Matt Kirkland asks What Made “U” Collect A Specific Lodge? on his blog The BlackEagleTrader.
Patch collecting changes or evolves as interests in the field change from person to person. Ever sit back and thank how it all begin…or even how it will all end?
How would I answer this question. Well I guess I started more as an accumulator than a collector. I started collecting OA as many do as a one for one trader at the West Point Camporee and the 1973 Jamboree. I did collect all of the issues from my home Lodge – Shu Shu Gah #24. While I did have access to Bill Price’s OA Collecting Handbook, I was by no means part of the organized hobbby. Life got in the way of collecting and fast forward 10 years in 1985 at the NE-3A Section Conclave, I began trading again.
At this point, I became aware of and part of the organized hobby with the collectors journals and the Trade-o-ree circuit in the Northeast. My 100+/- accumualtion, became the basis for a name and number set. By 1990-1991, my numbers needs were less than 50 and the going was getting tough (especially on the pocket). In these pre-eBay days, the only time I was seeing my needs was on dealer or auction lists and rarely at TOR’s.
Did you expand your collecting interests? Did you narrow your collecting interests?…perhaps a combo of both?
Here, I think my answer is both. I decided to limit my collection to New York State and sold off most of my non-NY name and numbers (which helped cover the closing costs on a piece of property I bought) . This cut my collecting interest from 700+./- names and numbers by about 90% to the 70 or so NY OA Lodges. I expanded my sights from a  single issue to six flaps (one page of a 6-hole page) to all lodge issues.
This eventually expanded to all Lodge and chapter issues from NY OA Lodges including neckerchiefs and event patches. Today, the Blue Book, recognizes about 3000 issues and varieties from New York State and I collect them all. I’ve also started to dable in NYS Section Conclave issues too.
What do you collect?Â
