The warehouse project has gone really well but sadly I will not cross the finish line before my big trip today. The last part is building a thin set of free standing shelves to go down the middle of the unit and we got about 1/2 through with that today before quitting time. Oh well it will be waiting on...Read More
This year we are adding a silent auction to the schedule. I know this is a favorite activity for many at shows and it's something that can help raise more money for the Pack. The other cool side is we have 75+ years of Scouting history at the church. I'm sure we can get some of the old timers to...Read More
The house we are living in now only has a 1 car garage and this shelving system that is 5x8 pretty much consumed it. So yesterday we disassembled these shelves and moved them to the new space. We are going to reconfigure these shelves to make them fit the space (pictures coming maybe next week). The goal being that the...Read More
Today my big project is building storage shelves at my new 10x25 storage unit in a climate controlled warehouse. I'm going to document the process and eventually publish a short video sharing the project. I don't know how many of you need to have that much storage space for your Scouting collectibles but it's big project for me. The...Read More
In the last issue I mentioned that I would have an exciting summer job in 2018. Friday night Doug Stone the IWC Scout Executive announced that I would be serving as the Camp Director of Camp Barstow. Saturday I spent the day at camp talking to the Camping Committee chairman and meeting a lot of the key people. This is...Read More
I should be riding in the patch bus right about now arriving in Columbus for the Trade-O-Ree. However, the family schedule kinda blew that trip up so instead I'm home doing shipping and getting more stuff listed. This weekend my auction on the rare Tomo Chi-Chi advisor flap ends on eBay. I'm not sure how many of these were made...Read More
Don't tell anybody but I just agreed to trade an old pre-fdl flap from my lodge for a bunch of Girl Scout stuff. I'm really not that active with the Girl Scouts these days so I should be pulling back on my collection but I really have a great collection going and I have plenty of holes in my...Read More
For the last five years I've been coming out of my 25 year phase where I grew up as strictly an OA collector. Now I'm paying attention to other broader areas of collecting and have been toying with this idea of making topical frames. Duane has shown me what that idea looks like fully developed with a decades long collection...Read More
One thing that got me rolling on this has been a lively discussion on Patch-L this week regarding classic fakes in the hobby and some of the characters that were in the middle of it. It occurred to me that literally this is the oral history of our hobby. If I could find some people willing to type that into...Read More
Come check out my Scouting antique mall booth in Charlotte, NC at the Sleepy Poet Antique Mall. You can find all the details at www.SanteeswapperStore.com. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them here. I appreciate your feedback and ideas.
As some of you may know the tradition of these campfire blankets goes way back. They are designed to be worn at night as an extra layer to keep you warm at a campfire. They are also a great way to display the badges that you've swapped for and to document your Scouting history. If you live in Canada, Europe,...Read More
The Santeeswapper back with another unboxing video. This time I got in a collection of 3 flat rate boxes stuffed with uniforms. This looks to come out of the collection of a Scouter who live around Pittsburgh in the 1970s. There is one item in this collection that I was especially looking forward to receiving. Watch the video and see...Read More
This was my first time representing Best Hobby Pages at a TOR. I even wore the bright neon shirts that Joe, Ron and Dan have sported for many years at shows. Good thing for me too as I sold more BHP than patches of my own at this show. Mark Graff and I were discussing this topic on the...Read More
I've decided to postpone the idea of a table top TOR display that would allow me to put dozens of boxes out for sale. I am bringing a shelving system that I built but I'm going to put it behind my table so I can have all those boxes handy to go. It's an experiment that I'll photograph and...Read More
Right now my patch basement (and by extension the 1 car garage) is busting at the seams and I have to get it under control. So what I've decided to do for now is expand with a larger storage unit and maximize the utility by building shelving so I can pack it all in but be able to easily pull...Read More