Direct from Hunan, China
Posted in Patch Collecting by John E. Pannell on May 31st, 2007 at 4:05 am Kevin Doyle recently made me aware of this eBay seller. In his words:
See you don’t have to get your patches approved by BSA or use a BSA -certified manufacturer…
http://cgi.ebay.com/70-BOY-SCOUT-FELLOWSHIP-WIPALA-WIKI-432-2007-PATCH_W0QQitemZ320120076357
This ain’t Chang, and they aren’t fakes. The lodges run smack into what it’s like to do business with the real pros. Taiwan and Hong Kong ain’t got anything on these guys…..
The link to that auction will become inactive over time. The seller also has his own eBay store at http://stores.ebay.com/sina-patchbar.
It’s obvious the seller is not a native English speaker. I especially like his instructions on how to use this item:
How to Use: Sew on
I’m glad he said that. I would have never guessed that patches are sometime sewn on things! 
I note that he’s currently selling one of the brand new Kittan first flaps.
This raises all sorts of questions. Foreign sellers of Scout patches are not new. It’s what you get when work is subcontracted out to Asian producers. If these items are not describably different — differentiable without the use of a reference collection — how are these any less “authentic” than copies that come from the Councils and Lodges in question? Think about that as you pony up for the latest high priced item or modern contrived rarity. Ouch.
Flame away…
Actually John, the large majority of flaps do seem to be fakes. The colors/patterns/images don’t match up from the pictures of the authentic ones listed by lodge in OAImages and many of the ebay patches use different widths for the letters or have different stitching in the letters. Many of the fakes have brighter colors. Even still, these are still darn close.
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