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SPLC Frequently Asked Questions
SpaceX Patch List Collectors (SPLC) are collectors of SpaceX themed patches. You can essentially discover what we aim to collect at another wonderful site spacexpatchlist.space. The two sites are seperate, we've just copied the name and added "Collectors". It seemed like a good idea at the time.
We have no affiliation at all to the SpaceX company themselves, we're just not that lucky. We are collectors who like patches and recognize that others also like them too. We often meet our fellow collectors on eBay, competing hard for that elusive patch. But, because we have families to pay and mortgages to feed, sometimes we have to wave goodbye to what we want. We just can't afford to keep up with the cadence of SpaceX launches and then the resultant patches being sold at high prices. The market itself has created us. SPLC is our response to the problem.
To help solve the supply and demand problem, SPLC is always seeking out patches for our members and offering them at cost price, plus shipping and handling. We have a commercial mailer that will ship nationally and internationally for an amount we think is fair. SPLC has created what we hope is an on-going supply chain with those who create and distribute the patches, then we step in as the non-profit middle persons who then get the patches out to the real collectors. We aren't like the other patch selling websites because we are actively trying to avoid profiting.
The golden rule we have is that only one of each patch can go to a person. You can't order multiples of the non-public hard-to-get patches. Not even our founders are allowed to. We won't be part of the problem. You can, (and should), combine shipping on several ordered unique patches of course. The rare cases that multiples are possible is when we offer patches from artists and high quality reproductions where there isn't a scarcity and it makes sense to have more than one. An example of this is the Starship SN5 150m Hop patch, sending multiples to SpaceX employees to share is something we are thrilled to do.
SPLC will sometimes manage to source 'miracle' patches. These are patches that are meant to have a quite limited audience, but somehow we find a way. One example was a Scouts Japan patch, only available for sale in Japan, via a Japanese only-website and shipping out of Japan was banned due to the epidemic. We solved each of those hurdles and had them ready for collecting in the USA within a week. Similar sequences of fortunate events have enabled our Collectors to have the most complete set of SpaceX related patches possible.
In America we have capitalism. People want to get things cheap and sell for more than they paid. Our niave way of solving the core problem of this patch up-sell is to sign members up and have them pay $1 by Paypal. Why do we do this? It's easy to go out and create ten email accounts and try to game sites like this. But Paypal doesn't like it when you have multiple accounts, We've witnessed first hand how strict they can be about ensuring your identity and uniqueness. The $1 is refundable at any time, all it does is to register you to us as real person. If we later spot members profiting by on-selling patches that we supplied for low cost, we'll limit your SPLC account.
Patches!!! Seriosuly, patches. Do the math, if you chase up to five unique patch designs per launch (i.e. Iridium launches) and pay $50 to $150 for some of those patches, you're going to be spending a lot of your income for every SpaceX launch. When we buy our own patches from this site, we pay exactly the same costs that you pay. Where our payback is if we save $80 on the eBay markup; that money can stay with us and help us feed and clothe our children. Our patch spend is cut by up to 80%.
By doing this approach we have reached out to wonderful people that create the patches. They have appreciated the underlying issues that we're trying to solve and agreed to work with us to get their originally low cost patches out to the people who will value them and display them proudly on their walls and clothing. Our sole benefit from SPLC is for our efforts we're guaranteed one patch each from a shipment, if we need it. If we already own a patch we'll Decline it on the site so that one more collector can get a patch instead.
SPLC is an unofficial non-profit project. We will buy patches at a price, pay to have them collected and shipped to us and then list them for our cost price, rounded up to the next dollar. Then it's a set cost for handling and postage, as required by our commercial shipper. Once a batch of patches are fully sold via the site the costs are paid back from the revenue and what ever is left over then goes to worthy causes that we support. Currently those are the USAF Cape Museum at Cape Canaveral and also the ECSID School District in Texas. We will list those donation amounts so members (and current and future suppliers) can validate our approach. Website setup and running costs will be amortized over a few batches so we can always donate something each time. So if you buy from us, you get a cost price product, you pay what we are charged to ship it, and any left over amount then gets given to charity. As of Feb 2024 SPLC has donated over USD$5200.
By registering with SPLC you agree to keep your patches for personal use only and not be the vehicle for them to be resold at a profit. Keep the market healthy, and real.
We will be using USPS First Class Domestic and International, always with tracking included. For domestic shipments, that's door to door tracking for approx $9.80. It'll arrive in three to five days on average. For international shipping the tracking might end at the U.S. border, appear at your country's Customs inspection point and some time later your patches arrive. Basically not every foreign post office feeds back the full step-by-step tracking information to USPS. But for us, it's how we prove to Paypal that something got sent out from the commercial mailing company we employ. That protects us.
Paypal protects you as well, it's the exclusive payment system we use. If you don't have Paypal, you can't be a SPLC member. We use it so that we don't need any credit card information etc.
There is no web bug tracking at all on the site.
If you have any further concerns, please ask us.
For any and all communications, please email splcollectors@gmail.com. We will then work with you to solve any site, payment or shipping issues.
Yes, try the "Where To Buy" section at the bottom of http://spacexpatchlist.space and then also try https://ebay.com/.
Once you register with the SPLC site, that enables us to manually create the account and send you your SPLC site login details.
SPLC will decide on your username and password so that it'll never re-use one of your current passwords. When you have your credentials you can log into the website. Expect a day or so delay at this stage for the manual processing. We have day jobs.
The current average shipping costs for US domestic starts around USD$9.80 and International is approx USD$24, depending on destination country. That gets you tracking from door to door. It's per shipment, so if you order five patches to a US address, shipping costs could be $1.96 per patch. If you're overseas, you already know shipping costs a lot. Due to our nexus location, residents of Florida (i.e. shipping addresses in-state) will also be subject to Sales Tax. Your total price will be shown with full itemization.
We highly recommend using the Hold Ship system to keep the shipping cost per patch to under $3 each. If you still want it shipped ASAP we don't mind, it's making the patch more expensive for you however.
Inside the website you will be shown the patches we provide and the simple decisions you can make on each one.
Initially a patch will be "Choose", so you need to decide if the patch is "Wanted" or "Declined". That tells us how many people want them. Declining is useful for us to know as it's not a "maybe".
Some patches are plentiful and instantly available to add to your cart. If you see the "rocket cart" 
on a patch, that means we have lots and you can just buy one. For the others that are in short supply we'll manually go through and "Offer" the patches to those that we can. From there you add them to your cart and buy them via Paypal.
You'll need to have given us a full shipping address to ship to. If we don't have it we'll follow up with you via email. If you haven't provided a new shipping address each time, we'll re-use your address on file. If your address changes we choose the safest approach and manually check with you to confirm the new destination.
When we send the shipping details to our maling company, we'll set it to "Shipped" and when available provide you the tracking details. The invoice will then show the tracking number and you can click on it to follow the progress of the parcel.
If an emergency arises, you could choose "Refund" up until we send the shipping information and the transaction will be cancelled. We'll click the Paypal button to refund you the full amount paid to us. Your patch will then be forfeited and offered to the next collector in line. Your status won't be affected by requesting a refund, unless you do five refunds in a row etc.
When you pay, your spend will be shown against that patch indefinitely. Your account will have a total shown to tell you how much you've spent over time with us.
All the above steps just document the requesting, selling and shipping process. It's what you would usually expect when online buying, the difference being you may sometimes have to be manually allocated a patch by SPLC before it's available.
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