Over the past couple of weeks at different TORs (Pittsburgh at the beginning of the month and Detroit at the end) I have had an on-going discussion with senior collectors about a challenge in the hobby. It affects them as they are holders of the super rare and super valuable collectibles. The problem is the vast majority of the hobby does not know what they don’t know. Because they do not know, they do not know the value or more specifically the prices collectors are willing to pay for the rare items.

Some cases in point. In the past three months we’ve placed three (3) Calusas, two (2) Kiminschis, a Monsey, a 155, a Checote, a ’24 US WJ contingent patch, key red and whites/KRS strips etc.. In the past year we’ve privately placed two (2) Balugas, three (3) Zhingwaks, several four figure WAB issues, key insignia and world jamboree items, etc.. All of these were private placements and have not seen the light of day. To most in the hobby these transactions never happened because they weren’t aware of it.

Jason Spangler, the Santee Swapper, runs an e-mail service looking at things on eBay. That’s where the eyes are. He has shown top twenty sellers for each of the past couple of months. We’re consistently at the top by magnitudes over the next highest sellers (there are reasons for this but that’s another topic) but what’s seen in this report is only a fraction of what we’re handling by dollar volume (not necessarily patch volume – we’re shipping 200+ packages a week most with multiple patches).

In addition to the placements we make we are often asked for advice on either the buy side (i.e., “what should I pay?” questions) or sell side (i.e., “What should this sell for?” or “Can you help me place xyz item?”). We may not be involved in the final sale but know of what transaction happened such as several MAJOR insignia collections selling in the past year or two in the hundred thousand dollar range as single sales/single buyer.

Physics tell us, a tree DOES make a sound when it falls in the woods even if no one is around to here it. Private patch sales indicate a value even if only a few people see it. So, how do we educate the hobby? Is this not a problem? Is it those who have these items don’t want collectors to know the value?

Update: As examples, here are some of great Scout pieces that went through us in the past 3 days most which were not offered publicly:

Stag totem pin, Hood

Lodge 24 totem pin (with blue cloissone)

1940 NOAC Medal with Name Badge

Lodge 189 event First Flap

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At the recent Pittsburgh TOR we hooked up with Virginia-based collector John Ortt. John brought his collection of lodge totem pins. This is a specialty collecting area because of their rarity. John provides some background (information about the first OA jeweler Hood starting in 1920 with these through the merger with Caldwell Jewelers in 1945 and their stopping production in 1973.) John points out that a challenge in this collecting area is we don’t know what we don’t know, i.e., who issued what when?

Previously we’ve written about the museum display at the National Order of the Arrow Conferences where collector Bill Topkis has displayed his lodge jewelry collection, the best in the country, with over 200 pieces. We figure John’s collection here is in the top 5 with around 30 pieces. For OA collectors to have more than 2 or 3 pieces is very rare.

Postscript – The opportunity for education, sharing and fellowship is one of the great aspects of trade-o-rees. If you have a chance to visit one, we recommend that you do so. The video has a fair amount of hub-bub from the TOR even though we were off to the side but things were so busy.

Here’s something not in the video – a close-up of the order form John has in his collection.

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