About Patchvalues.com
PatchValues.com helps with determining the current value range for a patch. Currently we list OA issues, but will let users add Council issues, Summer Camps, and more in the future. The usefulness of the site will increase as users take advantage of our interface. It's simple- if you want your local summer camp to be included on this site, you can add it. If you collect CSP's and want your council to be included and updated, you can do it. Be sure to add accurate information though. If you add bad information or try to inflate or deflate values, your reliability rating will go down.
Price Estimates
We crunch price information taken from multiple sources including online sales (& listings not sold), trade-o-ree sales, published price lists, and educated opinions. We have developed an algorythm that takes into account the reliability of the source and gives users the ability to state disagreement with the opinion of others. The price range is wider when we have just a few data points. The range narrows as we have multiple data points from many users and sources.
Reliability rating
Each user begins with the same reliability rating. If other users generally agree with your opinion, your reliability rises. If your opinion is often reported as unreliable, your rating will drop and your opinion will not be valued as highly. We do not publish the ratings. To have the most accurate information on our website & for you to maintain a high reliability rating, never try to artificially inflate or deflate a patch's value. Your reliability also increases if you allow registered users to see your information, not just a username.
Images
The primary purpose of this site is to aid with determining the current value range for a patch. Users are encouraged to add images, but for the best image website, go to www.oaimages.com for OA items, & www.thecouncilguide.com for CSP's. Those sites are also your best source for identifying issues, as patchvalues.com relies on those sites to make the final determination about issues designations.
When adding images please crop closely & try to have a white background. If you aren't a talented photoshop user there are free photo editors online, such as www.picmonkey.com
Identification
This site uses other patch guides that identify issues, such as oaimages.com or OA Blue Book. When an issue hasn't yet been cataloged, we will use the patch type and year as a temporary identification or add a ? after our best guess of the expected issue number.
History & Future of the site
PatchValues.com began as I thought about entrepreneurial ideas for a college business class. I've been a Boy Scout since the day I was eligible to join & have collected patches, but never have been a patch addict like my dad or some of my friends. I just enjoy trading 1 for 1 most of the time and collecting issues from my OA Lodge. The idea of a patch value website evolved as I spoke to collectors that have a difficult time determining the value of a patch. I started this site with OA Issues in NC & SC and plan to expand across the US and add CSP values and summer camps soon. You might wonder how this can be an entrepreneurial effort when the site generates only expenses. My goal is to make this a valuable resource that folks will want to support. If the site becomes the resource I hope it will, it may generate revenue from advertisers or low-cost yearly subscriptions. For now, though, it is free (except to me- it's costing me lots of money & time!). The information on this site is way too hard for one person to keep up-to-date, so please help me make this a valuable and accurate resource by adding eBay sales data, data from sales lists, your opinion, and any other resource you find. This isn't exactly Wikipedia for patch values, but I hope to get close to that! Please contact me on Facebook with your ideas to make the site better! -- Benjamin Birdsong