New York OA Trader

Brandon Ellis left a comment on an earlier post regarding the Blue Book policy on printing information on quantities issued, restrictions and other matters. I’ve reproduced it below for those who don’t otherwise read the comments on older entries.

1. Brandon Ellis Says:
   February 7th, 2007 at 10:21 am eAs an avid patch collector and trader, I have to ask… Why wouldn’t you want to include the restrictions as well as the run amount information in the Blue Book. It seems that the information would be very beneficial for a collector or trader trying to assess rarity/scarcity of a particular issue. And with lodges coming in and going out of existence, isn’t that information part of the history of that particular lodge that without documentation could become lost forever? Thanks for all you do for the Hobby!

   YIS,Brandon “Happy” Ellis
   Eagle Scout / Vigil Member
   Tsoiotsi Tsogalii Lodge 70

And I replied…

2. nyoatrader Says:
   February 7th, 2007 at 9:36 pm e Brandon, Of course the short answer is that when the initial Blue Book policies were being made, there was a decision of the National Editors not to include that information when they set up the guidelines.The longer answer and no offense meant to John Tegtmeier, but who do you believe? Unless I order the patch myself or have a copy of the invoice, I can’t confirm if the information is true.Nor can I confirm that the information won’t change. If the issue John brought to our attention sells out in 1 week and the LEC votes to reorder, the lodge will reorder them and the information is no longer accurate and could be misleading.Then a printed quantity of 100 which would also have been accurate at the time and printed in the Blue Book is no longer accurate.

   Arapaho listed an F issue from Nischa Nitas Lodge #410 as only 100 issued. At one time, several years after the issue date, I had 4 in my possession. I never was in the lodge and it was located 250 miles away. I have probably seen another 10-15 over the years. It is not particularly uncommon. The information Arapaho received was either incorrect (perhaps deliberately) or the lodge reordered.

   I’ll likely continue to list information like I received for the 4S31, but it won’t make it into the Blue Book and will have a caution attached to it here.

   Thanks for the kind words.

   YIB,
   Bill

Here’s the official guidelines from page 22 of the First Edition of the Blue Book copyright 1996.

Things that will not be found in the comments

Restrictions - some insignia are or have been restricted in terms of who they may be issued to and how many a person may get. This information changes in timeand sometimes changes for a particular issue. Much restriction information is untrue or unknown and can be misleading.

Number issued - sometimes it is known exactly how many of a certain patch or neckerchief were made. Many times this information is either inaccurate or unreliable. For most listings, this information is not known.

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It had been pointed out to me in late 2005 that the Lodge 86 S1 which was mispelled, was incorrectly mispelled in at least Blue Book 5.

The S1 flap was incorrectly spelled “Nacha Mimat” however the Blue Book 5 said the flap was mispelled Nacha “Miwat”

So I hoped to correct that in Blue Book VI.

Adam Bauer points out

While looking over the new Blue Book last night I found a few errors relating to Nacha Nimat Lodge #86.  The lodge is incorrectly listed as “Nacha Mimat.”  This is done in the lodge 86 section as well as the merger information for lodges 64, 443, and 444.  Additionally, there is an error in the listing for the S1 issue of Lodge 86.  The issue is correctly labeled as having a misspelling in the name but the misspelling is wrong.  The misspelling is listed as being “Nacha Miwat” but the actual incorrect text on the patch is “Nacha Mimat.”

So please keep your records straight.  The correct lodge name is Nacha Nimat and the S1 was incorrectly spelled Nacha Mimat.   Hopefully we can  get this straightened out in time for the next edition.

The newest edition (#6) of the Blue Book is now available for purchase online.  From their website: