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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There’s an e-mail making the rounds that I thought was worth saving here for posterity. It gives a chuckle more so that some of these statements go back hundreds of years. We are in some messed up times. Government ‘coming to the rescue’ is really us - we are the government. The mint might print the money but we are the ones who pay for it. That being said, there are such things as public goods - items that individuals can’t afford but want and thus only happen if we all pitch in (e.g., the Interstate system comes to mind).

We, the country, will be paying for mis-deeds of a few and the complicity of many. “Bankers” on Wall Street were alchemists turning lead into gold but like all such alchemy it truly was just lead and its weighing us down. These bankers thought it normal to make $10million, $20million, or more per year for shuffling paper around. The original purpose of their endeavors, securitization of financial obligations, was a productive use but it got too carried away to the point they were paying folks to sign their name on increasingly bad loans.

This is a blog about patches so how does this relate? Well, there are corrollaries. Why are the values of our items holding up? Because they weren’t made to necessarily be collectibles. Because the program creates strong emotional attachments that last a life time. Its supply and demand. As those remain solid then the hobby will remain solid.

So if without further ado:

Profound Statements

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
– John Adams

2. If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
– Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.
– Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle …
– Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
– George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
– G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
– James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money frompoor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
– Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
– P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
– Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

11. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
– Ronald Reagan (1986)

12. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
– Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free!
– P.J. O’Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
– Voltaire (1764)

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you!
– Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
– Mark Twain (1866)

17. Talk is cheap…except when Congress does it.
– Anonymous

18. The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
– Ronald Reagan

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
– Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
– Mark Twain

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
– Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

22. There is no distinctly native American criminal class…save Congress.
– Mark Twain

23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
– Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
– Thomas Jefferson

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I’m watching CNBC this morning where the stock market is “limit down.” I’ve referred to the situation in the stock market  and watching it on tv, is like watching a slasher horror film. Its gory and bloody but you can’t turn away. You can’t take your eyes off the picture. I’ve been asked what thing, if any, this means for collectibles. My short answer: “Most likely up.”

Comments made in the past day in our office.

Talking with my team - There are many under-collected, new areas to collect in our hobby. Means new areas of fun. (We were packing and pulling interpreter strips and square knots that sold.)

Talking with my team - There are not enough high-end patches. This hobby isn’t expensive enough yet.

Talking with one of my banker friends - We’ve gone through recessions before. The names may change who’s buying but the buying doesn’t.

Talking with my wife - After hearing about my son becoming the treasurer for one of his school’s clubs it was because they had a bake sale and were pretty unorganized but he had ideas on what to do. I told my wife that one of the reasons I support Scouting, and why Scouting is so valuable, is that it allows kids to learn by doing - doing things that most kids don’t get to do until later in life if ever at all. Sometimes the learning is learning from mistakes but its a lot easier to learn those lessons young than later.

Sure, prices go up and prices go down but the long term trend is up. Why is that? Because the fundamentals of the hobby are solid. These are legitimate collectibles because they weren’t made as collectibles. There is legitimate demand that can’t be met.

What’s gone on, is going on, in the stock market is due to folks borrowing massive amounts of money to make small amounts of money. That’s not done with Scout patches. People buy these with money they have.

The fundamentals of Scouting are sound. Is it changing? Yes but I’d be concerned if it wasn’t. The other week coming out of the local grocery store there was a group of Scouts and their parents selling popcorn to help fund their unit. They were preparing for their annual trek to the upper peninsula where they help maintain one of the classic lighthouses. Parents spending time with their kids. Kids spending time with their parents and not a computer or video game. Both learning from each other. Both creating experiences that they’ll remember for their life. A country that is sorely in need of leadership and Scouting being the premier youth leadership development program. Although there are challenges to Scouting from folks outside of the program, we need Scouting now more than ever.

As in the past, there are fundamentals that keep Scouting and thus Scouting collectibles strong.

Roy

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We heard from Ray Czech that Dave Leubitz passed away the morning of September 9th.

Here’s Dave at the 1993 Rochester, IN TOR. This was after he sold his collection. The storage boxes next to him contain approximately 150 patches each and there are over 100 of them. These were just his DUPES!

I first met, and traded with, Dave at the 1973 Jamboree. It was a one for one CSP trade. I was just amazed at a guy having a suitcase crammed full of patches on both sides. Later, after being out of collecting for a while, I ran into Dave at a Pittsburgh TOR. He had a lodge 206 issue I needed and we again traded one-for-one from my dupes. I’m sure what he got from me was a dupe for him, a 101 blue twill flap, but he made a trade to help me out.

Most collectors never knew the breadth of Dave’s collecting. He collected everything Scouting related. In part it was to have trading stock so if a cross trade need came up he could cover but it was also just how passionate he was for Scouting memorabilia. Most know of the OA but he also had CSPs, RWS, merit badges, merit badge books, handbooks, national jamborees, world jamborees, insignia, camps (and not just one per camp but every camp patch). His mind for patches was incredible. Having tens of thousands of patches in his collection he could remember what he needed as to what he already had.

Dave told me once that he and his trading friend, Tom Baskay, hit 13 weekends in a row going to TORs or conclaves to trade. He brought along many of the Ohio patch gang like Warren Kuhfeld, Ray Czech and Gary Gold. It was not uncommon for Dave to call them up and say “Lets go to a TOR this weekend.” They’d say, “Sure. Where?” And Dave would reply, “Florida.” Fourteen hours later, after stopping at every council headquarters possible getting what ever that could be gotten to trade, they’d be set-up their patch blankets and trade away all weekend long. Dave created many new collectors as he shared his passion.

I called Paul Myers to pass on the news of Dave’s passing. We discussed some of the contributions he made to the hobby. He was an editor of the Trader magazine. Certainly at the time, it was the most influential hobbyist newsletter. Actually some think we probably need something like that again even in the age of e-mail and the internet. Dave also resurrected Forest Reynold’s Blue Book of OA issues. This listed what issues lodges had but we only had the detail of twill (F) vs. solid (S) flaps or odd-shapes, pies and arrowheads. We didn’t have the detail as to border color, edge, background, etc.. Still it was better than anything else out there. Later it was Dave’s collection that was the basis for Arapaho II that Al Hoogeveen compiled. This was the OA images before there was oaimages.com. EVERY serious collector had a copy of Arapaho II just to be able to identify issues and know what you had. If it wasn’t for Dave’s collection, we wouldn’t have had the book that moved this hobby to a whole new level.

We handled the sale of Dave’s collection after he made his original transaction with Dr. Horne and Bill Topkis. Dr. Morley at the time observed that he thought Dave had the best middle-issue collection ever put together. It still took us years to work through its sale given its size. Just amazing. Its probably fair to say that most collections these days have a piece that came through Dave’s hand.

Dave’s later years were very hard. He commented how his father passed away at an early age, 52 I believe. This, combined with very bad health side effects due to diabetes, lead to a certain fatalistic view. It was sad. He’s hopefully in a better place now. I miss him.

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What a busy weekend. Our eBay feedback rating is over 31,000.

Last Friday our eBay feedback rating was at 8,223.

Actually, what must have occurred is that eBay changed their algorithm. We have a LOT of repeat buyers. The old eBay system did not take this into account. eBay realized that this was wrong. They are trying to create a better buying experience. One result is to encourage buying from sellers that perform. One of the best indicators of performance is repeat buying. Actually, because many of you buy multiple items from us at a time, this rating understates our overall positive feedbacks of over 61,000. Even this understates the number of eBay transactions we’ve done over the years, well over 100,000 items sold, as many do not leave feedback or only leave it on a single item in a group of purchases.

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We certainly try to have fun with patches. Another person that brought fun to the hobby was Pappy Reinegar and the Texas Trader’s Den.

I don’t remember who all was in here but certainly Bill Price (of the pocket illustrated OA patch book fame), John Bibo, Robert Frizzell, Steve Ross and many more.

We came a cross a couple of their flaps from the 1970s one of which is this week’s quiz. Do you know what PGIT means?

One eBay seller, from Texas, even uses this as his handle. Doctoral question: Why were the feather drops made the way they were?

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I know, its a little crowing but what the hey - we recently passed 60,000 positive feedbacks from over 7,000 customers. Given that not everyone leaves feedback and not everyone leaves feedback for every item purchased and that many of our lots are multiple patch lots - that’s a lot of patches! It is also a lot of repeat purchases.

Tico Perez recently did some postings asking about the state of the hobby. I shared several thoughts with him one of them being that we have a lot more customers than any of the trading societies, off-line or on-line, have. And we don’t have everyone as a customer , yet :-). There clearly is a lot of interest in Scouting collectibles. We are always looking at ways to make the hobby more fun and better. Please pass on your suggestions.

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I just fielded an e-mail from a friend asking about the value/price of the shoulder arcs from the 1935 National Jamboree. These were the first “JSPs”, i.e., jamboree shoulder patches.

Each troop had their own arc. The Roman numerals indicated the region. The capital letter indicated the sub-camp. The number indicated the troop. They are made of red felt with white printing. Quite often these can be found unused because the jamboree was canceled but also many have moth holes from their storage over the years. Each participant got two badges.

These used to be a consistent $125 in price. Then they went to $225. Now they seem to be consistently in the $280 - $380 range. They are truly scarce. It used to be that folks collected just one for their jamboree collection. Now there are several that are trying to put region sets together, i.e., one from each region. And, there are a few that are going gonzo trying to get one from every troop! It makes sense though as we collect JSPs from every council for most of the modern jamborees so why wouldn’t some collect the shoulder arcs the same way. If this trend continues, then these could well be underpriced. But also, this is for a very sophisticated and well heeled collector to go after these that completely.

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