Pins For Sale?
 

Ladies,

I was doing my usual internet browsing when I came upon this website. I know there are people who sell their pins or pins they have acquired on eBay...but all of these seem to be mostly older pins. Just wanted to see what others opinions of websites like this are.

http://www.fratpin.com/sigmakappa.htm

SLAM,
Megan

It makes me sick to see that this site has so many of our badges! Anyone sent Julia (our legal counsel) this link? Its easy to find out whose badges those belong to just by looking up the chapter & year in our sisterhood database.

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, our badges are special, for members only, the badges belong to HQ etc. However, I can only assume that online venues for buying pins decrease the number that are melted down because people are realizing they have more value intact than their scrap gold value. I have rescued a couple on eBay myself. Another plus (albeit a skewed way of looking at it) about fratpin is that the prices are so high, no one in their right mind would buy from them and resell or melt them down, which means the badge stays intact.

I view online vendors as the lesser of two evils. I would rather a badge end up in the jewelry box of a collector who would admire it than have it melted down and lost forever.

"Here is a newerSigma Kappa pledge pin in great condition. The clasp is slightly unnaturally angeled but closes completely without any problems."



haha :shrugs: I would have never described the clasp angle to be unnatural, but :shrugs: thats just me. I dunno, it bothers me that other people have our pins, but :shrugs: I don't see anything that can be done about it. It bothers me more when people openly discuss chapter business.

She might mean that the pin and clasp are slightly out of alignment but not to the point where it wouldn't close. My chapter guard is that way, I have to give it a little extra push but it still closes.

I believe they were talking about the angle our New Member Pins' clasps are at because they way they state it, it sounds like the structure of the pin. The pin clasps are all at an angle in these pins, and while not at the same angle I've seen other pins, I don't think I would have called it unnatural.

I'd never really thought about it that way. Thanks for giving me a new perspective to consider!

I second. Although I guess I've never really thought about it much, its a very good point.

I'd rather them be back in the hands of our HQ than in the hands of collectors. We already have someone from HQ spend time on eBay attempting to regain our badges, so hopefully someone will take the time to view that site. I sent an email to Julia last night with as much information about the owners of those badges as I could find. Hopefully something is done, and at least a few of them can be regained.

Of course, it is ideal to have our badges in the hands of HQ. Like it or not there will always be disgruntled members or alumnae that think their membership ends after graduation and don't want their badge anymore that will sell it for cash. I was only arguing that online vendors provide a wider audience and increase the chances that the badges remain intact instead of being melted down (and also increase the chances that our HQ can recover them).

This brings up an interesting point. We are taught that our badges really belong to HQ, that we are essentially renting them. So, when a member sells "her" bagde, is the badge considered stolen property and therefore, are sites like fratpin and stores on eBay illegal? Does our HQ (and the HQs of other GLOs) not fight it because we lack the resources or it would be more of a fight than its worth (i.e. we'd lose more money than the badges are worth)?

Pardon the crash, but as a legal matter, I think there is a real question as to just how enforceable the idea that a badge belongs to HQ really is.

With the caveat that I don't know anything specific about Sigma Kappa's policy on the matter, most such policies that I have seen have only been adopted in the last 10 or 15+ years (since the rise of sites like eBay). That being so, they can't apply to anyone who purchased her badge before the policy was in place.

As to those who were initiated after the policy went into effect, it still wouldn't be enforceable unless it was clearly laid out in writing at the time of the purchase of the badge; my guess is that the person purchasing the badge would need to have signed a document acknowledging that the org retained ownership of the badge and that she was simply "purchasing" the right to wear it.

My guess is that orgs don't fight sites like eBay or VintageFraternityPins.com because they know they probably would lose.

That's exactly what I was wondering.

Also, to Sig Kaps, a triangle that I rescued from eBay, I can't figure out what the engraving on the back means. It says "R 264". It's really strange that it says R and not P (Rho) if it is indicating the chapter, or that there wouldn't be one or two more English letters if it were the member's initials. Our Rho chapter was at Randolph-Macon Women's College from 1917-1940. It's in really good shape, but still possible that it could be from near the time when the chapter closed.

Maybe the 264th initiate to that particular chapter? I know that some orgs do that, although I didn't think we ever did.

That's what I was thinking about 264, but I am stumped about the R.