About the SCA Juried Merchants List

This list is intended to match together buyers who want authentic stuff and sellers who like making authentic stuff. Right now all of the decisions about which merchants make the list are made by me, Gregory Blount (Greg Lindahl). Since I'm not an expert in most of the areas covered by the list, I use a pretty simple standard when looking over the catalogs of merchants: Does every item seem to come from a particular time and place? If so, you pass. If not, you fail.

A majority of merchants applying to join the list are rejected because they don't have any indication of time & place in their listings. For example, clothing merchants might describe a garmet as a "Men's short T tunic" or a "Men's Peasant Tunic". Well, yes, T-tunics were worn all over Europe for several centuries, but if I'm a customer who has a 14th century French persona and wants authentic clothing, should I buy it or not? I don't have any idea. (Hey, for this purpose, maybe it's good that I'm not an expert on 14th century french men's clothing!) And that's why this merchant would fail.

If you'd like to see an example of an excellent example of what I'm looking for, please see the Swan and Lion Sutlery Catalog. You don't have to be this good to make the grade, but it never hurts to do a better job.

Examples of other things which make a merchant fail are:

If you don't have a catalog, you need to explain the kinds of sources you use for your work. For example: "I make shoes based on the Museum of London shoe books."
Using only visibly blatantly modern materials. If you make armor only out of visible stainless steel or visible plastic, you don't pass the test. If you make Elizabethan-area "coat of plates" where the (invisible) plates happen to be plastic, and you explain what primary sources you used when constructing it, then you pass the test.
Mixing modern items with period ones, such as modern Celtic music items along with Renaissance music CDs. This is OK if everything is labeled as either "modern" or "Renaissance"; it is not OK if a buyer is going to be confused into thinking that the modern Celtic music is from the Renaissance.
Selling only modern items, such as: Baldar Blunts.
Selling things like "Viking X-Chairs" without documenting them. (If you can document an X-chair to earlier than the 1920's Boy Scouts Manual, I'd love to hear about it.)

If you sell "traditional" items, or items for other re-enactors, such as English Civil War or US Civil War, I would like you to label these items clearly. You can do this in one of 3 ways: You can label every item in your catalog with a time period. You can divide your catalog into sections, which each section having a similar time period. Or you can make a special SCA-specific section of your catalog in which you cross-list items which are suitable for the SCA time period.

Just so you know, my pet peeve is merchants which stock both traditional and early music, without indicating which is which. It's very easy for the average customer to become confused by such a setup.

If you have any questions about my criteria, please send me email at lindahl@pbm.com.

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Disclaimer: Do not mistake this list for an official statement by or publication of the SCA, Inc. It is the personal opinion of Greg Lindahl. I have not verified any claim made by any merchant. However, I would like to hear if you had a bad experience with any merchant on the list, or you feel that a merchant on the list doesn't live up to the list criteria.

Gregory Blount / Greg Lindahl