New York OA Trader

There was a thread on Patch-L regarding what were the harder (or hardest) OA to collect from your Lodge or Section or State. Now in New York there are the obvious Wakoda A1 or Hanigus R1; but both are likely $ 15,000 items. There are also a number of slightly lower tier items like the Nick Stoner A1 which are certainly tough, but are seen on a semi-regular basis. With deep enough pockets or the right trade material they are obtainable.

You can add your thoughts to the discussion by adding a comment or emailing me at nyoatrader -at- nyoatrader dot com and I’ll work it into a future installment.

I’ll add my thoughts on the NYC area lodges, but here are Mike Hulsizer’s thoughts on the lodges he collects. Mike maintains a great collecting resource for these lodges, the Western New York Order of the Arrow Patch History.

I collect 3 lodges from WNY. Most pieces are pretty easy to get. However, a few are tough.
284 Tuscarora:

R1: Probably the most expensive piece from this lodge (~$125) but they are floating around on eBay.

L1: Rarest piece - never seen on eBay.

I did pick up an 284L1 on eBay years back, nut is was not properly described. Unless you know what your looking for, you would not know what it was.

Image used by permission of OA Images

More after the jump:

159 Ganosote:

F1: in mint condition. I have seen several F1s over the years but it is rare to find one in mint condition.

Any chapter NC: These only come up every so often

In most cases, chapter issues are the toughest pieces to collect from most OA Lodges. Chapter issues are issued in much lower quantities than the typical lodge issue. Chapters also tend to merge, change, disband more frequently than there parent lodges. Interest in collecting them is also generally lower in absolute terms as compared to lodge issues; since the supply is generally very low, prices can be higher from the fewer rabid collectors chasing them.

159 HoDeNoSauNee

P1: By far the most difficult regular issued piece. I have only seen a handful for sale.

S18/X5: 1998 NOAC WHT border delegate piece. Only 44 made. Never seen on ebay.

Image by permission of OA Images

A separate discussion of the advisability of these sorts of issues and their effects on collectors has been had here before and in other forums.

Several of the older chapter pieces are rarely seen.

Mike gave us a good round-up of ‘his’ lodges, what about yours?

You can add your thoughts to the discussion by adding a comment or emailing me at nyoatrader -at- nyoatrader dot com and I’ll work it into a future installment.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!