This morning I published episode #87 of my Scouting Hot Find Radio podcast. John Smilek has talked to me for over a year about doing a podcast on his reference project for merit badge pamphlets. We caught up at the Indianapolis TOR and finally sat down to press record.
Vintage Scouting Memorabilia On eBay
One thing John said during the interview hit home. If you are a merit badge collector (patches) then you have an awful lot in common with someone who collects the pamphlets. In fact he suggests collecting them parallel as the changes in the MBs is closely reflected in the pamphlets. And after all you can't learn anything from a patch necessarily but pamphlet steps out of history dated to that time/place and reflects the technology and occupations of the generation.
I am not sure I even knew there was something called a white cover merit badge pamphlet until the last 6 months when people began posting them on Facebook. I have a decent set of tan covers that I got in a collection and have held on to. See there I can start off with an instant collection if I go down that road!
One cool thing I did since this was recorded in person is also turn on a camera. So there is a companion video that goes with the podcast interview. Right now I'm uploading it to YouTube but it should be ready within the hour. It will be posted on the show notes page for the podcast episode on my website.
I am thinking about shooting another video this morning as I sort out about 2000 council shoulder patches. This is another segment of the hobby that is a niche which is easy to get into if you keep your goals limited. That's one thing I'm going to talk about in the video. Perhaps the Friday issue of this newsletter will include that video.
Chris Jensen is doing me a huge favor. He is working with a fella named Steve to build some boxes for my traveling Best Hobby Pages supply. If you have seen it at TORs then you know they travel in some cheap plastic shelves. Chris is going to build a wooden box that these plastic drawers can live in so I can take them on the road a lot easier.
Yours in Scouting,
Jason Spangler Santeeswapper LLC
In Charlotte, North Carolina I have an antique mall booth that is filled with nothing but Scouting stuff. I call this location my clearance center because I've marked down everything to move. A lot of what you will find there are items that are too bulky to easily ship from an Internet store. The booth is located in The Sleepy Poet which is a well established antique mall on South Blvd in Charlotte. The mall is open 7-days/week year round. So the next time you are in the area come check it out.
