Space patches with manufacturing flaws

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Author	Topic: Space patches with manufacturing flaws
randyc Member Posts: 779 From: Chandler, AZ USA Registered: May 2003	posted 08-23-2009 09:40 PM Recently an original 'Beep, Beep Your A**' patch was sold on ebay. I noticed that the top of the exclamation point was missing (in other words, instead of an exclamation point it was a period). I was considering bidding on it, but because of this 'flaw' I didn't. So here's my questions: I realize that even with a flaw a patch still has value, but how much value does it lose when it does have a flaw, such as the one on the 'Beep Beep' patch? Or does it make it more valuable because there are less of the 'flawed' patches available?
andrewcli Member Posts: 328 From: La Jolla, CA, USA Registered: Jul 2007	posted 08-23-2009 10:05 PM Interesting point. In my opinion, I do not think that you can compare this to other crew patches that have a flaw. One example is the redless "D" apollo 9 patch. In this case, the crew had these patches made for their mission and one particular batch of patches was returned because of the defect. ASF auctioned one for over $600 dollars, whereas the crew patches normally sell for $200. It is unclear if there are other examples of flawed crew patches. There was one slightly "stretched" Apollo 11 BIG patch that went unsold and it's price was about $450 a few months ago on EB. More pristine BIG patches sell in this price range. Trimmed patches such as Gemini IX and Apollo 7 might be other examples. Because these patches are so rare, it's unclear how they would compare to untrimmed ones. I would expect the untrimmed ones would hold more value. For the Beep Beep Your A... patch, this was not made for the crew, instead it is believed that Shepard and others may have picked them up at a local corvette shop in Coco Beach and distributed them. These souvenir patches were probably made in mass quantities compared to the limited runs of crew patches. On the other hand, different patches were made and it appears that this one has a closer connection to Apollo 14.
spaced out Member Posts: 3110 From: Paris, France Registered: Aug 2003	posted 08-24-2009 02:00 AM It's an interesting question. I would say a real 'error' patch is one with parts of the design missing due to an error hitting that particular patch during a production run. It's quite common to see this on eBay. Sometimes you get a whole batches of nice looking vintage patches then you see one has some border thread missing, then you notice a crew member name missing, and finally you realize it's a whole batch of discarded error patches. Although you sometimes see people trying to list an error patch like it's a precious rarity, embroidered patches are not like stamps. Personally I would say any error such as noticeable areas of missing thread (including letters) would make an example of even the rarest patch virtually worthless.
Go4Launch Member Posts: 542 From: Seminole, Fla. Registered: Jul 2003	posted 08-24-2009 07:42 AM quote: Originally posted by andrewcli: it is believed that Shepard and others may have picked them up at a local corvette shop in Coco Beach and distributed them. I would be interested to know the basis for that scenario, since I have never seen a shred of evidence that patch has any connection at all with the space program.
andrewcli Member Posts: 328 From: La Jolla, CA, USA Registered: Jul 2007	posted 08-24-2009 10:04 AM The best piece of evidence came from james913 who stated, from a previous thread, that he received an identical patch from a retiring Apollo engineer when he was at the KSC in 1980. Whether the engineer got it during or shortly after the Apollo 14 flight or from the crew is unclear. It could be that the people around the Cape got this because of Shepard's remarks as a momento. As for Shepard handing them out to people, I can only say that the woman that I bought mine from stated that her father-in-law worked at KSC and interacted with the astronauts and was a member of the Corvette Club at Cape Kennedy along with Shepard. Whether or not the value of this patch is being driven by stories like this is possible. I got this patch because I wanted to frame it along side an original gold border backup patch.

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