Working through the collection consigned to us in August we’re going through the next step after photographing each item. Thoughts include: fun, interesting, exciting. And….drudgery. First you break it down by 100s or alpha, then into 10′s, then into individual lodges or councils or camps or…..

Several years back Bill Topkis posed this question to me as we were working up parts of his and Dr. Morley’s collection, “How many patches have you (Roy) looked at?” I didn’t have a ready answer. First thought was over 100,000. But as Bill reflected that this is way too low. That his and Jeff’s collection had over 20,000 issues plus duplicates. He figured he  had looked at several 100,000 patches over the years and patches area a hobby for him, not a business.

We’re quickly closing in on our quarter-millionth picture for listings, auction and web-site. That’s 250,000 patch pictures. That’s just from 2003. Many of those pictures are group shots. Many more patches were looked at but never pictured or weren’t in our hands.

At a jamboree or NOAC it is common to look at over 4,000 patches/day even though we have fewer councils and fewer lodges. Going through a multi-1,000 patch collection can be just an afternoon project. A good trade-o-ree can mean looking at 10,000 patches/day. This isn’t even counting eBay viewing.

The fun part with this collection is seeing so many new issues even though I’ve been on several Jamboree and NOAC staffs. The other thought that comes to mind is how well the patch armorers are doing, i.e., the patch manufacturers. We the collectors have been part of the problem as we start putting different borders on everything whether justified or not.

So back to Bill’s question-easily half-million and may well be a million plus. Its one of the reasons we were asked to take over Blue Book. Oh well…back to sorting.

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At the recent Calutmet TOR we hooked up with ISCA OA column editor Bruce Shelley. Bruce is best known in the hobby for his articles, along with co-author Dave Minnihan, on Order of the Arrow issues and trends. But as we blogged previously many of us have side collections that interest us just as much. For Bruce it is the woodcarver Ed Choby hand carved slides.

Here’s our video interview with Bruce. As background, Ed Choby was one of a small group of expert wood carvers that produced slides based to ‘Slides of the Month’ in Boy’s Life for others. His name appears on many slides. I consider these slides, and many of the Boy Scout slides, as excellent examples of America Folk Art.

If it does not pop-up, you can go to YouTube here.

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Fellow Scout patch dealer Richard Shields, the Carolina Trader, sent me an e-mail that as he says, “is humorous if it wasn’t so serious.”

I received a call on Sun. night that I thought at first was a joke but
later found out the lady was dead serious.  Below is an article from a
Colorado paper in regards to the first aid kits.  The ones from Johnson
and Johnson made during the 1930-40s have gauze pads with an ointment on
them that crystallizes over time.  Those crystals are explosive.  The
lady from NC had her pads blown up after they evacuated her neighborhood
for four hours.  She said they made a pretty good pop. If you having
any, call your local authorities.

Checking an article from the Denver News they reported the following:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Colorado Springs Police Department’s Hazardous Materials Team and Regional Explosives Unit was called out to a fire station Sunday because of concerns about the safety of a an antique Boy Scout first aid kit.The owner of the kit was concerned that kit may contain a small amount of picric acid and brought the kit to Fire Station 5 in Colorado Springs for disposal.The hazmat and explosives team remotely removed the hazard to a safe location and destroyed it, officials said.

Same Chemical Causes Other Evacuations

Picric acid was found in an antique Boy Scout first aid kit at the Pioneers Museum in Colorado Springs earlier this month. The museum was evacuated while the bomb squad and firefighters removed the material.

The same chemical was found in a historic doctor’s bag last month in a warehouse in the Lowry area of Denver belonging to the Colorado Historical Society, said society spokeswoman Rebecca Laurie.It too was picric acid, so the Denver bomb squad and a fire hazmat teams were called in to remove the acid.

“Sometimes, our researchers do come across chemicals in these kinds of medical hits or chemistry kits, things that were donated a long time ago,” said Laurie. “If they’re not sure what it is, they’re trained to call 911.

“Picric acid was stocked in pharmacies in the early 1920s as an antiseptic and as a treatment for burns, malaria, herpes and smallpox.

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Destry and I are working Jambo staff again this year. This time at the Merit Badge Midway – Collections merit badge (type casting I know but we do have a passion for this area with LOTS of give aways and cool things to do.) I’ll be trying to post happenings and events as our web connection permits.

Now why the ‘Black Flag’ notation – because of the heat. Its 103 degrees with a heat index of 115 degrees. Ouch and dangerous. It will be a challenge all week long.

Heard that the opening show guest will be Department of Defense Secretary Bob Gates (also a Distinguished Eagle, Silver Buffalo recipient and past National Executive Board member). This is a great choice.

We’ll also be set-up at the Eagles Lodge trade-o-ree, the listing is in our TOR calendar and a PDF is here:

tor-nj2010-poster-color.

We’re bringing our TOR tubs, over 30,000 items, whether to find that long lost patch or extra trading dupes at deep discount prices. We’re working with Mitch Reis who will be handling sales when we’re not there so even during Jambo time there will be a lot to choose from.

There is another TOR I believe at one of the Ramada Inns but I don’t yet have the particulars on that one.

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Last night we were hit with a half-dozen or so of spoof eBay e-mails titled:  Payment request from

We recorded a payment request from “eBay” to enable the charge of $666.10 on your account.

The payment is pending for the moment.

If you made this transaction or if you just authorize this payment, please ignore or remove this email message. The transaction will be shown on your monthly statement as “eBay”.

If you didn’t make this payment and would like to decline it, please download and install the transaction inspector module (attached to this letter).

These are a scam. DO NOT DOWNLOAD and INSTALL the “transaction inspector module.” We forward these e-mails to spoof@ebay.com so they can track them down and stop it.

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Last week I was at my Scout office for a meeting and stopped by the trading post. They have the new boy rank patches out commerating the 100th anniversary year of the BSA. I think these are neat but the quality control is poor. There are at least three major varieties in this group alone. Some appear to have been made by the BSA. Others have ‘Made in China’ stickers on the back. The latter is a separate sore point but we’ll leave that for another blog. Anyway, variety collectors are going to have a field day figuring these out. I’m told there’s an Eagle patch as well but I’ve not seen it. I’ve also been told that Scout shops are to have returned their inventory of the regular items so as to be replaced with these 2010 pieces.

Then Destry and I went to the Indy TOR this past weekend. Their hospitality was great as always (except for the 9″ of snow.) Several councils now have out 2010 patches. That got me asking around how many items do you think we’ll have for the 100th anniversary? By “items” I mean regular issue pieces – CSPs, JSPs, OA items. I’m figuring it will be up to 5,000. Could be more. And this is not counting camp and camporee items or Jamboree staff items. One could spend a lifetime just to collect this year. Also, I was hearing quotes for “rare, limited edition” varieties at huge prices. Councils and lodges could kill a good thing. If you know of some egregious abuses, please pass on the comment. Thanks.

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Sort of in a punchy mood from sleep deprivation and patch overload. Just received several consignments of all different types of items. Now we measure them by the hand truck load. We’ll have items on our preview page but I’m blogging here first because even for us this will take a day or two to work up. Collectors, and non-collectors, often ask where we get so many different patches. And that is part of the answer. We’ve been the largest dealer of Scouting memorabilia for nearly two decades. At TORs other dealers come to us for information and pricing data. We ‘pay for ourselves’ because we know what we’re looking at, how to describe it and who might be interested in it. Also, having our own office, warehouse, and all that goes with it (such as full dealer insurance covering consignments), we like to think we’re the place to handle significant Boy Scout collections.

New Scout Patch Auction consignments

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Heard from the folks at Scouts on Stamps Society International (SOSSI) that the design for the Celebrate Scouting Stamp will be unveiled November 12, 2009 at the Smithsonian Postal Museum. We’ll get it posted here after its released. I figured, and am glad, that this is in progress for Scouting’s 100th anniversary in this country.

New Scouting stamp

Frankly, now that the design is out my first reaction is – this is pathetic. Have we become so “politically correct” in this country that we can not salute the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America? The above stamp design does not give me the sense of recognition of this achievement. Here’s the link to the formal press release from the USPS.

There is nothing on the stamp that says we’re celebrating Scouting. There is nothing on the stamp that says we’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the BSA. There’s nothing on the stamp that talks about the contributions of Scouting to this country. The BSA professional leadership is doing a ‘make nice’, IMHO, but if they’re satisfied with this, then I hope the Executive Board pulls them aside and replaces them. I can’t quite get to the point that this is a slap in the face but that’s the first thought that comes to mind. I’ll see if I can post what has been done in the past when we got some respect.

The first day of issue will be at the 2010 Jamboree. Forget about it.

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From Kurt Hansen out of Wisconsin. Tony was one of the mainstays of Wisconsin collectors. He was a regular at the US Grant Pilgrimages and Calumet TOR as well as Milwaukee and Tichora TORs. He will be missed.

Dear Friends,

It is with great sadness that I write to let you know that our friend Tony
Lazewski has passed away. Tony was diagnosed with brain cancer last year and
underwent treatment. Unfortunately, it recurred this summer. He died
peacefully at Hospice with his family at his bedside.

Tony’s contribution to Scouting (despite having two daughters) was great. He
worked with a local troop for many years. He served as the Lodge Advisor for
Tichora Lodge for 8 years and was a key advisor when Chemokomen and Tichora
Lodges merged to form Takoda. He was, of course, a Silver Beaver recipient.

Tony was born in Antigo, Wisconsin, and grew up in Samoset Council and Tom
Kita Chara Lodge. He was an Eagle Scout and camp staffer at Camp Tesomas in
his youth. He attended 48 consecutive Fall Conferences for Tom Kita Chara
Lodge only missing his first one this year when he was too ill to travel. He
also loved the OA Section conclaves and attended enumerable of those
conferences.

Tony was an avid Scout historian and patch collector. He started collecting
patches in 1960. His knowledge of Scouting and Scout camps in Wisconsin was
unsurpassed. He was always willing to share his knowledge and was the OA
editor for the Scouting Collectors Quarterly. He researched and co-authored
“The First 90 Years”, the history of Four Lakes Council with myself and
others.

Although we all remember Tony as a Scouter and patch collector, his family
always came first. He was a terrific husband, father, and son. He leaves
behind his wife Barbara, daughters Lisa and Laura, and father Barnie.

His daughter sent out the information below about his funeral. If you can’t
attend I know that his family would enjoy hearing from you, and I have
included their address as well. I find myself in Europe at this sad time and
do not anticipate making it back in time for the funeral. Tony and I spent
countless hours together talking patches during the past decade and
especially during the last year. The personal loss that I feel is more than
I can express here. He was a close friend and I already miss him.

Kurt

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