Scouting Memorabilia - Left out of Collectibles Boom?

[BetterWithCheddar]

I'm not a big patch collector, but I will snag old lodge flaps and camp patches from my home council whenever I find them on eBay for $10 or less. From my limited sample, I've noticed these patches haven't appreciated much in price and, in some cases, are actually less expensive than they were 10-15 years ago.

A few industries experienced a resurgence in 2020 with everyone stuck at home (Lego and sports cards immediately come to mind), but Scouting memorabilia may have been left out of the boom. Just curious - what has everyone's experience been in recent years?

[mrjohns2]

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. 

[qwazse]

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.

[Tron]

16 hours ago, mrjohns2 said:

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 would add to this that when you get to the made for collector era of anything you need to have an eye for the very best/most desirable. In some collectables there is artificial pumping and dumping happening; however, there are items that people just keep or catch the random person eye and they snag up for a collection. If you want to make money keep an eye out for "signature" items, FOS CSPs, specialty training patches that have dates, basically anything that might indicate a limited run or some sort of way to determine first production run. Not trying to be funny, but, it is sort of comical, anything that you look at and might think, "oh that might offend so-and-so", you know that's gold, it's going to get pulled out of production somehow, people will want it because of the taboo.

[BetterWithCheddar]

On 3/23/2025 at 9:17 PM, mrjohns2 said:

One wonders with the membership loss trends, could you see the value of patches follow it. 

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.

 

On 3/24/2025 at 12:51 PM, qwazse said:

You probably have three things working against you

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.

 

On 3/24/2025 at 1:57 PM, Tron said:

I would add to this that when you get to the made for collector era of anything you need to have an eye for the very best/most desirable. In some collectables there is artificial pumping and dumping happening;

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.