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| What's It | Weblog | Trends| Scout Patch Wikipedia |
For those who have not been to our office and warehouse, we’re in an industrial park. We have trucks coming and going as well as our normal course of business sending out 200 packages a week. Through it all, we have a nesting Killdeer that comes back each year.
These are a fascinating species as they nest on the ground. They seem to like the area next to one of our curbs. Their eggs are almost perfectly camouflaged against the crushed limestone gravel. When you approach, they’ll get up and run away from the nest but act as if they’re wounded splaying their wings, limping and make a chirping noise as if dieing. Needless to say, they’ll keep pulling you away and when you get really close they fly off.
At this year’s Calumet Council Memorial Day TOR, Bruce Richardson put on a display of his Region 7/Northern Wisconsin Canoe Base collection. It is probably the most complete collection of these. Bruce shared with us some of the history and why he has found this to be such a fun area to collect.
Bruce also maintains a wonderful web-site on Region 7 Canoe base but here you can hear him describe the history and background about this memorabilia.
One of the neat aspects of the Calumet Council Memorial Day trade-o-ree is their display section. TOR organizers Jim Scherbarth and Swoop Dellamano arrange for special displays each year from area collectors. Bob Cylkowski provided a display of some of his Far East Council memorabilia. It is probably the most complete collection of these items in the country. I’ve seen some of these patches before but not all of them Further, Bob knows more about the history of these patches than most so we interviewed him so the rest of the hobby can have this information.
Bob also brought his Region 13 patch collection for display. Region 13 was never an official BSA designation for a region which makes it somewhat notorious 
in collecting circles. The symbol in the center showing “13″ on top of a group of “C”s translates into “Region 13 across the seven seas.” Pretty punny.
At the recent Calumet Council trade-o-ree a collector showed me a fascinating piece from his collection - a rolled-edge version of the 307 Karankawa W1. He’s had the item in his collection for decades. It came from a collector out of west central Illinois in the late 1960s. What brought this to mind was his seeing on eBay recently a 300 Peta W1 also with a rolled edge.
Long-time Texas collector John Bibo was also at the TOR. We both concluded it is a real Apache-style border. Apache was the patch manufacturer. Most of their wovens came out in the 1959-1961 era. During that period Scouting was looking at ways to save money on patch costs and used them for a while. They made about 15 OA flaps or patches, about the same number of council patches, and many council activity and camp patches during this time. Very few though had rolled edges. The most noteworthy are what we call proto-types, most likely promotional samples, of the 1960 50th anniversary of the BSA patches for Camporee, Field Day, and Cub-o-ree.
Here’s the picture of the 307:
Some of Apache made lodge flaps had rolled edges but most did not. If anyone has more information, please post it.
What a busy weekend. Our eBay feedback rating is over 31,000.
Last Friday our eBay feedback rating was at 8,223.
Actually, what must have occurred is that eBay changed their algorithm. We have a LOT of repeat buyers. The old eBay system did not take this into account. eBay realized that this was wrong. They are trying to create a better buying experience. One result is to encourage buying from sellers that perform. One of the best indicators of performance is repeat buying. Actually, because many of you buy multiple items from us at a time, this rating understates our overall positive feedbacks of over 61,000. Even this understates the number of eBay transactions we’ve done over the years, well over 100,000 items sold, as many do not leave feedback or only leave it on a single item in a group of purchases.
Seller Wishingtree07 has popped up on eBay with many brand new fakes of Scout patches, mostly OA. Here’s a PDF of his offerings.
New ‘Faker’ out of Malaysia on eBay
His descriptions do mention that they are brand new patches and have a heat seal back. Frankly, not sure how he chose the designs to make. For some, the original issue is cheaper than what he’s charging for the fake. You make your own decision as to whether to buy or not, although if you don’t buy then there will be fewer offered in the future.
Update 4/22/08 - More to this story - now seeing these items under a new seller id: YCPATCH as well. I went back and Wishingtree07 is still listing but NONE of their Boy Scout fakes have sold over the past two weeks. That’s a sure way to get this to end. These guys are paying less than $1 a patch. They are hoping for unsuspecting buyers. That hurts us all if they pull it off.
Last week a silkscreened OA neckerchief from Aheka Lodge 359 auctioned off for $14,665.
This is a new record for a non-patch neckerchief. There have been neckerchiefs that have sold for more due to the patch on them.
Here’s some of the background information the seller provided:
The gentleman I purchased this neckerchief from was inducted in 1952. He indicated that he had been given this NC by his Lodge Advisor. The NC had been issued prior to 1952 and was no longer available. Not listed in BLUE BOOK. Previously unknown issue.
A couple of things - one, our hobby is a great hobby with collecting interest at all levels. There are those who are actively collecting the rarest of the rarest and the prices in our hobby are not a barrier. There are others who collect at the other economic end of the hobby.
I heard this from a friend of mine, Jay Lenrow, that the upcoming 2010 100th Anniversary of BSA Jamboree will be the last one to be held at Fort A. P. Hill. Jay and I were Council Presidents of our respective councils when participating in Philmont Key-3 Training Conference. Since then we’ve kept in touch at National Meetings and other gatherings.
Here’s what Jay had to say. What is your reaction?
I can officially tell you that the rumors you have heard are true. The 2010 National Jamboree will be the last one to be held at Fort A.P. Hill. There is a committee of volunteers that has been appointed by Rick Cronk, the National President, to find a permanent home for the National Jamboree that will be owned by the BSA. They are currently looking at many properties.
Because this will be our last time “at the Hill,” the Army has told us that there is no chance of adding any new subcamps beyond what we had in 2005. This means that there may be many potential Scouts left out because they did not sign up fast enough. We anticipate that there will be tremendous interest in this “100th Anniversary” Jamboree so my recommendation to potential unit leaders, Scouts, and staffers is to get your name in early or risk not getting a spot.
Yours in Scouting,
Jay
Jay L. Lenrow
Chairman — National Jewish Committee on Scouting
Area 5 Metro President — Northeast Region
Member –National Relationships Standing Committee
Member –National Religious Relationships Committee
Past President – Baltimore Area CouncilI used to be a Buffalo (NE IV-123) but I’ll always be an Eagle (1966)
Most collectors don’t know that the early name for lodge 103 was Juniata, like the council name, and not Monaken. The lodge had this name from 1937 to 1941. One person who does know is Dr. Hal Yocum as Monaken was his home lodge. We recently connected with Dr. Yocum at the Dallas Trade-o-ree where he brought his 103 patch (one of six known) and discussed the variations and how Monaken later picked up the design. He brought one original Juniata patch with him and color copies of the other known specimen.
Dr. Hal Yocum discusses the first issues from Juniata Lodge 103: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadJust received the following picture of a great display David Oertle put together for a recent lodge function. It presents particularly early pieces from Sanhican Lodge from Trenton, NJ. Click on the image for a larger view.
A favorite quote of mine comes from collector Dr. Jeff Morley - “What we know about pre-WW 2 Order of the Arrow is an accident.” Everything in David’s display is pre-1940. Just amazing. The 2 R1 is one of the earliest OA patches, not just the first issue for lodge 2 but one of the first lodge patches period. It dates to roughly 1928 and is contemporaneous with the 1 R2 (formerly 1 R1). Similar design. Similar material. Probably made by the same company.
Also, the membership card is noteworthy not just for its vintage but it does not show a lodge number. This could have been made before lodges were numbered.
We know the name of the recipient of the Vigil sash. It was from a Lodge 2 member who received it in 1935. From some research Paul Myers is doing on Vigil memorabilia, there were barely more than 100 Vigils in the whole country as of this time. The hobby generally does not realize how rare and scarce these early Vigil items are. All in all a wonderful display. Often it is not quantity but quality that really matters. And it is much more than just patches that make for an interesting display. (One piece that others should draw from this display are the notes that David added to the frame. This helps provide context for lay audience and new collectors.) Well done David.
