posted 09-22-2022 10:00 PM            

I’ve often considered beginning a mission patch collection, but every time I come back to there not really being any supply control and the fact that many are still being produced/could be produced at any time, even for missions that occurred decades ago. With no supply control/scarcity, I end up talking myself out of the hobby.

posted 09-23-2022 08:33 AM               

In 2004, I helped design my first of 19 mission patches and in 2007 my first space flight commemorative.

I stopped collecting early this year and have begun to sell off my collection on eBay. I’ve curated the patches my two grandsons will want but everything else will be sold or donated.

posted 09-23-2022 11:16 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Sportfanatic1:
I end up talking myself out of the hobby.

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No matter what you collect, there should be a passion for the product. That way, regardless of the perceived financial value if you end up not being able to sell items down the road, at least you’ll have something you still enjoy.

posted 09-23-2022 11:29 AM               

I was just thinking the other day how difficult it has been to keep up with current spaceflight patches because I don't focus on a particular area. This means that it is a wonderful era for spaceflight with so much activity, but at the same time it bites me in the ass sometimes when I start down the path of a new line of patches (for example SpaceX ROPs patches [both coasts!]), so here I am committed to getting the whole lineage (rather than just saying "NO!") so yet another line of patches I have convinced myself I must have.

posted 09-23-2022 01:02 PM               

I like to learn about the mission when I get a space patch and created a spreadsheet that lists information about them. I especially like finding the rare ones.

posted 09-23-2022 01:46 PM               

As an example, you could say "I'm going to collect all the beta-cloth patches that were made": that would narrow it down to Apollo 7 through ASTP, but it would also include 2TV-1 and SMEAT. Not terribly challenging, but maybe enough to occupy you for a year or two. And it's not getting any easier as time passes.

Chris Spain's Crew Patches site is another way of approaching "collecting" -- I never buy anything (for my "collection") without consulting his site first.

I also like Paul's philosophy of "buy what you enjoy," But that also means not treating such purchases as an investment. My "collection" doesn't extend prior to Gemini 5, nor after ASTP; I buy a few contemporary patches just because I enjoy the design (but I don't consider those part of my "collection").

posted 09-23-2022 04:36 PM               

Or for another example, the STS-1 patch can be yours for $5 at any space museum gift shop, but if you want the version that the crew wore — the version that was never offered commercially to the public, which has four different color threads in the shuttle's plume — you are going to have to look towards eBay for secondary sales or wait for one to be listed at auction.

Even run-of-the-mill missions can have differences between vintage and modern productions. Shuttle patches dating back to the early 1980s were made using machines rarely in use today, such that their thread count and style of stitching is different than those you can buy at retail.

Of for another approach at rarity, were you only to pursue SpaceX patches (for example), you could limit your search for employee-issued patches, which were either numbered or carry a hallmark, separating them from those distributed or sold to the public.