Understand that none of the past uniform designs is ever disallowed.  Current patches can be added in place of old ones, though really old styles can be difficult.  But frankly, when the effort is made, they look really cool, and the youth tend to like them.  

We just had a brand new scout join our troop here in NJ, between council($75), national($85) and administrative fee($4.88). The fee to BSA to join was $167.68. Our campout this weekend we are canoeing. Our troop has canoes, but we can't get enough leaders this weekend to shuttle ourselves so we had to hire a shuttle. It's $31 a person for the shuttle and $10 a person to camp (group site at a state park) so we are at $41 each for the weekend and haven't charged for food or supplies yet. So I can see a campout being $71. 

A lot of the uniforms I see in thrift shops here are from other councils. A lot of the used uniforms I see are also 1980s era with patches that are no longer part of the program. 

Many established reputations have been ruined over time when facts come to light. Not saying anyone here could be hiding something just denial of that possibility is a one-sided way of thought.

A quick check of patches shows a new scout will need about $25 to put patches on a new uniform.  Why do they remove all the old patches?