I absolutely agree with you on one point. Founders' badges along with any other unique or even non-standard badges ought to be returned to the organization forthwith. For that matter, I would return the pin first and simply hope to be compensated for my costs afterward. But I'm not going to ask some collector to return a pin that is identical to the thousands of pins minted last year unless it belongs to a living member.
For example, I returned a brother's badge to him about a year and a half ago. His ex-wife stole it during the divorce and sold it to an antique dealer. A badge collector found it and offered to sell it to me (directly--no eBay). I accepted the offer and mailed the pin to the brother. He was kind enough to cost me out, but I never actually asked him to pay me for the pin. (I would really have enjoyed being a fly on the wall the very next time he talked to his ex after that, tho. He said he'd asked about the badge during the divorce and she claimed she didn't have it. Can you say "busted"?)
My point is, if it had not been for the collector, my brother's pin would now be a wedding ring, a necklace, or whatever. The antique dealer was in Oregon. I've only been to Oregon once while I was in high school when antiques were real close to the bottom of my agenda. Without the collector, I'd have never seen the pin and, chances are, neither would my brother.
Collectors are necessary because if members were doing an efficient job of garnering badges for our respective museums, there would be nothing left for them to collect. If you knew how many hours I have spent combing through antique malls finding almost nothing of value, you'd have some idea how enormous a task I've undertaken and what a boon the collectors are. (Are YOU pounding the pavement, looking for pins?) Frankly, it is far, far cheaper in terms of gasoline to pay eBay prices for them. But again, if the demand weren't there, the supply wouldn't be on eBay, either. In other words, the existence of collectors makes the job of finding pins easier. They deserve to be compensated for their work of finding badges by owning some of them.
Collectors are tolerable for three reasons. First, they create an economic demand for pins which helps prevent them from being immediately melted down. Second, they do sell pins on occasion or plan to donate their pins upon their demise, thus the museums will tend to get them sooner or later. Third, our General Fraternity Historian says our museum hasn't got the budget to even pay scrap gold value for standard pins anyway, so the collectors might as well have them for the time being. I daresay the brass at your sorority's HQ are far more involved in preventing risk management incidents and making sure rush is successful this fall than they are concerned about who has what pinned to a display case in their basement.
When pins do come back to our museum they get pinned into a black, velvet-lined display case, which coincidentally, is exactly what the pin collectors do. I haven't quite figured out where's the harm in that.
I realize I'm shouting into a hurricane, here. I doubt anything I say will sway you to my point of view. I guess I've just mellowed somewhat over the past few years and have come to the comforting conclusion that the world doesn't have to be perfect to be enjoyable. My blood pressure is much lower now that I have accepted the reality of badge collectors and the overwhelming impossiblity of preventing their access to pins. I'd rather have badges come to the museum later than never so I will be coexisting peacefully if not cooperating with them. Of course, you're perfectly welcome to join me in screaming at the wind.
But I'm not so ancient that I don't expect to be around when you turn 40. I do find it amusing that I estimated it would be a while and you seem to have confirmed this. I just hope you take a pill and relax or you're going to blow a gasket before you get there.
