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The down side would be though that much history would be lost if there weren't people who bought the pins and badges.
Unfortunately, in areas were pawn shops and estate buyers, and gold shops are unaware of what fraternity stuff is, if there wasn't someone asking them about it, they would just melt it all down for the gold and move on.
Regardless of the price, some pieces need to be saved if only to be able to preserve the rich history of the orgs, especially the older defunct groups since there aren't "members" around usually to save them..... But that may be a whole nother discussion.
The other sad fact is that there are probably tons of badges and pins being melted down everyday without anyone knowing for sure if anything really historical is in those lots. I know for a fact that the owner of "Cash for Gold" company is a member of AEPi, and he is aware if his company getting fraternity or sorority badges in those mail in envelopes, but his company handles so much scrap gold that they do not have the desire or motive to pull out anything, and just melt everything they get.
I would say that if anyone really wants to make a difference and not see these pins on eBay or in the open, then more needs to be done internally with each organization, there needs to be articles in every magazine that talk about what options are for members and their memorabilia.....alumni functions should have time dedicated to "what to do in the event of a passing...." information.
Just a thought.
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