I got a call from a former Scouter who was about to move and needed to downsize. When we got to talking about his Scouting history it was an amazing journey. Before he graduated high school this guy had been to the National Leadership Training at Philmont (36 days total), attended the 1957 National Scout Jamboree at Valley Forge and...Read More
In the eBay resller world there is always talk of a dreaded summer slow down. A time where people go on vacation and are less focused on buying stuff for kids, school etc. As we are in a hobby that doesn't really have a calendar like that I'm not sure if it's the same. Sure some of us go...Read More
You never know what you will find in a Boy Scout collection unboxing. I worked with two families to recycle these collections from loved ones back into the hobby. The first one up came to me from Washington State but the collection was from the W.D. Boyce Council in Illinois. This one looks like it may have been part multi...Read More
So what about WhatNot? Last night as I'm driving home from SC an old friend starts up a text thread (yes I used hands free!). He was watching a stream on the live selling App WhatNot. We got into a discussion of the platform and he indicated that with some of his old Star Wars stuff he was thinking...Read More
This morning I published a new unboxing video (yes that makes 2 weeks in a row!) for everyone to enjoy. My method here is to try and tell the story of the Scout who's collection I have ended up with. Hopefully newer collectors will take something away from these and get inspired. I have been sorting in the...Read More
Tonight on eBay there are many auctions to watch. By clicking through the Hot Finds you can find some of the ones that have drawn the most interest from fellow collectors. On a normal walk in the neighborhood recently I found a perfect summer employee to help get projects moving at the warehouse. We ran into our son's...Read More
It's been a while since I've had a new unboxing video to share with the readers. Yesterday I cracked open a few boxes at the office and recorded the unboxing. One of these is a vintage Wisconsin collection that ended up in an estate sale in Florida. The second collection came from Alaska via Florida (a pattern yes!) that...Read More
Back with another unboxing of vintage Boy Scout patch collections! The first box came to me from Florida but the stuff is all 1940s-early 50s vintage from Samoset Council in Wisconsin. The family that I purchased it from got these items in an estate sale down in the Sunshine State and I was happy to add them to my collection....Read More
I wanted to acknowledge an email many of us got from Brett Estrade last week regarding the retirement of what some of us still call PatchTrends.com but later changed to BoyScoutPatchInfo. While the site is still up and running he has given up trying to herd the cats and collect ongoing eBay sales data. But we should celebrate his...Read More
Well the year long wait to reset the calendar was worth it. Coming out of COVID we held the CLT TOR in the fall both in 2021 and 2022. But seeing that a spring date seemed better for everyone I skipped all of 2023. It has been 16 months since we held the show which was a bit of...Read More
Last night Chris Jensen arrived with tables and with help from some local Scouters we got the room set for this weekend's Charlotte Trade-O-Ree. There are over 100 tables in the fellowship hall and with some last minute additions we now have 30 vendors renting tables. I hope to see some of you there! One of the big...Read More
Last night I made a trip to the church to hang the banner and put out the road signs to promote the event locally. I also attend the Pack meeting to talk it up to the Cubs and get the parents engaged to help volunteer. One of our troops is set to do the concessions so it's really a...Read More
I just got back from the E7 Conclave hosted here in Charlotte by Catawba Lodge 459. The event was a success with over 750 participants from the member lodges. For my part I was able to set up a campfire blanket display and share this tradition with many Scouts and Scouters. In addition the patch trading was great and...Read More
This afternoon I'm pushing off to the Cornerstone Conclave at my local Belk Scout Reservation. There are 9 lodges that are part of this conclave and that means a lot of familiar faces and good patch trading. I'm determined that this year I'll try and enjoy the event instead of being a die hard thread head. As in for...Read More
Judging from the posts on Facebook I can see there are conclaves taking place across what we used to call the southern region here the last two weekends of April. I believe VA has there's coming up this weekend along with E8 which is my home CST. I'll be driving to Belk Scout Reservation Friday to attend what we...Read More