Ladies,
yes, I'm bidding on the fab old badge.. should be interesting to see how it all hashes out in the last hour of the auction.

slightly similiar topic: I just got 2 badges w/in the past week that I don't particularly need, but couldn't pass up as they were VERY cheap.. I figured there had to be some Theta who might want to take them off my hands for what I paid for them.. both are pearl badges w/pearl chapter guards.. one from beta eta (1946) and one from beta gamma(1960's). I paid $110 for the beta eta and $115 for the beta gamma. beta gamma is still in the original box from Balfour. Anyone interested? (Thetas only please, and I will verify your membership with HQ.) PM or email works great..

ciao!
-K

It's OVER!
 

WHEW!!! Yeah! Katy won that beautiful 1883 badge today! It went to $530, but that is actually a lot lower than I expected. You all might remember the very old, clsoe to founding Pi Phi pin that went for $2200 (I think) not that long ago.

I attribute at least part of that to Theta's statement advising us not to bid on Ebay badges. I hate to see Theta's bidding against Theta's without kind of coordinating it between each other. Why run up the price for the seller?

Congrats, Katy!

Sorry for crashing...
 

Congrats to the Theta who won the 1883 badge. I was watching the auction and was surpsied at how low it went. Good work within Theta to avoid the upbidding! The P Phi an earlier poster referenced actually went for $5,200, not $2,200 and it was an I C Sorosis badge and it was plain gold without jewels!

PS Sorry for crashing!

Denise DPhiE

Re: Sorry for crashing...
 

Ah, I hit 43 & the memory went south! $5200... OH MY :( I do remember that it was a very historically significant badge to Pi Phi. It was so sad to see it end up on Ebay.

Re: Re: Sorry for crashing...
 

I hope it got sent back to Pi Phi HQ for their archives.

Hey girls, here's another badge of yours on ebay. It also comes with a NM pin and crest charm. Right now it's at $20.50, hopefully one of you will be able to get it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...007313539&rd=1

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I have to ask:
How does this happen???
Can someone help me understand this?
:(

Well there is unfortunately a variety of reasons as to why this happens.

The top reason most likely is that as our senior members die their pins often end up at estate sales/auctions because they have not made arrangements in their wills (if they have one) for their pins. Non-Theta and Non-greek family members then dont know how special our badge is so they sell them or put them up for auction. So people that should not have them get them that way. This is why you usually have strangers or non-member collectors if you will that are usually only out to make a buck and care not of the significance of our (and other GLO's) badges.

Other times you have members that resign their membership for whatever reason and instead of sending the badge back to HQ, they decide to sell it on eBay. I have found that this usually applies to "disgruntled" past members who have had some kind of negative experience with the fraternity(which again can be a wide variety of reasons regardless of what we may think).

Other times you may find a member who innocently sells the badge on eBay because she may have fallen into hard times financially--though I have only heard of one case of this happening and I cant remember if it was another Theta or a member of another sorority. I would say this is most rare.

Best way for this not to happen is to have a will, and have it stated in there that your pin is to be passed on to either another Theta(that needs to be named such as your legacy) or returned back to HQ. My fiancee knows these instructions and it will be written in our will as well once we are married.

Hope this answers your question :)