Decided to post last updated Ref/Guide since the new one is delayed. 

Sneak Preview

 

Here it is, the cover of the NEW Reference and Price Guide for AAA School Safety Patrol Badges. NOt only will it have all of the different style badges manufactured since the 1920's but it will also have reference guide for the different lapel pin styles and larger service pin but it will also have pictures and reference to the non AAA Safety Patrol program badges from different cities and states. Some states , such as Washington, produced their own Safety Patrol badges and program. The badge design for Washington was one of the most beautiful and detailed designs made. 

 

The Guide is scheduled to be released sometime in October. There will be a charge for the printed version but that price hasn't been determined. 

Her is the Washington State badge example

 

Buying on Auctions

I wanted to touch on buying on auctions , particularly ebay. In my last post I said the market was down and a great time to get some nice deals IF they come up but you can still lose money on a bad deal and a bad badge. As a new collector if all you want is a badge to display then any badge with your rank will do. If you want a set then you can still get one pretty inexpensive. Since all the badges look the same from 1921 to the 1980 ( before the AAA appeared in the oval in the 1990's)  You can mix and match the Boomer Badge, the 60's, 70's and 80's badges and no one will ever know. Just pick a Patrolman, Sergeant, Lieutenant and Captain and you have an instant collection. BUT you have to watrch out on ebay when a seller is trying to charge top dollar for a mix and match set and trying to sell it as a pedigree set. A pedigree set is all one era, one style, all the same period. Anyone can tell by looking at the images they post. If the badges don't have the same backing holding the pin, it's mix and match. In the 60's, shortly after GRAMMES went out of business, there was a square back badge that didn't have GRAMMES, ALLENTOWN PA stamped. This is a separate set and combining the stype with GREAMMES and the one without GRAMMES, is still a mix and match. 

Mix and match sets aren't worth anything except the value of the individual badge. Whereas a set of BOOMER badges even without the Corporal gets a 20% bump over the value of the individual badges because of the time it took to collect them. 

I also want to say, yet again, there are no Sergeant or Gold award badges made before the 1940's Boomer Badge. I came across a fake 1930 pre-war Sergeant badge. Apparently someone took a 1930's backing and soldered it onto a 1960's badge. The plating was wrong just by looking at it. 

Another thing yu should watch is re-paints. MOst repaints are done so poorly a closeup image shows paint outside the areas and they never get the right color. Did you know all paint used on the AAA  badges before 1940 is lead paint? NO one can duplicate it these days and if they can, it would cost more than the badge. 

In closing remember to buy wisely and if you have any doubt, email us and we'll let you know. 

Market Watch

As most of you know the AAA badge collecting market is tight and prices have dropped for the more common badges. the "Boomer" badges are still the leading sellers

Pre-1940 badges are far and few in between these days and there are many more savy  collectors bidding and buying them. Overall prices on the "Boomer, Post 1940's badges" have dropped 25-30% and sometimes more. Corporal and Sergeant badges for the Boomers still in demand but not commanding the prices they use to bring last year. 

Service/Collar pins and their larger twins are becoming a hot item and selling for $8-13.00. Most buyers and sellers don't realize there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation pins. ( WE issued a ref/guide the last 3 years showing the difference, contact me and I'll send you a copy) All 1st gen are made in the USA. The 2nd and 3rd gen ( the AAA Oval) are all China made. I managed to pick up a complete set of 1st gen. for under $20 bucks. The Pins are an excellent (and inexpensive) way to collect something from your days as a kid. 

In case you haven't noticed, sellers are listing badges tht are rusty, dented and worn. Needless to say all China made badges will rust if not properly taken care of. They represent a major part of the AAA Safety Patrol History from the 1970's to present day. I bought and sold badges from 1921 without any special storage rust free. That is thew major differnce in USA GRAMMES, Allentown and Taiwan/China made. 

ANNOUNCEMENT

We're expecting our first pamphlet Guide to Collecting the AAA badges, pins and other memorabilia including a section on STATE and city issued badges. We're charging $2 for a printed copy and $1 online. Sorry, the info has been free for 8 years and costs keep going up.  Besides, how much is it worth to have a ref. guide when you're out at the garage sales this summer. 

Drop me an email or check us out on Facebook

Market Watch

Since the last report there has been quite a lot of changes in the market and availability of some of the styles. A cache of "Boomer" era Corporal badges have emerged lowering the market and scarcity of them. The user " blessedgodlover7" has sold over 15 or more. We still don't know if they are real or he is having them made for him. If they are real, he/she is playing it smart by not flooding the market all at once. He/she puts one up for auction every month or so. The market has come down as a result of the first 15 that were sold. A corporal badge could easily command $400 a few years ago. NOW, some have sold for $250 and one even sold for $195. 

The original "School Boy Patrol" are getting harder to come by even in the private auction we participate in. There are still plenty of them being traded and sold privately but not as often. The Lieutenant School Boy Patrol is still the rarest badge in ALL of the different  styles. One was sold privately, in Very Fine condition for $475. 

The hot items are the Transition Badges of the mid 1920's. Recently purchased on ebay what is now known as the Charles Hilton Collection. We also welcome Mr. Hilton to the world of private collectors. More trading is done in the private collectors market than cash buying. When a collector is looking for a particular grade of a certain badge style, they'll offer an even trade or two and sometimes three other badges in trade, which will then be traded for others. For example; someone may trade a Corporal "Boomer" badge for a Sergeant AND Gold Award "Boomer" badge both of which get traded for a "School Boy Patrol" badge. 

The AAA Chna Made made badges of the 1970's have seen an increase in prices. Finding a set that isn't rusted is getting hard to find. I learned the hard way abut the China-made badges. I normally keep my extras in a wooden cigar box. We had a pretty rainy spring one year and the humidity alone rusted a few of the 1990 style badges. Now I keep a plastic bag with rice in the box and I added a water tight seal to the box. 

Keep an eye out for GRAMMES Bros, square back mid 1960's badges, they have increased in price also. Have a question? enmail me at info@safetypatrolbadge.com or visit us on FAcebook.

ebay School Safety Patrol Badges prices

It seems the sellers on ebay have mentally short circuited. At any one time you can find badges made in the 90's selling for hundreds of dollars, Apparently all these sellers do is look at some badges and see some are selling for a lot of money and think their 1980's , Made-in-China School safety Patrol badge is worth a fortune not bothering to see the ones selling for $200 is from 1920 and very rare. To them EVERY badge is rare and from "an Estate Sale"! 

One seller had a very common badge "Buy-it-Now for $400, it's crazy. I don't know if it's a sleazy seller hoping to sucker some unknowing buyer or just pure ignorance on their part. Bottom line, do your research. I can't stress this enough, LOOK ON THE BACK of the badge, the complete history is right there. Be cautious of badges that do not have a picture of the back.  

Facebook Page

Pardon the slow postings, I try to stay on top of it but I always get behind. First I want to thank everyone for visiting our blog. Thanks to you, in the past 2 years we've been visited almost 11,000 time. It may not seem a lot but we don't do any advertising except word of mouth and our new Facebook page dedicated to reporting the current school safety programs and the great kids keeping the faith and the safety of the those in their charge like e did so many years ago. If you have a chance please visit and LIKE the page. As you read, the members of the current School Safety Patrol have a lot of incentives and recognition we never had. Support the site and support the kids! https://www.facebook.com/AAAsafetypatrol?ref=hl

IN THE NEWS

The current state of collecting seems to be growing and some old time, what they call, "real" badge collectors who collect police and fire badges have begun taking a look at the patrol badges. Who would have ever thought these inexpensive tin kids badges would be where it is today. It's a logical move and opens a whole new avenue for serious collectors. Some of the police and fire badges cost hundreds of dollars and it's nothing for them to plunk down $400-$500 or even $1000 for one badge! In our little world, that kind of money can get every badge that was ever manufactured since 1920. Of course money isn't everything. They have to come up for auction first and you're getting pretty savvy. Over the last year many of the rip-off sellers have left or stopped trying sell $25 China made badge as 50 year old "Baby Boomer" badges made in the 40's or 50's. The China -made AAA badges have a valid and a rightful place in telling the story of the School Safety Patrol. The Style 2C, with the AAA in the center of an oval are  more susceptible  to rusting and finding a clean well taken care of badge from this style from the 80's and 90's is getting harder and harder.

There have been increases in some styles and decreases in others. Once again, to keep everyone informed, there isn't any magical way we come to the pricing of badges on the chart. Watching the various online boards where people sell/auction the badges and checking "Worthpoint" we figure the availability and how often the come up, condition, what was the asking price and what it sold for. For example the Boomer Corporal Badge use to get over $300++. The recent sales of  about 15 of them saw some of them sell for low $200's, so the price guide  shows a red drop in value. Of course we all know prices go out of the window if 2-3 people bring the bidding up. I'm confident the guide gives people a good range of what spend for a certain badge. The guide also says for Mint Condition.

There is still "oddball" combining of different styles into what people call "a complete set". most noticeable is when they put a badge with the OVAL AAA on the front and mix it with a style  without the front OVAL AAA. I want to scream. "CAN'T YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE" and sure enough someone new to collecting spent too much and  actually bought it as a complete set!!! 

All in all our passion for these bits of tin is growing. Some of the older styles rarely come up in VERY fine condition. Upgrade you collection NOW and put them away. I see the next 5 years going crazy with some heavy hitters getting into the game and they have some deep pockets.

News for 2015

What a year for school badge collectors. Some of the highlights from 2014 were the many, many Corporal "Boomer" badges that made their way to ebay. Dubbed the Boomer badge because they were introduced during the early 40's and continued to be produced until the late 50's and used until the existing stock was depleted in the early 60's, about the same era of the Baby Boomers. ( see picture below) The Boomer badge also introduced the Corporal Badge, Sergeant badge, the all Brass Award Badge.

Prior to the Boomer badges, the badges of the late 20's and 1930's had an oval backing (see picture below). Contrary to what has been found on ebay, theses badges were only produced in Captain, Lieutenant and Patrolman.  Every Corporal and Sergeant badge I ever found with this type of backing had been re-soldered and looked to be "altered" . As a rule,unless the metal and chrome has been tested, the badge should be considered suspect. I know this will piss some people off, especially if they paid a lot, but ANY badge where the back has been "fixed" should raise warning bells.

Boomer badges have been the most "altered" badges. China-made badges with a square backing have had them replaced with Boomer Oblong backing. Most likely if a Boomer badge is in poor condition, the back is removed and soldered onto the cheaper China-made badge. The same with the above pictured 1930's badges. Since the age of the badge determines the value, soldering an "oval" backing on a badge made in the 1960's can raise the value $40-60.

On a more positive note, Officer badges from Washington state surfaced and they are beautiful. Washington State had their own program and had their own badges made. As you can see below, the Captain badge is very nicely made. A Lieutenant badge also emerged in the the same design.

   Unsuspecting new collectors continue to be taken in by predatory sellers who use the words "rare" or indicate a badge is over 60-70 years old when in actuality it was made in the 1980's. Don't get me wrong, some sellers don't know the age and value and what the pricing is very innocent. I'm talking about the repeat offenders who even after they are told to look at others badges like the one they are selling, keep the insane listed prices. I even told one asshole he was ripping people off and he said answering my email , 'That's their tough luck" . Oh well, every collectors market has a few scumbags 

There was a discovery with the present day "Star Trek" badges. In the early release, the regular badge (what use to be a Patrolman) wasn't colored black as it is today. It didn't have any paint.  Paul Patriarca is the collector who brought it our attention. Thanks Paul!