My introduction to the hobby was in the mid 1980s with mail order lists and phone auctions.  Some of you reading might be millennials who have always experienced this hobby with a smart phone in your pocket and the Facebook App on the Scout Patch Collectors.  Nick Loesch is old school having traded back in the 1960s when as he explains the rule was simple 1:1.

• Western Boulder Colo., Boy Knife w/ Leather Belt Sheath
• 1955 World Scout Jamboree Canada Souvenir Pennant
• Winchester's Stagecoach Poster by Norman Rockwell
• Remington Bone Scout Knife Handles Knife R3333
• Ulster Knife Co Bone Scout Knife Handles 1502

 

Something I learned is that Nick stepped away from the hobby for many years and rediscovered it when he put a patch up for auction in 2001 and couldn't believe what it brought.  Since then he has been a regular on the TOR circuit and a big eBay seller.  It just goes to show this is a hobby that you can put aside when life gets in the way and come back to it full hog later as he did.

• Natokiokan Golden Anniversary Lodge 41 P1 Pie
• Lodge 165s1 Chautauqua Black Border Pre Fdl
• 1989-90 Iron on Lick & Stick Vigil Honor Sash
• Ikunuhkatsi Mint Embroidered Neckerchief
• Pocumtuc Lodge Charter Issue Rare Find

   

If I had to pin an overall theme to the show it would be his love for trading.  That's what really set the hook in him back in the 1960s and he laments that not much of that happens these days at TORs.  In the interview he gives us some insight into the old names he mailed patches to back in the day.  In fact Nick recalled that back in the days of The Trader magazine it would take 2 weeks to complete a trade - not like the instantaneous deals of today.

• Boy Scouts National Past President Position Pocket Patch
• 19th World Jamboree, Chile 1999, Mexico Contingent
• Tamet Lodge 225 Dakota Chapter Arrowhead Patch
• Lot of 5 Air Scout or Explorer Rating Strips
• Kaw Outpost-Kaw Council Camp Patch

 

I just launched up a bunch of auctions last night inluding some good looking OA pies.  I messed up and set the opening bid for this Muscogee pie at just $9.95 when past sales suggest it should go for $200+.  Well I'll just put my faith in the system and let it ride (GULP).

• Camp Forestburg Scout Reservation Embroidered N/C
• Camp Kimble Staff Neckerchief Southern New Jersey
• Camp Curtis S. Read Scout Neckerchief 1961 GRY
• Camp Edge GRN Staff N/C Atlantic Area Council
• Floodwood Mountain Reservation Neckerchief
• Sanita Hills Scout Camp GRY Neckerchief
• Troop 610 Minuteman Troop Neckerchief