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“Boy Scouts lets him be a kid.” At his pack's annual Blue and Gold Banquet, nine-year-old Cameron Echols received a wooden axe for his bravery in fighting his cancer. The axe had inscriptions ‘A Scout is Brave’ with Cameron’s name and the scripture Joshua 1:9 — “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you.” "Cameron was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, a myeloblastoma, near his cerebellum in his brain that was blocking fluid from going to the rest of his body. A surgery was performed that removed most of the tumor, but to get the rest they used radiation that he went through up until last December. Cameron is still going through chemotherapy and will continue that up until this fall with the hope he is done sometime in September or October. In the meantime, scouting has given the young boy a true outlet to feel like a normal kid for a bit and get away from everything he is enduring." More at source (text with audio): https://www.clantonadvertiser.com/2025/03/26/echols-fighting-cancer-with-family-scouts-support-behind-him/

My understanding is that there is always a delay between administrations. If there is an issue with Trump's approval, perhaps this is a good opportunity to move away from the President of the US as the honorary President of Scouting America and have someone else serve in that role. David Montgomery? Mike Rowe? I'm not sure if there is an issue, but it would be interesting to see someone who is actually a former scout and exemplifies scouting ideals as the honorary president vs politicians.

You probably have three things working against you: 1. Memorabilia worth in dollars is cyclical, not linear. Councils have tended to over-produce patches. So there’s a glut. 2. People like me give old patches away to young scouts. We don’t care if you’d pay a grand for it. If you aren’t hiking and camping with us and we haven’t seen your Scout Spirit IRL, you ain’t getting it. 3. I personally invest time sharing my values to scouts. They grow up and become hard customers. (Just try selling anything to my adult children.) I’m sure others are like me. We work for smiles. If there’s an opportunity to put a smile on a face instead of a dollar in a pocket, I’m in.

That is actually the best response and I apologize for bringing it in. Separating frustration from places it should be left from.

Also have a Nixon certificate. Sad to admit that at that point in my life I doubt I even knew who Stan Lee was! 😁

This is absolutely a factor. Just focusing on the recent trend (membership being roughly 1/3 of what it was 10 years ago), there just aren't many new collectors to replace the ones getting up there in age. I actually don't mind the stagnant prices. The limited collecting I do brings me joy and helps preserve Scouting history in my area. I've never sold a patch. I'm sure it varies by region, but I noticed an "explosion" in patches specifically designed to be collectible around 2000 (different borders, limited runs, etc.). I was away from Scouting from 2007-2022 (returning to be my son's den leader). Since I never experienced this era first-hand, the variations have little appeal to me.

Back in day, I received both my Eagle certificate and medal long after my Troop Court of Honor but that's another story. Anyway, when I finally received my certificate signed by President Nixon, I groaned to my Dad that I rather it had been signed by Stan Lee. My Dad was not amused.

One wonders with the membership loss trends, could you see the value of patches follow it. I don't mean recent trends, but the multi-decade trends. There used to be a patch dealer who had a page that did "industry year in review" over many years. I haven't seen it in a few, but that would be the way to see some real trends. Also, like baseball cards, once you get into the mid '80's, patches started to be made for the collector in mind vs. just being made and it becoming collectable.

I find it amusing that the stuff that cannot be easily made, i.e. patches and medals, have been done and out for a while, but the item that can be easily laser printed we are waiting on.

I find myself wondering if we might no longer automatically call the POTUS the Honoary president/ Honorary suggests the root word, or so I thought. Just saying, and just my own observation.