At Jamboree, Scouts Master Trickery of the Trade

That is, Scouts say, until word got out that a shipment of Halo patches arrived over the weekend, reducing their value and causing demand for SoBe patches to skyrocket. By Monday, though, the shipment report was in doubt, and Halos were back on top.

Other market forces, such as jamboree geography, are also at work: A Pennsylvania patch is no big deal near the Northeast troops' campsites. Carry it two miles to the Western Region camps and it's like Marco Polo bringing spices to Venice.

Stories of theft abound. Ruthless Scouts stick duct tape to their boot soles and slyly step on desired patches. Traders protect against crime by covering their merchandise with clear plexiglass or, like one Scout, using a mom-made blanket with transparent plastic compartments for display.

Owners of coveted patches demand multiple patches for a trade, which Scout leaders condemn. Scouts determined to make such deals move farther toward the center of the campus, where adults less often tread.

On Friday, Erik and troop mate Thomas Foster, 12, set up shop near a row of portable toilets at the juncture of two jamboree arteries. Chumbley said he caught the trading bug only upon arriving at jamboree, having previously deemed the hobby "extremely dorky, like beyond belief."

On his towel lay his favorite, a jamboree-edition Virginia State Police patch showing a patrol car with battery-operated flashing lights. Erik said it was a "four-for-one" patch.

A bespectacled Scout arrived, his eye on the police patch, a stuffed resealable bag under his arm. He skipped the greeting and offered three patches; Erik declined. The Scout offered two others, one of them a Snoopy patch that Erik desperately wanted. Erik offered other patches, but the kid wanted the police patch and countered with four patches, including the Snoopy.

Erik deliberated. "It is a light-up," he said of his police patch. "But I have always had a thing for Snoopy."

No deal was made.

Hidden in his bag, Thomas had one of the Hooters patches circulating the Jamboree -- illicit badges known as "spoofs" that, officials said, probably were traded by an outsider seeking official jamboree patches, which do good business at Scout memorabilia trade shows and on eBay.

Scouts and leaders say that trading, no matter how cutthroat, offers valuable business lessons. It can teach strategy: Many Scouts pair up, one scoping for patches and one staffing the towel. And marketing: On a recent night, two Scouts decided to place their patches on posters of bikini-clad women.

Some leaders joke that today's Scouts learn such lessons too well. David DeCaires, a scoutmaster from Oahu, Hawaii, cited the rule -- often broken, Scouts say -- prohibiting trades between adults and Scouts.

"In all reality, I think it's to protect the adults from the boys," he said.