At the Dallas TOR and ISCA conference I gave a presentation on trends in the hobby. Some of the observations that I made were; that the Scouts issued more patches in 2010 than any year before; that one could spend the rest of their life just collecting 100th anniversary items, and; that it could cost over $10,000 to get all of the JSPs and jambo issues. One of the participants asked that given so much stuff and what it would cost just for trading stock how can a Scout begin collecting? The answer is, for any Scout or Scouter, is that what to collect is only limited by one’s imagination. One does not have to collect what’s expensive.

As examples, for years a couple collectors in Texas collect ‘o-ree’ patches – not every camp-o-ree but different ‘o-ree’ programs such as ‘freeze-o-ree’ or ‘hike-o-ree’. Destry collects patches with Halloween themes on them. I collect an activity patch from every council (and used to collect state shaped patches).

At the Indy TOR I hooked up with Ted Thompson of Indiana who has a great collection around S.O.A.R. (Save Our American Resources).

Ted has even built a web-site for these. Google gives you these sites and templates for free!

It wasn’t that long ago that red and white community strips were completely ignored. They could be found for a dime a piece. Now many can sell for $10 or more or a 10,000% increase. Not that value increase should drive any collector (its certainly nice but don’t count on it nor let it drive you) but one does not have to collect what is already expensive to have fun. The only limits you have are the ones you place on yourself. Use your imagination to blaze a new trail (and oh by the way, if you have council activity patches in your dupes let me know. I guess I should post my CouncilHaves)

And, if you’ve got a web-site like Ted’s let me know and we’ll post it as well. We all benefit.