Many times when I purchase Scouting memorabilia collections from people who have done the program I get Jambo collections. Although it's often lamented in my hobby let's face it. For that one beautiful week at the National Scout Jamboree thousands of Scouts (and adults) become patch collectors. The fun of walking down the road and trading a patch with a...Read More
This weekend I had a mom reach out to me on Facebook looking for a vintage patch from her council. Her 13-year-old son is really getting serious about patch collecting. Then in the same weekend YouTube shows me that Gary Simonsen has started a YT channel focused on his niche which is council shoulder patches. More of this please! I believe...Read More
Happy Birthday America! I have for you a new unboxing that I filmed during the recent unboxing palooza in the warehouse. This guy went to the 1964 Jamboree and Philmont and you can see the history in the video. Several collectors this week took advantage of the Tuesday announcement on Russell Smart's store Smart Scout Patches. and got some needs. We repriced...Read More
Many of the collections that I get have three things in common. The Scout was an Eagle Scout and/or went to Philmont and/or went to a National Jamboree. All of those are mountaintop experiences in the program and typically mean a lot. So these collections get carried around for years through moves and relocations. But eventually someone has to become...Read More
Since 2021 I have been helping Russell Smart piece out his extensive OA collection with a Shopify Store that we built called SmartScoutPatches. Over the last two weeks I have done an extensive review of the pricing in the store. I comped every single item in the store to bring them in line with market pricing over the last five...Read More
Today I wanted to share another video from the catalog. Back about 10 years ago I was doing a talking heads show with Brad England. Sometimes this format went on the road and I interviewed collectors at TORs. At one show I caught up with John Ortt of VA and he gave an excellent talk on early OA pins. It's...Read More
Well I've never tried this before but I have a First Flap in pristine mint condition that I am making available to the readers. The Shin-Go-Beek 334 F1 is a highly rated First Flap that I just got it in a collection. I'm asking $1800 OBO on this one. If you are a buyer send me an email reply and we can...Read More
As the summer time can put many of you on the road today I want to shout out what I hope is a destination for patch collectors. If you are traveling through the Queen City through the air or via I77 or I85 this summer consider stopping at the Sleepy Poet Antique Mall. It's always rated as one of the...Read More
People are still finding raw collections all the time in the wild. I got an email yesterday from a FB friend. He came across a small Region V cache that included some really killer OA including a totem pin. Nice! I gave him some information and suggested a few people he could reach out to. I got a call...Read More
I am down in the sea islands of South Carolina this weekend getting away with the family. My wife decided to upgrade her tech and has handed down to me a reMarkable. This is a b&w electronic tablet that is what a paper notepad would be if it married an iPad. I am still trying to figure it out but...Read More
I am getting today's issue out a bit later in the day than I normally due. I had a few errands today that pushed things back so I apologize if any of my hand picked listings already had the gavel fall. Yesterday I had a visitor in the warehouse from Ohio that brought me a large collection from an...Read More
Back about 10 years ago I was doing a show with Brad England we called Thread Heads. I also published some episodes that were Trade-O-Ree interviews. This was one of my favorites as I sat down with the Pin Man Doug Chambers. We talked about his passion for this corner of our hobby in the interview. I have since kept...Read More
Today I'm sharing another episode from the archive. I recorded this interview early on in the podcast at the end of 2011 with John Pannell. In the episode he shares the story of how he took OAimages from a website with a few hundred images to one that got 40,000 hits per day. Even with it's ups and downs over the...Read More
This month I have been selling off a lot of Georgia OA pieces. It all came from the a collection that I picked up about 4 months ago. At the time I filmed an video for my Patreon members sharing some of the sorting and processing. I thought since I'm in the heat of selling some of the stuff I"d...Read More
Yesterday I put in snipes on several of the Air Explorer items in the Noble Spirit auctions. I put my bids in at 100% of the historical best sold comp and in one case even higher. In all cases I was totally blown out of the water. On a Saturday afternoon! It's great to see there is such interest in the...Read More