In my warehouse I have accumulated thousands of modern era Boy Scout merit badge patches from buying collections. Whereas many collectors are not interested in these I have come to discover that the best way to recycle these may be getting them back into the hands of Scout troops. These plastic back modern design patches are still serviceable and can...Read More
In August of 1912 the first Eagle Scout Award was earned by a Scout from Rockville Center, NY named Arthur Eldred. Eventually more than two million Scouts would follow in his footsteps over the next century plus and achieve Scouting's highest award. For many years the late Dr. Terry Grove researched and published the history of the Eagle Scout Award....Read More
For over 100 years the Boy Scouts of America has issued merit badges to Scouts that fulfilled the requirements in specific topics. Anyone who has dabbled in collecting Scouting memorabilia has come across merit badge patches and will notice that they have changed quite a bit over the years in style, material and focus. In this quick video I want...Read More
I am happy to announce the Camp Book II Version 3 (2021) is now available for sale. Bob Sherman has graciously agreed to allow me to publish the book as I have since 2012. The latest update features a wealth of additions from the last update in 2014. So what is the Camp Book II? It is a complete...Read More
For going on 25 years I have been toying with a collection of Order of the Arrow flaps. Since the 1997 National Scout Jamboree I've been keeping a list and trying to add new pieces. But in the last 6 months I've gotten much more serious and made a lot of progress developing a master spreadsheet tracking every lodge that...Read More
DIY Display Frame Holder For Your Collectibles I needed a place to store my Boxware displays for patches and such. I decided to clean up some wood in the shed/shop and make one. I started with some 2' gardening stakes and measured 1" shelf space between where the shelves would go and drew some lines. I used some C-clamps to...Read More
What makes Best Hobby Pages a great choice for storing and displaying your valuable memorabilia collection? This video demonstrates the unique PAGE system that has made Best Hobby Pages a favorite for patch collectors for a decade. Our system is designed to fit in a 3-ring binder with 8 different pocket configurations for your collection. Our pages and envelopes are...Read More
In this video I hope to help merit badge counselors meet requirement 8 of Collections Merit Badge. It states, "Find out about career opportunities in collecting. Pick one and find out the education, training, and experience required for this profession. Discuss this with your counselor, and explain why this profession might interest you." I have been a full time Scouting...Read More
When you have almost 2,000 council shoulder patches sorted out alphabetically on a table that's a great time to film a video! But what would make this video interesting is instead use that as a backdrop to walk through the history of cataloging shoulder patches. I start with Bill Price books, move through Prince Watkins books and basically just cover...Read More
At first glance the idea of a blind trade sounds like an oxymoron. How can you trade patches blind? No offense to those that have problems with their vision. But yes in the Boy Scout hobby we do have blind trades and they do work. In this video I explain how these are organized and why you might consider participating....Read More
What is new in the 2014 edition? We have added over 2500 camp listings and added over 400 new Council names (including the second class councils that existed in the teens and 1920s. We have rewritten virtually all of the comments by including the camp locations where known and moved the comments to the camp data sections of the book...Read More
After having been an Order of the Arrow collector for more than twenty-five years I am turning over a new leaf. For most of my time as a collector and low-level dealer in Boy Scout memorabilia I stuck with what I knew. Growing up I was a Lodge Chief and Section Chief in the OA and that was always my...Read More
This video shares an idea for how to build displays that use the Boxware Frames sold by Chris Jensen over at www.streamwood.net. In preparation for putting together a Boy Scout museum for the 2014 Dixie Fellowship I contracted a carpenter to make an idea I had come to life. Essentially I wanted to be able to vertically display in a...Read More
I know a handful of Boy Scout memorabilia collectors that are using a unique strategy to sell stuff. They have rented booths in antique malls and set up a "brick and mortar" location. Now what makes these malls interesting is that for a small consignment fee they will sell your items for you and you don't even need to be...Read More
IT WAS SELLING ON CONSIGNMENT THAT ALLOWED ME TO LAUNCH MY BUSINESS I got my start on eBay in 1998 but like most people that was not the year I started selling. Eventually I did dip my feed in and I can remember after the 2001 Jamboree coming home with some stuff that got listed on eBay. By the time...Read More