Between Destry and I we have over 50 years of collecting experience and have literally handled 100,000’s of Scout memorabilia items and looked through most of the major estates and collections in the country. Yet still we come across items we’ve not seen before (could be we did not pay attention as they might be in some of the side eddies of our hobby but we still find of them of interest). The item at hand that we just traded some back and forth e-mails about is this Cub Scout knife recently auctioned off on eBay for $72.

Now its not the knife that caught Destry’s attention, although it is in stunning condition He’s more the specialist on these than I am although I’ve handled everyone of the early Scout knives including the Sea Scout with marlin spike. What caught his attention was the belt sheath. He’d never seen it before. Clearly it is official. I’ve not seen it either. I think that these were for boys under the age of 11 who would be wearing this on their belt? Granted different times than today and maybe an adult leader would wear one of these but still, this is uncommon and a pretty trick item IMHO. Is it great value? Probably not really as the price realized indicates. But still plenty cool and would be interesting to know more of the story. Certainly fits into a nice display or collection of Scouting knives.

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I was talking with ISCA column editor Blake Keasey about a recent acquisition. How is it that 40 years or longer after the fact, these were phased out when CSPs came in, we are still discovering new red and white council strips or in this case a Sea Scout white and blue council strip? Up to this point this Birmingham Area C/Alabama strip has been unreported. That means neither Art Hyman nor Rob Kutz had it reported to them. Nor Bruce Raver. Nor Blake. Some of these have got to be real hens teeth. But its also why this collecting area is both fun and legitimate (that’s on my mind with all of the new, crude issues coming out for the 2013 Jamboree). They could be ordered as few as a “half order” or six.

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A recent back and forth set of e-mails with Texas friend Roger Schustereit was about an eBay offering of a “Scout Camp Patch”

The title of the listing is: Boy Scout Vintage Felt Patch Camp Kenan

picturing this patch:

My first reaction was that I don’t know this camp name and that the patch does not “feel” like a Scout camp patch. A simple Google search reveals that there is a still active YMCA Camp Kenan in Lockport, NY. Finding this, it VERY much feels like a YMCA patch (they are often red and white and often have a red triangle on them which this one does not).

In some ways it speaks to the strength of our collecting area and the presence/influence of the Boy Scouts of America. Lots of these peddlers place things in the Boy Scout eBay category hoping to strike a lick. What it means is they think this is the best place to put these unknowns hoping they become knowns.

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From time to time in our eBay searches we see an item and wonder if collectors will pick up on it. One such item surfaced in the spring, a vintage Philmont Ranger back pack with the bear claw patch still on it. Really is one of the trick items in Philmont collecting. Very few are in collectors’ hands.

Well it did get found as it closed at $3,627. Probably not the highest price the item could bring but very respectable for something just tossed out there wondering if two someones would catch it. I’m sure its got a good home now.

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Texas friend Roger S., knowing I like vintage camp patches, shared a link for a felt 1946 Camp Lowden patch from Blackhawk Area Council listed on eBay.

Its being offered at $9.99 by a knowledgeable seller. It might go for that. It might get into the $25 range. It won’t get into the $100 range. Why? Here’s what I told Roger:

this is an example where the council was much larger and active in the 1940s than in the 2010s. TX is the reverse- 1940s TX was a MUCH smaller place. So camp patches from there are much scarcer to begin with and more natural demand today. Other places like this are Washington, DC, California and the Pacific Northwest. Conversely NY is relatively flat from a camp patch perspective even though there is a lot of population there, Scouting was so active in the early years that the patches are available even if scarce.

Demographics come into play in many areas of Scouting collectibles. This is one of them. There are others.

For more on Demographics and collecting see 50’s is the new 30’s where I observe

We will be collectors for much longer than we might realize. We will have a much longer period to pursue our hobbies. We will have more extended retirement period than our parents or grandparents and thus more free time to pursue our hobbies.

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Our hobby is naturally a social hobby. We enjoy getting together and sharing our collections, meeting with others that have our crazy obsession, learning about what we did not know, making new discoveries, making new finds. So its natural that we build a community using the social media tools out there.

These thoughts come to mind as collector Shaun Woolmer posted on the Facebook group page Scout Patch Collectors a picture of his Baltimore Area Council Broad Creek camp patch collection. I thanked him for sharing but also asked him about close-ups of some of the patches and a question about one of the segments. Collector Dave Scocca then posted a link to his web-site where he gives close-ups and pictures of the patches. This all happened in less than a day. In the era of mail trading, if this occurred it would have taken weeks and likely would not have occurred as we would not have had digital pictures or even good copiers.

It starts with the passion of a collector. That collector building and displaying his collection and now its easier than ever before to share that. That builds our knowledge. That builds our fellowship. That builds our hobby. All of which speak well to our hobby’s future.

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Scout Collecting Hobby Trends Dallas 2013 by

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A business news syndication website, Business Insider, has an interesting article on collectibles crazes that were a waste of money. On their list are things like:

Beanie Babies

Baseball Cards

Hummel Figurines

Animation Art cells

Fortunately Scout patches are not on this list although I’ve previously written about being near a tipping point. I’ve long contended that Scouting memorabilia is a solid collectible because the items were made to be used as part of the program. The more our collectibles become like these, mass-produced, fad-based the less they will be collectibles. Read the above links for the epitaphs, and wasted money, on what were once “hot” collectibles. I was going to write “Lets hope this doesn’t happen to Scout patches.” Well it has happened but what this means, like the discussion in baseball cards above, there was a period where our patches were true collectibles and those will be the ones in the future most likely to hold value.

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Made another road trip to pick up another Boy Scout estate. Its what we do. Full-time. Now, I’ll suggest the reason we end up with so many estates is that we handle all areas of Scouting collectibles so we can see value where others don’t. As in this estate there was very little cloth and virtually no OA pieces but there were some VERY interesting pieces of non-patch memorabilia. So, if you are thinking of selling your Scout patches or collectibles – give us a call at 734-434-TSPA (8772) or e-mail us at info@tspa.com

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