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Hi Honeychile,
Yes, that site has been around for maybe 3 years. It was started by a collector who I guess figured this was a better outlet for his "non-keeper" pins than ebay.
Most collectors have their "keeper" pins, and then they have a lot of pins that are either redundant, or are inferior to the "keeper" pins in some way, or simply don't fall into the "theme" of their collection. When you see collectors selling pins on ebay, that's usually what's going on (not raw profiteering as most people initially assume). They're liquidating the less valuable pins in their collection to fund the purchase of more valuable pins. That's how collections evolve.. just like any collection does, I suppose.
And that's also how a lot of pins find their way to new collectors, to members of the GLO, or back to the GLO headquarters. There's sort of a constant circulation that benefits everyone.
The owner of VFP.com seems to be a good guy and it doesn't look to me like he's trying to exploit the ebay phenom and mass market those badges. That wouldn't make much sense. His prices are about 50% higher than the ebay market price, so that really wouldn't be a plan for success.
If I were to guess, I'd say he just likes working with the various badges and this is a fun way to combine his hobby with a little bit of profit. The site really isn't geared toward collectors anyway, because frankly the badges there are overpriced and nothing special. But it's a good alternative for those who can't wait around for the badge they want to show up on ebay.
Hope that info is helpful.
wptw
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