To me it looks like an official quill badge that has had the letters removed from the front and the identification information removed from the back (for what ever reason) ...
a recognition quill is very very tiny in comparison and the ones I've seen have either no pearls or just one pearl .. not 20.
So, yeah, even with out the evidence of purchase just a few weeks ago, the story sounds very bogus to me ... no member would remove the letters or identification information.
If you're going to lie about stuff on ebay ... at least make it sort of believeable...
here's the link to our HQs jewelry page ...
http://www.alphaxidelta.org/merchandise.asp?Section=12
if you want to see a recognition quilll just scroll down