At first blush this shirt is not too eye catching. It contains a 316 Quekolis S1 first flap but the more valuable piece is the red and white strip on the left sleeve. What’s nice is the OA flap helps date when the RWS was used – circa late 1950s.

This is a “9” rated RWS putting it in the upper tier. There is a much more common version with ‘PENNA.’ on the second line. The shirt brought $1,477.52. The S1 mint would be worth around $300 so the rest of the value is in the strip. Nice. I’m sure seller was surprised.

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Many know that we here have a passion for vintage Scout camp patches. A couple of felts popped up on eBay this week from Philadelphia Council and have now closed. One is from Treasure Island. The other ascribed to Camp Biddle.

The Treasure Island patch is a known but certainly uncommon felt. It is cut out of felt in the shape of the initials of the camp. Several collections have one. If memory serves me, they may exist in different colors of felt. This one was red or maroon. It brought $355.

To us the more interesting to us was one ascribed to Camp Biddle. Camp Biddle is not listed in the first edition of the Sherman/Minnihan Camp Book. This item brought a VERY respectable $787 even in this condition.

Now don’t get to thinking every felt camp patch is a multi-hundred dollar item. There was a 1931 Treasure Island that brought $206 which is healthy for this patch and there’s a 1949 Hidden Valley up at minimum bid of $25 that may not get a bid.

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One would think that with NOAC over that we would see volumes up on eBay. But no, they’re continuing to trend down. Right now we’re showing 65,400 listings plus or minus with 11,500 auctions. The auction count is due to NOAC and is about 20% higher than current trends. Late summer is the usual lull, apart from the Christmas to New Year holiday week. We are up from last year at this time when there was no US national event. But we’re down from 20% a year ago last May.

Now, the hobby is strong. Scouting collectibles, other than modern B.S., are strong. But the eBay platform is failing us. Yet the eyeballs are still there. Not sure how this resolves itself. But its a slow, lingering drain until eBay better understands collectible auctions (although they are quite good at getting the most dollars into their pocket even to the detriment of their sellers.)

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