Boba Fett and Star Wars pins

$8 is actually pretty normal for a sci-fi pin or patch. 

When I moved into my old apartment, many years ago, I had left some items in the older apartment I was moving out of, because I didn't want them to get messed up in the car.  I was only moving several blocks down.  My buddy and I were going to come back the next day, and clean up a bit, before the final apartment inspection, so naturally, I left my boom box so we'd have some tunes.  I also had left some framed posters and my two big corkboards of sci-fi patches and pins that I collect (my other weakness, asides from Fett stuff).  Anyway, overnight, someone had broke into the place.  I think it was some kids who had been outside while we were moving stuff, so they probably thought there'd be more stuff in there.  Anyway, the only thing they took was my boom box.  I guess they figured it was the only thing of value.  They didn't even bother with the corkboards of pins and patches.  Ironically, the corkboard full of stuff was worth three times more than the small little CD/ Tape  player boom box they stole.  I really didn't care they stole the boom box.  If they'd taken my corkboards, though, I would have been livid.  That's because I had been collecting this stuff since I was a teenager, and even back then they were about $5 a pin or patch. 

Nowadays, if you go to a Convention, or even just order them from a site that makes them, you're usually going to pay about $8 for just one pin or just one patch.  If you collect them, though, and you usually get a more than five or so at one time from a guy at a Con, you can usually haggle them down to a more reasonable price for the lot of them that you're buying, but even still it'll only come out to about $5 a patch.