OAImages Blog

It is becoming increasingly commonplace to see items of questionable authenticity offered for sale on eBay.   There are several sellers who regularly sell such items and one would be wise to be skeptical of any of their offerings.   One such seller recently sold what appeared to be the 2002 NOAC flaps from Tsali 134.

As issued by the lodge, the two flaps for the 2002 NOAC (Blue Book S42 and S43) are difficult modern issues from this lodge.   It is reported that only 40 of the S42 were issued, and 60 of the S43.   They have readily sold for between $150 and $200 each in the past.   Many of us were skeptical at the recent offering of these rare pieces by a seller from British Columbia.  We know he has sold what I call “close fakes” of North Carolina OA flaps, notably the Tsoiotsi Tsogalii 70 ZS1, in the past.   Upon examination of his auctions, I feel confident in calling these latest offerings fakes.

I take a hard stand when it comes to labelling items as fakes.   It is my opinion — and that has no bearing on how Blue Book lists items — that if an item coming from a dubious source is not describably different than one from a known official source (eg. the lodge), such that one can tell which one has without the need for either a reference collection or any information other than what can be put in a simple objective description, then either both pieces are authentic or both are fake.   That might seem a bit harsh to some, but give it some objective thought.  

A true overrun is just as much an authentic example of the patch designed and ordered by a lodge (or council, or district, or…) than one sold out of the lodge box.  It was produced by the same company at the same time as the patches officially issued.  Fakes must be differentiable from the authentic items in some concrete and explainable way.  Patches do not gain an air of authenticity based solely upon a prior owner.

With that in mind, I have examined the images of the two Tsali flaps recently offered — pictured in this post — and compared them examples known to have been issued by the lodge.   I noticed several subtle differences.   The fakes are close enough to readily fool collectors, but not so close that at least some of the differences can be succinctly described.

There are various difference in the coloring of design elements, but most are hard to describe.   One difference stands out: the color shades used on the right side of the flap in the “sunburst” background.  On the example known to come from the lodge the colors used are what I’ll call orange (ORG), dark orange (DOR) and red (RED).   The purported fakes use noticeably lighter colors that I’ll call yellow-orange (YOR), light orange (LOR) and red orange (ROR).  

I know shades of orange can be more than a little subjective, so the key is to look at the darkest (red) color.   It appears to be a true red on the real patches (think fire engine!), but not so on the patches I believe to be fakes.

I propose the following Blue Book listings for these pieces:

Ideally, I’d like to see a copy of one of the fakes, or at least a higher quality scan of it if possible.   Can anyone help?  What do you all think?  I imagine there might be some Tsali or “Dixie” collectors reading this who might be able to comment on this.