Some patches have only been uploaded to TSS one time.... some patches I have seen on eBay and never found again on any platform...
I think Diamond Head: Canterbury Tales would qualify as one of the rarest patches we know of.
That one, AMOLAD and Death On The Road are stupidly rare.
Awesome new logo by the way, haven't played Lemmings in like 20+ years hahaha forgot all about that!
Sorry bro I went too fast on replying, yes I know those are boots. Saw now the one you posted is official, and seems very hard to find indeed.
But still AMOLAD is quite a common patch.
An interesting question that is not that easy to answer.
There are a bunch of patches that are probably equally impossible to find (as they have likely been produced in comparable numbers), but they fit into different groups defined by specific criteria that contribute to their rarity.
Some criteria that come to mind:
1. As mentioned before: HMFC / FC patches. Some are quite popular and desirable (like the Velbert items, which have sparked an entire wave of Neo-Velbert patches), while a lot of them (when not featuring any band in particular) are just rare, but only of real interest to a small group of people.
2. Factory samples: This includes color-shifted patches (See "Iron Maiden Number of the Beast" with yellow logo, orange WASP "The Last Command", etc), elusive color border variants (Megadeth "Peace Sells" Purple Border, Slayer "Slaytanic Wehrmacht" Green Border), and other changes that create a distinct version of a vintage original patch that never made it out of the sample phase - or was only circulated in small numbers, like drastic changes in cut and dimension or the addition/omission of a copyright.
3. "Misprints" & "Misweaves": There are of course backpatches with printing errors, their rarity is hard to gauge, and as with all errors, the collectibility and value varies hard. A misprinted Kreator "Extreme Aggression" would likely fetch an even higher price than the regular one, while a misprinted Poison backpatch would hardly spark any interest. There is however the small category of "miswoven" patches. Some might argue that these were deliberate tests, but the composition is just so off, that I assume these were accidently produced with the wrong thread being fed into the machine. I only know of two patches like this: Sodom "Persecution Mania" (with the cross and figure woven almost entirely in muted greys and blues/greens) and Manowar "Triumph of Steel" (with the upper half and logo woven mostly in grey and a muted pink).
3. Embroidered/printed (logo) patches put out by bands in their first period. These are hard to find, hard to identify and they often exist outside of almost any zine/catalogue picturing them. If you weren't around when they were available back in the day and you have not gotten a first hand account of their history/origin, you could hold one in your hand and potentially mistake it for any embroidered or printed logo patch (though the age related wear often hints that it is at least from the classic era). With these again, desirability and value might cover an extremely wide range, depending on the band.
4. "Made to Order" Backpatches. Some magazines (like Traveller's) offered printing shirt motives on backpatches. So the rarity of these entirely depends on how many people back in the day ordered a specific motif.
While this is not an exhaustive list of characteristics, these are my preliminary thoughts on the matter. The rarity of every piece is also consistently increasing by copies of already limited prints being destroyed in use or via accidents.
It's impossible to pick which patch I'd deem the most rare. One piece that impressed me a lot was a red border Running Wild "Port Royal" backpatch made by Siraprint. Or of course the official "Painkiller" backpatch.
My rarest ones are likely the miswoven Manowar, a red border Venom "Black Metal" or the green border "Slaytanic Wehrmacht".
Probably not the rarest patch ever but definitely one of them. The purple border Megadeth Peace Sells patch. There’s only 2 people on tss that have it.
Agreed that is one of the rarest... allegedly there was a purple bordered Sadus: Swallowed In Black patch out there, someone posted a picture of a mutilated one here and the border was consisten with the early 90s weaving methods.
some ppl told me - that Sortilege (France) ...the first patch to their first EP/Album ..woven with silver thread....
at least...a very expensive one, what i got told..
(im not a fan of the band...but have this patch....thats why i have no clue myself...TSS ppl were helping me with infos)
PRISM hit the nail on the head with that excellent and detailed post. The main sticking point will be whether rare simply means either scarce/limited or if it involves sell/trade desirability. On the one hand, the Soldier Sheralee patch is limited to 30 copies but you probably wouldn't be able to trade one for a Judas Priest Killing Machine tour patch. On the other hand, there are many pre 1980s embroidered patches that are exceptionally hard to locate. But, some people would consider an official Bolt Thrower or Pestilence patch rarer or more valuable despite being easier to locate and likely produced on a larger scale.
My broad answer would be that pre 1980 patches are probably the rarest general group of patches to find in terms of how rarely they pop up (lack of copyright also complicates matters). That said, there are some real curveballs and something like the Sands of Time or aforementioned Mental Vortex back patch are incredibly tricky to find!
I think Cardboardcity makes a good point above: my first battle jacket was put together in 1982 from patches in the local record shop, so there must be a considerable number of metal/rock patches from the early 80's/70's - particularly from less popular bands, early NWOBHM bands etc - that would be almost impossible to find now. Compared to patches from relatively recent times (unless they were explicitly super limited edition) then surely these vintages relics are most likely candidates for 'rarest of all'?
There are so many very rare patches, but for me rare means very small quantities without demand playing a factor. Some very rare, official, back patches from the top of my head are:
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Judas Priest - Touch of Evil
Sodom - Better of Dead
Iron Maiden - Sands of Time
Iron Maiden - Stranger in a Strange Land
Getting your hands on these generally takes years 🤯😅
Unfortunately already sold this one awhile back, big regret lol
what size is this? i'm interested in purchasing
Yup this is definitely the best method haha
hell yeah im gonna have to get one soon what year is it do you know?
Awesome pin..
Nice patch..
This is the guy they sacrificed right?
Danke dir. Ich liebe das shirt.
Very cool
It can't be other way rather than oldschool, at least not for me. Thanks for the flames.
Excellent!
Glad to see someone finally posted that Mordicus patch here, that demo is criminally underrated.
Ah, yes. How foolish of me to forget that lol :p
You snag this on depop?
Sounds good. Those were the times 🤘
Mona liza Overdrive 💀
(40782)
bad_american1992 on
Some patches have only been uploaded to TSS one time.... some patches I have seen on eBay and never found again on any platform...
I think Diamond Head: Canterbury Tales would qualify as one of the rarest patches we know of.
FOAD on
What about the first Celtic Frost patch? Not the woven but the embroidered Morbid Tales.
I mean this one:
https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/embroidered-celtic-frost-patch
Does anyone have any more info about it?
SodomaniacGermany on
Some to consider:
-the original woven Sortilege patch
-Bathory Massacre FC patch from Bathory (probably the oldest Bathory patch and first ever)
Streptococcus on
Hmmm this is an interesting question for sure. Normally I think of rare ones as the enigmatic ones we all vie for, such as Pestilence 'Consuming Impulse', the original Death 'Human' backpatch, or the Obituary 'Cause of Death' circle patch. Considering rarity, one group I would have to mention would be HMFC patches such as this: https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/hmfc-slatanic-wehrmacht-velbert-altenesse... or https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/tormentor-hmfc-violent-force-patch .
oldmate
that fucking 2011 Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time is rare as fuck
bad_american1992 on
That one, AMOLAD and Death On The Road are stupidly rare.
Awesome new logo by the way, haven't played Lemmings in like 20+ years hahaha forgot all about that!
ForbiddenFruit
Which patches do you mean? The 2011 versions of the ”normal” sized small patches? Any specific version you mean?
bad_american1992 on
Behold these legendary patches:
AMOLAD: https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/iron-maiden-matter-life-and-death-2011
Death on the Road: https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/iron-maiden-death-road-2011-patch
ForbiddenFruit
The SiT and AMOLAD are not rare at all, they are official and very easy to find in different stores on the internet.
The Death on the Road seems rare indeed, don’t think it is official. It’s been sold in a limited amount before, check this out:
https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/iron-maiden-death-road-woven-patches
bad_american1992 on
That DOTR is a bootleg
ForbiddenFruit
Sorry bro I went too fast on replying, yes I know those are boots. Saw now the one you posted is official, and seems very hard to find indeed.
But still AMOLAD is quite a common patch.
bad_american1992 on
Not the 2011 version. Look at the copyright in the image I linked. They reissued it in 2020.
oldmate
yea its the 2011 stuff. Super hard to find. I have been looking for years for the death on the road 2011
frankie530 on
Agree on this…those 2011 Maiden patches might be some of the rarest patches made as they were in such low quantities
oldmate
your right I am still looking for death on the road 2011
ForbiddenFruit
The ”standard” SiT patch from 2011? Is it really that rare?
Heavy Metal Chemist on
Oldmate doesn't mean the standard Somewhere in Time. He means the Somewhere BACK in Time from 2011
https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/iron-maiden-patch-147 First one I've seen.
Also the Final Frontier (2011) and Brave New World (2011) versions are very, very rare. Oldmate is the lucky one who has both 😄
https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/iron-maiden-final-frontier-2011
https://tshirtslayer.com/patch/iron-maiden-brave-new-world-2011-patch-0
oldmate
thats right still fuckking looking too :(
PRISM
An interesting question that is not that easy to answer.
There are a bunch of patches that are probably equally impossible to find (as they have likely been produced in comparable numbers), but they fit into different groups defined by specific criteria that contribute to their rarity.
Some criteria that come to mind:
1. As mentioned before: HMFC / FC patches. Some are quite popular and desirable (like the Velbert items, which have sparked an entire wave of Neo-Velbert patches), while a lot of them (when not featuring any band in particular) are just rare, but only of real interest to a small group of people.
2. Factory samples: This includes color-shifted patches (See "Iron Maiden Number of the Beast" with yellow logo, orange WASP "The Last Command", etc), elusive color border variants (Megadeth "Peace Sells" Purple Border, Slayer "Slaytanic Wehrmacht" Green Border), and other changes that create a distinct version of a vintage original patch that never made it out of the sample phase - or was only circulated in small numbers, like drastic changes in cut and dimension or the addition/omission of a copyright.
3. "Misprints" & "Misweaves": There are of course backpatches with printing errors, their rarity is hard to gauge, and as with all errors, the collectibility and value varies hard. A misprinted Kreator "Extreme Aggression" would likely fetch an even higher price than the regular one, while a misprinted Poison backpatch would hardly spark any interest. There is however the small category of "miswoven" patches. Some might argue that these were deliberate tests, but the composition is just so off, that I assume these were accidently produced with the wrong thread being fed into the machine. I only know of two patches like this: Sodom "Persecution Mania" (with the cross and figure woven almost entirely in muted greys and blues/greens) and Manowar "Triumph of Steel" (with the upper half and logo woven mostly in grey and a muted pink).
3. Embroidered/printed (logo) patches put out by bands in their first period. These are hard to find, hard to identify and they often exist outside of almost any zine/catalogue picturing them. If you weren't around when they were available back in the day and you have not gotten a first hand account of their history/origin, you could hold one in your hand and potentially mistake it for any embroidered or printed logo patch (though the age related wear often hints that it is at least from the classic era). With these again, desirability and value might cover an extremely wide range, depending on the band.
4. "Made to Order" Backpatches. Some magazines (like Traveller's) offered printing shirt motives on backpatches. So the rarity of these entirely depends on how many people back in the day ordered a specific motif.
While this is not an exhaustive list of characteristics, these are my preliminary thoughts on the matter. The rarity of every piece is also consistently increasing by copies of already limited prints being destroyed in use or via accidents.
It's impossible to pick which patch I'd deem the most rare. One piece that impressed me a lot was a red border Running Wild "Port Royal" backpatch made by Siraprint. Or of course the official "Painkiller" backpatch.
My rarest ones are likely the miswoven Manowar, a red border Venom "Black Metal" or the green border "Slaytanic Wehrmacht".
meaningless
very nice summary!! ...and like u said at the beginning...not so easy to answer :)
Bolt Catcher on
Probably not the rarest patch ever but definitely one of them. The purple border Megadeth Peace Sells patch. There’s only 2 people on tss that have it.
bad_american1992 on
Agreed that is one of the rarest... allegedly there was a purple bordered Sadus: Swallowed In Black patch out there, someone posted a picture of a mutilated one here and the border was consisten with the early 90s weaving methods.
meaningless
some ppl told me - that Sortilege (France) ...the first patch to their first EP/Album ..woven with silver thread....
at least...a very expensive one, what i got told..
(im not a fan of the band...but have this patch....thats why i have no clue myself...TSS ppl were helping me with infos)
PinJunky on
The Green Creeping Death patches, apparently 🙄
Streptococcus on
I was awaiting this response anxiously 😂.
PinJunky on
🤘😆🤘
Jack on
Everytime I see you I send good vibes your way. Best of luck man
PinJunky on
Thanks so very much! 🤘😁🤘
no karate in pit on
not for you anymore
PinJunky on
I wish! Still got three more to go.
no karate in pit on
oh yeah
Thane
Coroner Mental Vortex back patch is the one I always think of, I want one so bad haha
Cardboardcity on
PRISM hit the nail on the head with that excellent and detailed post. The main sticking point will be whether rare simply means either scarce/limited or if it involves sell/trade desirability. On the one hand, the Soldier Sheralee patch is limited to 30 copies but you probably wouldn't be able to trade one for a Judas Priest Killing Machine tour patch. On the other hand, there are many pre 1980s embroidered patches that are exceptionally hard to locate. But, some people would consider an official Bolt Thrower or Pestilence patch rarer or more valuable despite being easier to locate and likely produced on a larger scale.
My broad answer would be that pre 1980 patches are probably the rarest general group of patches to find in terms of how rarely they pop up (lack of copyright also complicates matters). That said, there are some real curveballs and something like the Sands of Time or aforementioned Mental Vortex back patch are incredibly tricky to find!
Tina Taem 22 on
Original 1991 Overkill Horrorscope Patch getting it soon i brought it on TShirtSlayer my First Time buying it here.
Metalmate on
Maybe I am old but this poststamp mentality really seems to be a bigger thing now then it was in let's say the 90's. It still feels silly to me :)
Lord Cthulhu on
I think Cardboardcity makes a good point above: my first battle jacket was put together in 1982 from patches in the local record shop, so there must be a considerable number of metal/rock patches from the early 80's/70's - particularly from less popular bands, early NWOBHM bands etc - that would be almost impossible to find now. Compared to patches from relatively recent times (unless they were explicitly super limited edition) then surely these vintages relics are most likely candidates for 'rarest of all'?
Heavy Metal Chemist on
There are so many very rare patches, but for me rare means very small quantities without demand playing a factor. Some very rare, official, back patches from the top of my head are:
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Judas Priest - Touch of Evil
Sodom - Better of Dead
Iron Maiden - Sands of Time
Iron Maiden - Stranger in a Strange Land
Getting your hands on these generally takes years 🤯😅
Signofevil444 on
I would easily consider for one of rarest the Jefferson Airplane woven patch from late 60s
MalevolentSilver on
Same with the Steppenwolf woven one
Superfly on
the Risk “Ratman” backpatch from 1990. I have never seen pictures of it outside an old EMP catalogue… or maybe it was a Bullshirt catalogue.