[GPhiBLtColonel]

I am a member of the Gamma Phi Beta Badge Task Force. As far as I know only the Kappas and us have such entities monitoring badge auctions on ebay. The Kappas are total pros at it thought they sometime lose auctions to collectors as do we. There is something called auction sniper that can usually get your ebay bid in the last seconds of an auction presumably to win but if a collector does it too, the auction is won by whoever's sniped bid gets in the closest to the end of the auction time.

Here is my little Panhel badge story:
Here in Atlanta, on the first weekend of every month there is something called the Lakewood Antique Market -- though I have lived here for almost five years now, I had never been. Two of my girlfriend finally persuaded me to go with them and check it out -- it was really neat but I did not have anything in particular I was looking to buy so I decided I would look for sorority badges. I asked at every jewelry vendor I came across but none of them had any NPC badges and two vendors told me that someone had bought all their sorority badges out the day prior on early bird day (costs extra to get in but you get to see everything first). Well at the last bldg we were browsing in, I dejectedly went to another jewelry counter where an elederly man and his wife were selling some vintage jewelry to two ladies. I started to look in his case and EUREKA! I see a badge -- it was a Kappa badge! So I took my girlfriend aside who was browsing this bldg with me (she is an AChiO; our other friend is a ChiO) and I told her to remember everything I recite out loud when I got to handle the badge because I was gonna read off the name and chapter and year etc. The vendor finally was able to wait on me and I asked to see the badge - as I looked it over I read the name on the back out loud along with all the other markings I could see. My friend slipped away and write it all down. As I prepared to leave the vendor, I asked for a card and though he said he usually doesn't give out cards, he gave me one. He and his wife were actually pretty nice and I think they had no clue what the badge was etc. Anyways, after I got home I immediately emailed the Kappa badge group -- known as "Keepers of the Key" and told them everything including the vendor's name ph# etc...the next day I got an email from them and they were so grateful for passing along what I had found. They were in the process of sending a check to the seller with extra for postage and were expecting to get the badge back in Kappa hands promptly -- sounds like a happy ending to the story doesn't it? Well it gets better -- while the Kappa Keepers were waiting to receive the badeg, they continues to try and ttrack down the owner...here is wehre it gets really good: turns out the badge had been stolen over 20 years ago in Kansas when the owner lived there and she now lived in Seattle and always regretted not having her badge any more esp since she now had a legacy daughter she really would like to give her badge to!!!! The badge is now back in the original owner's hands and I know she could not be happier...can you figure the odds of all the things that happened to lead up to her getting her badge back? It really is wonderful! And it does not end there -- my ChiO friend who was with me that day at Lakewood now tries to retrieve the badges she can afford and she has contacted her Chi O Hqtrs to see what procedures they have in place vis-a-vis the Kappas and Gamma Phis -- she was told none were in place so now she is trying to get something started for the ChiO's!

I know there are some GCer's who are collectors and they think badge collecting is okay...but I think it stinks!

I tell you all -- I wish I was a gazillionaire so I could buy all the badges that get sold on ebay and in antique markets etc...and then hire a lawyer to find a way to stop ebay badge auctions forever!

Tom -- FYI - our Gamma Phi Hqtrs will reimburse for badges bought on ebay or elsewhere if they are historically significant; they of course have to be returned to the Hqtrs...If you have any historically signifcant LXA badges, maybe your Hqtrs might want them for the archives?

I am in the process of drafting an NPC resolution dealing with the badge re-sale issue -- I know it is not necessarily binding but feel unity will eventually be what puts collectors out of business....