Scout Patch Collectors

Boy Scout Memorabilia Prices Realized Guide 2nd Edition: Eagle Scout Memorabilia & Merit Badges

HISTORY OF THE PRICES REALIZED GUIDE PROJECT

The 2011 Prices Realized Guides

For two solid years from 2011 – 2012 I spent every Sunday documenting the best selling items in the Boy Scout category of eBay. This project eventually became called the Prices Realized Guides. It was my effort to fill a hole in the hobby. As an eBay Powerseller I recognized the importance of having some pricing data to fall back on in order to sell Boy Scout memorabilia. I knew that outside of John Pannell’s excellent OA price guide (which stopped being updated in 2009) there was not a comprehensive price guide for the hobby. Therefore, I started on Jan 1, 2011 making PDF archives of every item in the Boy Scout category that sold for $100 or more. I figured that anything selling for a Benjamin was deserving of notice and inclusion in the project. So after 2011 wrapped up I got busy sorting and laying out the guides in a format that would make them a useful resource for the hobby. Eventually that spring and summer I published 11 different guides covering most every collecting niche. The guides were novel and were generally well received in the hobby. Since that time I have continued to sell the books on eBay and from my website.

THE FORGOTTEN 2012 2ND EDITION

The project continued in 2012 and I faithfully built PDF files every week to capture this important sales data. My plan was to basically keep going. I ended up 2012 with another 4,000+ PDF files that would be sorted, cropped, edited, and published into a 2nd Edition of the Prices Realized Guides. However, in the spring fate intervened. Brett Estrade figured out a better mouse trap. With a background in writing code and working in information technology Brett was able to crack the code and figure out how to write a script to download sales data from eBay.

I knew all along that was the ultimate goal for this project – the evolution of it – to make it all automated and include all items on eBay. So with 4,000 of my own PDFs sitting on a hard drive I decided to shelf my project and just help Brett promote his site Patchtrends.com. Ultimately, I was burned out on the manual labor required to bring the 2nd Edition to market. However, looking back I was missing one key reason for pushing ahead with the books.

THE 2ND EDITION COMES TO LIFE

When Brett started his database it was late in 2012 and at first he was not storing the images once they rolled off eBay’s system after 90 days. If you search his site today and go back to the earliest prices points you will see this evidenced by the Patchtrends.com logo that is substituted for the listing picture. So despite the fact that his website was the perfect evolution of my project idea – he was missing 90% of the sales data from 2012. I had an entire years worth of sales data sitting in those 4k+ PDFs that was not available anywhere else.

So a after some time passed the idea came back to me that I should do something and get those guides finally out in the hobby as a resource. When I started digging in the project I discovered that I was a lot further along and it would only take me a little more effort to push through and get the books finished. This go around I will probably be merging the books down and only have 1/2 dozen unique titles to make things easier on collectors.

EAGLE SCOUT MEMORABILIA & MERIT BADGES

My first published book out of the gate is 178 pages long and contains hundreds of auction and fixed prices sales results for anything having to do with the Eagle Scout rank and merit badges. Often times auctions on eBay have a sash with an Eagle medal and so I thought it was a pretty natural fit to group these two topics together in one book. There is a matching book in the 2011 edition that has been very successful.

One thing I decided to do this time was film a short video so people could see exactly what was inside the book. This way if somebody is unsure about the format or whether they want to pull the trigger and buy it they can essentially preview it in the video. I hope you’ll check out the video below and see the book for yourself.

This eBook is available in three ways depending on what works best for you. The easiest way to get the book is right here on my website as an instant download from eJunkie. The cost of the eBook edition is just $5. If you are ready to buy click the button to get it for $5 as an instant download.

Some people will want to purchase the PDF file burned onto a CD and mailed to them via eBay. I’ve also got that available. You can visit my eBay store at Patchblanket.com and pick up the CD there. The cost is the same but I do charge $1 for shipping and handling on eBay orders.

Click here to purchase the book on eBay

I anticipate having the printed copy available very soon from my eBay partner Brian Dalton who sells on eBay as RadarBSI. I will provide a link when that book is ready.