I am torn on this! I hate it when my sorority's pins are up for auction, but I used to work for a guy who collected pins, (he's a Greek alum) and his point was that when these pins end up in pawn shops, they can be bought by jewelers for the gold weight, and then melted down. That is much more sad than a non-Greek collector owning it! I think that all the Nationals should buy the pins off eBay, or that the sellers should try to only sell to initiated brothers or sisters. I always look for my badges, and would buy one if it didn't get too high (which it always does).

As for non-sacred items (like you could buy on campus at the bookstore), I don't see any problem with that. I bought a silver key chain on eBay that none of the Greek stores at my school had.