How have Scout patch prices changed since 1998?
That was the question I received from collector friend Roger Schustereit of Texas who is helping out another friend that inherited a collection in 1998. As Roger asked:
I am sending this at the request of my friend, XX. XX is the person who gave me the information on the origin of the 307 R3 I wrote the article on way back when. It was his home that had the fire that left the patches smoke damaged &, when cleaned, the blue was not color fast.
Anyway, XX is now selling some Scout items on eBay (Akcent). He wants to be fair to Uncle Sugar for tax purposes. He inherited the items in 1998 & would like to know a general percentage Scout items have increased or decreased in value since 1998. I had no idea, but I thought of you immediately. If you can’t help, no one can. I know you like a good challenge, so here is a great one. Will appreciate any help you might offer.
Probably hoping for a simple answer all I could say was no such luck. It depends upon what one has. Here’s my first response:
But it matters what he has. If he’s got Scout mugs – that’s 100% decline in value. Same for modern handbooks. If he’s got early 1950s OA, good stuff is up, common stuff is down. If its 70’s era OA, its flat to down. If its insignia, its flat to up. If its camp patches, its up to really up. If its CSPs its generally down but red&white community strips are up by a factor of 10 to 20 times higher. …..
Depends upon the area. I know I may be over analyzing but if he’s going to use my observation for tax purposes I need to be able to defend it. There are items that have pulled back from 5 years ago but are still twice what they were in 1998.
I then got into looking at his listings and made these notes:
I just looked at some of the items he has:
1998 value for the N/C slides – $2 – $3 each – now selling for $10 – $25
Philmont patch with segments – he’s asking $300. Fair market if sewn is $85 – $100. Price in 1998 – $150
Region 9 jewelry pieces – in 1998 $5/each – 2011 – $10 – $30 each
1950 Jambo canvas patch – 1998 $25 – 2011 $20
1953 Jambo patch – 1998 $25 – 2011 $201950 Jambo emb. patch – 1998 $40 – 2011 $25-$40 so either no change or a decline.
1955 Silber WJ buckle – 1998 $125-$150 – 2011 current bid is $52 may go to $75.So depending upon what he’s got, his stuff has gone down 40% or gone up 600%. Its not one number. Now this is assuming he wants to be honest with the IRS. And they’re one group I’m honest with.
In reflecting on this further, back in 1998 one could buy community strips for $0.10 to $0.25 each. Now they can bring $3 – $30. And for those who are math challenged that’s a 3000% to 30,000% increase in 13 years from the low end. I’ll have to dig into this deeper for things like First Flaps. More later.