Always file a police report

[GPhiBLtColonel]

Originally posted by SmartBlondeGPhB
Just one little clarification.

Members who purchase an historically significant badge and donate it to the Foundation, can take a write off on their taxes for a charitable donation. Gamma Phi Beta does not reimburse them for the purchase.

Well Melanie is right -- she said what I meant to say but sometimes I am a total SFB...

[wptw]

Originally posted by GPhiBLtColonel
There is something called auction sniper that can usually get your ebay bid in the last seconds of an auction presumably to win but if a collector does it too, the auction is won by whoever's sniped bid gets in the closest to the end of the auction time.

Actually, the auction is won by which sniper has the highest bid.

I asked at every jewelry vendor I came across but none of them had any NPC badges and two vendors told me that someone had bought all their sorority badges out the day prior on early bird day.

This is a great story, GPhiBLtColonel. I have also worked with Keepers of the Key to return Kappa badges from my collection. But the above quoted part really grabbed my attention. This is the single biggest frustration for rescuers and collectors alike these days, I think.

I go out hunting at least twice a month, so I can tell you this started happening almost INSTANTLY after the NY Times article came out *. The most amazing part of your story is that a dealer actually had a Kappa key available for sale. They must have been living under a rock. I haven't seen a single one since that infamous article came out. As you say, dealers are paying the higher prices to hit the shows before anyone else, grab up all the badges and get them on ebay. Almost every single time I go out hunting, a dealer mentions that article to me. Ugh.

The moral of the story is... be discreet. The more noise you make in public about rescuing badges, the more you'll pay, and the less you'll find (off-eBay anyway).

wptw

EDIT:
* As I said it would at the time, here on GC, and others told me I was just bitter and being overly dramatic.
http://forums.greekchat.com/gcforums...threadid=21927

[AlphaFrog]

I guess I just don't understand why a seller would refuse a higher bid in the first place. Are they just being bitter or what? I mean, if you're really heartless enought to sell the badges in the first place, wouldn't you want top dollar, regardless of who they go to? Besides, if you think about it, every time a soroity gets a badge back (assuming no other ones are lost/stolen/sold, which I know isn't going to happen, but for the sake of argument) it would make those pins more rare for the collector, driving up prices...(which is the point of collecting for some....)

[PM_Mama00]

This kinda goes along with the whole badge pillow.

When I put my badge on my lil sis, I kept thinking "Please don't lose it". Guess what happened not even an hour later?

Found it a year later in our ritual stuff! Anyways, I have this lil jewelry box that I got at my cousin's baptism.... it's so cute. It's like a lil ceramic white treasure chest, with a PINK bow! Perfect for Phi Mu! I keep my Phi pin, badge, and 150th dangle in there.

[HotDamnImAPhiMu]

You got to keep your Phi pin?!

[GeekyPenguin]

I keep my badges in a jewelry box that is specific for Gamma Phi jewelry...it's one of those swarkovski boxes with our letters and a crescent moon engraved on the top.

[HotDamnImAPhiMu]

Mine goes in a little heart-shaped box my mom got when she lived in Australia.

It's less important where you put it, I think, than that you know *exactly* where it goes -- it'll both keep it safe and ensure you know just where to find it when you want to wear it.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally posted by HotDamnImAPhiMu
You got to keep your Phi pin?!

Yeppers! We usually give them up to the Phis if needed, and then when the new order comes in, we get the new ones.

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

Originally posted by wptw
[B]The moral of the story is... be discreet. The more noise you make in public about rescuing badges, the more you'll pay, and the less you'll find (off-eBay anyway).

wptw/B]

This is actually the whole goal of our group.........

Not to mention the fact, that last thing we need to do is inadvertently get our members selling their badges because they suddenly realize they can make some money.

[radioZTA]

ZTA had a similar story. A badge showed up on eBay that had been stolen over 20 years before. The seller refused to end the auction and the owner's daughter couldn't get the police report to eBay in time to stop it. Fortunately the owner's daughter did end up winning the badge and returning it to her mom but we all sweated it.

Pin collectors and sellers get so many e-mails claiming that a listed badge is a stolen or lost one that they are incredibly cynical and often rude. You'll notice that many sellers won't reveal initials.

Don't even bother to e-mail unless you have a question about the condition or year of the pin because they simply don't care about your GLO. It's harsh but true.

[BSUPhiSig'92]

On a different, but kind of similar note to the badge reunion stories...

Earlier this summer I got a call from our University Director of Alumni Relations. She had gotten a phone call from an officer with the Connecticut State Police. He is a police diver, and found an SIUE class ring on one of his dives. (we didn't find out if it was a crime scene dive).
It was engraved with the letters Sigma Pi, some initials and the year 1974. The officer wanted to return the ring to its rightful owner and had called the University. The Alumni Relations Director asked if I might have some way to find out who it belonged to (yeah, I know, I know, our Alumni Relations office doesn't even keep track of those records). So I made a quick call to Sigma Pi HQ. It didn't even take ten minutes for them to make a match, and we were able to return it to it's rightful owner who had lost it back in 1979!