Collecting Boy Scout & Girl Guides patches & badges - 1Earth Antiques and Appraisals Magazine

A Forestry badge

Availability
Online auctions, national trade shows, and "trade-o-rees" are top sources for Boy Scout badges. Antique malls can produce the goods, as well. There are a lot of antique dealers who think they know scouting stuff, but if they run into a good item, they don't know what they've got. A knowledgeable scout collector will clean the antique dealer's clock.

Condition and Care
Except with the rarest specimens, condition issues can cut 90 percent off the value. Heavy washing or moth damage (in old felt badges) can cut value by half. The "Insect Life" spider badge drops to $300-$400 if the fabric square has been cut down to the embroidery edge. We recommend:

Don't glue badges, or place them in albums with adhesive pages, which will yellow patches. Don't store them in vinyl — the plasticizer will leach the color out of them.
Do store badges in polypropylene pages, mylar or common sandwich bags. Avoid dampness and sunlight. Surround them with as much dry air as possible.
Don't try to clean felt badges. Embroidered badges can be gently hand-washed in liquid detergent (nothing containing enzymes).
Carefully remove badges from uniforms with an exacto knife — though, Jensen points out, "If you find a uniform with lots of badges on it, leave it alone. It tells a story."

A Lifesaving badge

References

* The Boy Scout Council Shoulder Patch Guide by Steve Delman, Elisa Delman
* Scouting for Boys: A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship by Robert Baden-Powell
* The Boy: Baden-Powell and the Siege of Mafeking by Pat Hopkins, Heather Dugmore
* The Official Boy Scout Handbook by Boy Scouts of America