[ebayfan]

As moderator of the yahoo club for collectors of fraternity and sorority pins, only ONE member is not in a social fraternity or sorority. He went to Harvard and these groups weren't there when he was there. He is one of the original 7 main collectors I have have had the pleasure of knowing since pre-ebay times of 1997 when listserves were where it was at and members did "trades" and I would come home frm antique shows with pocketfulls of pins every weekend. For those larger nationals (and you know who you are), I would walk past your badges for $25 as 5 in my collection was already too many. Then ebay came along and I could have bought a house with the $200 run of badges for this particular group. Oh, yes, that's right, I did buy a house with the proceeds (well the $4,000 closing costs anyway).

Hats off to my friend wptw who I finally had the good fortune to meet this past fall. He is so eloquent on this topic that I only lurk and knod (sp?) in agreement.

Yes, the heyday of $200 popular nationals has past - for now - since it has been about 20 months since our dear friend the NYTimes writer joined us at Pinfest. That, my friends is what brought the "members" (not collectors) out fo the woodwork. And, as my dead friend B in TN (a fellow collector) said so eloquently in that ballroom in Cleveland, "No good can come of this". Little did he know how right he would be.

A long time collector just told me today he was planning to liquidate his 1600 pin collection "slowly so as not to flood the market" and that his "focus has changed". Unfortunately for him, prices have come down and also, he paid a bit too much. Unlike wptw and myself who can fund our first childs first year at college when we liquidate our collection on ebay in 2016 (will ebay be around then...hmmm?), some collectors might not get what they paid for the pins.

Good night all. I am going over to ebay to check and see what auctions I won today.

ebayfan...yep, that is my license plate!