NY Times Article About GLO Pins/Collectors

[KillarneyRose]

This Article was in Today's New York Times. Thought you all might be interested!

O Brother (and Sister), Where Art Thy Pins?
By KATHERINE ROSMAN

LEVELAND — In a basement room at the airport Sheraton here last month, 15 members of the Fraternity Pin Collector Society huddled around a conference table.

James Bond would have been proud of the planning. Information about the date and place of their sixth annual conference, called Pinfest, had been kept in strict confidence among members. A false date had been posted on the society's Yahoo Web page. Still, nerves were frayed. Occasionally, someone sneaked a look at the display behind them.

Laid out on five banquet tables was perhaps the largest collection of vintage sorority and fraternity pins in the country. Affixed to swaths of velvet and displayed in glass cases were the group's collective glory: over 5,000 pins with a combined worth in the tens of thousands of dollars. Some were Some were studded with pearls and diamonds. Many dated back to the 19th century.

After a cursory discussion of the tricks of their trade — say, which small-town antiques shops might still harbor, unaware of its value, a Kappa Kappa Gamma pin from 1949 — the conversation turned to the topic of the day, Mary Silzel.

To the rest of the world, Mary Silzel, 63, might be just another grandmother frittering away her senior years on eBay. But to those gathered at the Pinfest conference, she is the enemy — a one-woman wrecking crew determined to keep them from collecting pins at any cost.

"She is militant," said one collector, who like most people in the room did not want his name used.

"Violent," another agreed.

"Commando," a third whispered.

Although none of the collectors had actually met Mrs. Silzel, heads around the table bobbed in accord.

There is a battle raging in the electronic heart of the American marketplace, and Mary Silzel is smack in the middle. On one side are the collectors who spend hours on eBay looking for pins with historic or artistic value. On the other are people like Mrs. Silzel, loyal sorority and fraternity members who are spending thousands of dollars to keep their pins out of nonmembers' hands.

Their fervor has collectors watching their backs — afraid of Greek loyalists and the angry e-mail messages they send — and the price of pins skyrocketing. A Kappa Kappa Gamma pin that might have sold for $5 five years ago went for $1,025 last month to a sorority sister working in league with Mrs. Silzel.

A loyal 1956 Kappa Kappa Gamma alumna of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., Mrs. Silzel joined this battle in early 1998, when she first ventured onto eBay and was, she said, shocked to find Kappa Kappa Gamma pins being bought by people who were not Kappa sisters. "I thought, `How terrible!' " she recalled from her home office in Orange County, Calif.

Fueled by indignation, Mrs. Silzel went into action and was soon an eBay regular, outbidding deep-pocketed collectors for every Kappa pin she could click her mouse on.

It wasn't long before she realized that she needed reinforcements, and within months she formed Keepers of the Key, a group of about 40 sisters around the country, united in the effort to stop people who are, in Mrs. Silzel's words, "determined to steal our pins and then hold them ransom."

Nearly every Greek letter organization, known as a G.L.O., objects to outside ownership of its pins. But without the resources to purchase the increasing number of pins for auction (more than 100 are offered on eBay every week), national headquarters are searching for ways to keep pins from entering the open market.

When the administrators of Sigma Kappa sorority learn of the death of a member, for example, they mail what can only be characterized as a bereavement letter for the eBay age from their national vice president for alumnae affairs, Marianne Chattin Burton.

"DECEASED was a recognized member of our Sorority and she will be missed by many of her sisters," the letter reads. "As a member of Sigma Kappa, DECEASED was provided with a triangular-shaped badge bearing the Greek letters sigma kappa. . . . If DECEASED's badge was not buried with her, we would be most grateful if you would please return the badge to Sigma Kappa National Headquarters."

Hallmark it is not. But war is being waged, and the generals have scant time for niceties.

The retrieval of pins on eBay is left to grass-roots volunteers like Mrs. Silzel, who has emerged as the grande dame of electronic auction warfare. Her Keepers of the Key have spent more than $17,000 of their own money in the last two years to "rescue" nearly 100 pins, which they dispatch to the sorority's Heritage Museum in Columbus, Ohio, or sell to sorority sisters who have somehow lost theirs.

"We Kappas have a record of which we are proud," Mrs. Silzel said. "Other G.L.O.'s have varying degrees of dedication to the cause, but we Kappas have been on the cutting edge and are more passionate about the integrity of our badges than most."

Collectors, many of whom refuse to give their surnames because they fear an onslaught of e-mail from rabidly loyal Greek alumni, say that the healthy competition has turned ugly. "They dropped f-bombs!" a Pinfest attendee from Tennessee said, alluding to profane e-mail messages he says he has received.

Ian Marks, a founder of Pinfest and the only one there who did not ask for anonymity, said that angry sorority sisters posted information about where he lives and what pins he owns on a Greek Web site. "You have no idea how evil it is," he said of the hostility.

For Mr. Marks, his collection, which includes more than 1,000 pins from over 600 Greek organizations and others, like Yale's Skull and Bones, has become, as he puts it, "a huge security issue." For this reason, he says, "I carry my most valuable pins on my person."

Like many of the collectors, Mr. Marks is a Greek letter organization alumnus (Sigma Phi Epsilon), and insists that if not for people like him, vintage badges would have been melted down to scrap metal long before eBay.

On the subject of Kappa pins, he demanded: "Who would have known that Anna Elizabeth Willits made the first pin at Stevenson's in Pittsburgh in 1870? Who would know that? I do!" So does Mrs. Silzel. After all, 1870 was the year Kappa Kappa Gamma was founded, at Monmouth College, in Monmouth, Ill. But to her, the value of the pins lies not in their history, but in their hard-won exclusivity.

She said scornfully of collectors, "The very fact that they hold and resell merchandise that they know is likely lost or stolen makes them unequivocally unfit to be in the possession of a Kappa key, given the ideals to which we all pledged ourselves and which are symbolized to us and others by our badge."

Mrs. Silzel believes in a by-any-means-necessary approach to bringing Kappa keys "home to Kappa," as she puts it. She and her Keepers of the Key barrage owners of Kappa keys with e-mail messages, imploring them to sell or give up their keys.

She is also not above spying. Despite efforts by the founders of Pinfest to hide the conference site, Mrs. Silzel planted a mole at the scene. Unbeknown to those at the conference, Stephanie Lou Haymond, with her flowing blond hair and bright smile, was not, as she maintained, starting a collection to display at her Greek memorabilia store in Salt Lake City, but gathering information on Kappa Kappa Gamma pins and their owners, so that Keepers of the Key could later target them with e-mail messages and bid against them on eBay.

Members of Mrs. Silzel's army do occasionally get burned by the opposition. In July, Ms. Haymond found herself in an eBay bidding war with tyoregon over a 1938 Kappa pin. After five days of bidding, Ms. Haymond vanquished tyorgeon with a bid of $511. Congratulatory notes flooded the Keepers' chat room. "Great save, Stephie Lou!" said one.

But after the adrenaline rush faded, Ms. Haymond found herself with buyer's remorse. It wouldn't be so bad, she said, if her husband had not found out. "Now he thinks I'm a freak."

According to tyoregon, the eBay handle of an Oregonian who didn't want his name published because he said he had received one too many threatening e-mail messages from angry sorority sisters, the truth was worse than Ms. Haymond imagined. "I bid her up," tyoregon said, adding that he decided early in the auction that he did not want the pin. "Why not have fun," he asked, adding that he had grown weary of Greek letter organization alumni throwing around terms like sacred.

"You're not going to find pins in the Ark of the Covenant," he said.

Maybe not. But there are nine million Greek alumni out there, many with pins in their junk drawers that could fetch hundreds of dollars. The proliferation may drive people like Mrs. Silzel into litigation she has so far avoided. Most fraternities and sororities have bylaws proclaiming pins leased for life to members. By these standards, any pin making its way to eBay is stolen property.

For its part, eBay is not obliged to abide by a sorority's rules and requires documented proof of theft before it will delist an item. While Greek organizations are becoming increasingly protective of their trademarks — some even hiring brand consultants — so far, none have been willing to risk an expensive lawsuit.

In the meantime, Mrs. Silzel and her Keepers of the Key will continue their crusade, as she calls it, which she believes honors their bonds of sisterhood. "There is no profit involved, no prestige, no recognition," Mrs. Silzel said. "Simply the reward of helping a Kappa sister retrieve a lost piece of her heart."

[SATX*APhi]

I always noticed that a "tyoregon" was winning Alpha Phi pin auctions. On GC someone mentioned that he was retrieving them for his daughter who was an Alpha Phi Alumna. I guess someone e-mailed him and asked him why he was always bidding on A-Phi pins and the man lied!!!

[Aphigal]

Actually he didn't lie he has two daughters both in GLO (different ones) One is an Alpha Phi and is either in grad school or working in Chicago. The IEB invited her to a meeting to show her the memorabilia room in the EO.

Please be nice to this person we are hoping someday that these badges will be donated back to Alpha Phi.

[KappaKittyCat]

I had the privilage to meet Mary Silzel at our Convention in Orlando this past June. She's a remarkable lady. I am honoured to call her my sister proud to be one of her Keepers of the Key.

It's time that GLOs crack down nationally on the badge trade. We must redefine ownership, theft, and loss, and make it clear that our badges do not belong to anyone but the fraternity.

[DWAlphaGam]

Wow, I am amazed by Mary Silzel's tenacity! I hope that more people are inspired by her and help return badges to their rightful home. If I had money, I would start doing the same...ah, someday!

[SATX*APhi]

Originally posted by Aphigal
Actually he didn't lie he has two daughters both in GLO (different ones) One is an Alpha Phi and is either in grad school or working in Chicago. The IEB invited her to a meeting to show her the memorabilia room in the EO.

Please be nice to this person we are hoping someday that these badges will be donated back to Alpha Phi.

Oh, no no. I have never interacted with this man and don't plan on doing so any time soon. However, having read this article, I doubt his reasons for buying every single Alpha Phi pin on eBay. Yes, he may give some to his daughter, but as a collector, he has to keep most of the pins for his collection.

[ZTABullwinkle]

There is one collector on Ebay right now who is selling ZTA badges for this incredibly high price by the name of wddjr47. Right now he has a badge and a pledge pin up for auction. Starting bid? $290.00. And if we send him any rude emails, he will report them to Ebay.

Slightly off-topic, does everyone know about this site?
http://www.vintagefraternitypins.com/index.htm

They sell vintage fraternity pins they find at estate auctions.

[IvySpice]

Honestly, I feel that this kind of badge defense might be an example of venerating a symbol ahead of what the symbol might stand for.

Keepers of the Key members have spent $17,000 to reclaim pins. Meanwhile, Kappas all over the country are busting their butts to raise money a dollar at a time for rehabilitation charities like the Children's Miracle Network, battered women's shelters, etc. Even if Keepers of the Key wanted to spend it to benefit their sisterhood directly, $17,000 is a year of college tuition for a needy Kappa or a new roof for a Kappa house.

I personally do not understand the choice of supporting the sorority by giving thousands of dollars to pin dealers instead of to the sorority or its foundation. There is no symbol of my ideals, up to and including the American flag, that I would spend money to keep out of "the wrong hands" if I could spend it instead on actually furthering those ideals. In the end, the pin is a piece of gold -- it only has meaning because of the real sisterhood it represents and the real help those sisters offer to one another and to the community.

Kappas, it's a free country, and I'm not trying to tell you that you can't spend your money how you want or place whatever value on your pins that you want to. And I fully realize that my opinion about "pin rescue" puts me squarely in the minority on GC. I'm just saying that this is an allocation of resources that mystifies me.

Ivy

[Tom Earp]

Yep I tried to save LXA Badges! Hell ran out of money for the Price thet were going for!

So I am not into saving LXA Badges!

Have seen many and tried to give the Groups a heads up on them!

I want only mine and hope that each can get theirs!!

Best of luck!

[kdonline]

I have emailed Tyoregon over the past couple years, because he is also collecting Kappa Delta badges.

I "check in" with him every so often to see if he's come across my badge, which was stolen when my parents' house was burglarized several years ago. He has promised to give me my pin, free of charge, if he ever comes across it. We have exchanged full names, addresses & phone numbers too.

I have given up trying to outbid him. As Aphigirl said, I am also hoping he will eventually donate all of the badges to KD.

Hey, at least we know where all the badges are ending up.

[KappaStargirl]

Mary Silzel and I are members of the same alumnae association, and I have had the pleasure of speaking to her on a few occasions. She is a fascinating woman, militant about not only badge rescuing but also bringing the Greek world into modern times, keeping up with the needs of today's college students and the changing world of higher education. I can only hope to be half as wonderful as she is when I am her age. She is a one-woman Kappa Kappa Gamma army, and I love her for it.

And while we're on the stolen badge topic: God forbid this should ever happen to any of you, but if it does, Mary gave me a wonderful piece of advice I will repeat here: FILE A POLICE REPORT. As long as that report exists with a description of your badge, you will be able to retrieve it should it end up on Ebay, because once the police report is filed the badge gets the label of "stolen property." Because of police reports, many Kappas whose badges were stolen and put up for sale on Ebay now have them again in their possession.

[wptw]

Kappas, why in the world did you allow yourselves to be used for this article? What a mistake! First of all, the article paints you as militant, elitist, Machiavellian freaks. But what’s more disturbing, you just advertised to the world that vintage Kappa keys are worth hundreds, perhaps over a thousand dollars on ebay. If you thought you had pin problems before (theft, skyrocketing prices, increasing numbers of badges on ebay, estate-sale scavengers, members selling their own pins, etc.), just wait and see the enormous can of worms this article opens.

I’m writing this not as a collector, but as a GLO member. I really urge other GLOs to think more carefully about their badge-rescue strategy. This was really a tactical error.


IvySpice, as usual you are right on target. Could not have said it better myself. $17,000 spent purely on PRIDE, when that money could have been used to really help a sister, or two, or 50. And she wins PRAISE for this?!?

wptw

[shadokat]

Here we go again. I say good luck Kappa Keepers of the Keys. If you got the dough, save your badges The article was great, and wptw, you're just crying b/c you'll have to pay more for your next Kappa key.

Originally posted by wptw
Kappas, why in the world did you allow yourselves to be used for this article? What a mistake! First of all, the article paints you as militant, elitist, Machiavellian freaks. But what’s more disturbing, you just advertised to the world that vintage Kappa keys are worth hundreds, perhaps over a thousand dollars on ebay. If you thought you had pin problems before (theft, skyrocketing prices, increasing numbers of badges on ebay, estate-sale scavengers, members selling their own pins, etc.), just wait and see the enormous can of worms this article opens.

I’m writing this not as a collector, but as a GLO member. I really urge other GLOs to think more carefully about their badge-rescue strategy. This was really a tactical error.


IvySpice, as usual you are right on target. Could not have said it better myself. $17,000 spent purely on PRIDE, when that money could have been used to really help a sister, or two, or 50. And she wins PRAISE for this?!?

wptw

[wptw]

wptw, you're just crying b/c you'll have to pay more for your next Kappa key.

Shadokat, you really just don't get it. Why would I cry about high key prices on ebay? I have never paid more than $15 for a Kappa key in my life, nor will I ever. When ebay prices are high, I stop buying there. In fact, I sold all of mine as soon as the "Keepers of the Keys" bid the market price up over $500. I'm not generally in the collecting thing for the money, but at those prices it's hard to resist cashing out.

And hey, with the flood of Kappa keys that are about to hit the open market (thanks to this article), I'll just wait a few months until the "keepers" have bankrupted themselves paying $500 for every key that's about to come out of the woodwork, and then when supply outstrips demand I'll scoop a few of them up at more reasonable prices.

Yes, yes, I know you've never subscribed to the fact that real world economics actually affect our cherished emblems. But everyone else here seems to have come around to the reality that more attention drives the prices up.

If you got the dough, save your badges

Agreed. But do it QUIETLY. Don't go around crowing about it, or you'll end up doing more harm than good. Think about it.

wptw

[FuzzieAlum]

I just want to say that although I am against collecting pins, I don't like hearing about collectors receiving threatening or profane letters. Not only does that violate the standards most of us try to uphold as members of GLOs, it does not help the cause, either.