There have been a few posts about this, but let me try to explain it again. The vendors aren't necessarily the "bad guys". Sure, they are selling our badges that are a part of our ritual and they are trying to make money off of us. However, the real problem comes from the members themselves who don't properly take care of their pins, or who sell them when they disaffiliate or are expelled or leave or whatever. The pins also come from members who have passed away and do not specify in their wills or tell family members (if they have either) what is to be done with their pin when they die. If there is no will, an estate sale is planned for the person's possessions to be sold off to satisfy their estate. Pins are bought by random people and collectors and some of them end up on Ebay. It's not okay for our badges to end up on Ebay, and even though National Council has told all of us not to bid on the badges to further encourage the sellers, it is kind of hard to see a badge on there and not want to rescue it!
Emailing the vendors may not be the best approach, as there is a lawyer on retainer at HQ (I believe) who takes care of that. The badges are considered stolen property if they are in the hands of anyone else other than a sister or HQ, but the vendors either don't get it or don't care. I'm siding with the latter. But the vendors get very pissy when people email them (depending on what is said in the email) because then they start saying that they're just trying to make a buck and it's not their fault that the member gave their badge up in the first place, etc.
Some greek groups do deal with it. I know KKG has an organization called Keepers of the Key and they handle badges that end up on Ebay and other sites like that. Some GLO's will refund the purchase price of a badge that a member "rescues" off of Ebay or a similar site. As far as I know, Sigma Kappa does not have a policy like that in place.
The only way to really stop the sale of our badges, or any other organization's badges, is to get it through to the members that there are proper ways to handle your badge after you're done with it. Whether the member is still living or has passed away, their badge shouldn't be floating around where random people can get a hold of it. That is what will really stop all of this. Until that happens, badges will still be seen on Ebay and members will still be mad about it. It's a bad situation but there's no easy solution, unfortunately.
