Historical Research LLC Authentications

[HuliganRS]

I agree with everything that has been said before.

The only thing that makes sense to me is tiered pricing.

What I mean by that is price of the item being authenticated should reflect in the cost of the authentication.

So a $100 item would cost $25 and a $500 item would be $50, $1,000 item would be $100 to authenticate and so on... I see flaws in this though... I'm sure Paul is a busy man and most likely wants out of spending his nights sitting under a light looking at awards. He has a life and sounds like he's making enough money from his "day job"

For most of us it's sending him a few pieces every 6 months or a year but the dealers are sending him hundreds of pieces and that is what's taking all of his time.

I'd love for Paul to come here and give us a reason but that may never happen.

Rusty.

[AlexF.]

Rusty,
With your pricing approach, Paul (or somebody) has to set a market price on an award first!? That ought to be a new can of worms by itself. Just because somebody bought something at a bargain (or vice versa), the true market value may not match that (since it should be an average of a composite, for all we know). Moreover, prices are jumping (up, mostly ), so one has to constantly adjust for that, as well...

However, there are other ideas to straighten things out, and make authentication of a medium priced award(s) affordable and making sense to a collector.

Just my $225.

-AF

[Dolf]

Originally Posted by AlexF.

Rusty,
With your pricing approach, Paul (or somebody) has to set a market price on an award first!? That ought to be a new can of worms by itself. Just because somebody bought something at a bargain (or vice versa), the true market value may not match that (since it should be an average of a composite, for all we know). Moreover, prices are jumping (up, mostly ), so one has to constantly adjust for that, as well...

However, there are other ideas to straighten things out, and make authentication of a medium priced award(s) affordable and making sense to a collector.

Just my $225.

-AF

Alex,

I guess that what Rusty had in mind (at least that's how I understood it; Rusty please correct me if I'm wrong) were the average prices that we all know. We all know that a certain Medal cost is around price X, that a certain Order cost is around price Y, etc.
So, for items costing for example in the $100 range (from $5 to $100 for example) the authentication would cost $25, etc.
And of course PMD could perfectly establish his own average prices for these awards.
He could simply make a list with different authentication costs for each category of awards, kind of:

Medal A + Medal B + Medal C, etc (within the range of the $5-$100 mentionned above) » authentication cost = $25
Order AA + Order BB + Order CC, etc (within the range of $100-$500, for example) » authentication cost = $50

I believe Rusty's idea is a good one, it would only need to be better worked out a bit and clearly defined.

Just my two cents,

Dolf

[Nack]

I think Rusty and Dolf are right in that a tiered system is far more reasonable than the blanket $225-a-pop method, and could be easily implemented.

Also, if setting the levels at a dollar amount seems to amount to a conflict of interest or something, the tiers could be set based upon the award's rarity. Those numbers are pretty certain as I understand it.

[Dolf]

Originally Posted by Nack

I think Rusty and Dolf are right in that a tiered system is far more reasonable than the blanket $225-a-pop method, and could be easily implemented.

Also, if setting the levels at a dollar amount seems to amount to a conflict of interest or something, the tiers could be set based upon the award's rarity. Those numbers are pretty certain as I understand it.

Tim,

The Rarity Rating (established by PMD himself btw) would also be an excellent system, I completely agree on that one!

Dolf

[new world]

I don't think tiered pricing would work with Paul. It will take approximately the same amount of time to authenticate either "cheap" award (ie Friendship order) or more expensive one.

Paperwork takes fair amount of time as well, plus don't forget packing and trip to post office.

I'd estimate he invests comparable amount of time no matter regardless of the value of award, so why would he charge $50 vs $250 for the same work?

What could work - trying to negotiate custom deals directly with Paul (say award sells for $300 and paying $225 for a paper is a bit expensive).

He's been giving discounts in the past (ie. if you send him several awards - the price could be lower).

William

[AlexF.]

Guys,
Of course, there are more then one way to attend to this issue. Beside, rarity systems also differ (******'s, for ex., goes to R8, Paul's is up to R5, there are others, btw), and, moreover, rarity still doesn't fully reflect the value of an award. Those collecting Mongolia wouldn't agree more
However, as I said before, there are ways to go... For instance, categories: all unnumbered medals, numbered medals, orders up to nevsky, top orders, etc. Each could command it's own price for COA, for all we care. This way, for example, if I have PW1 that I'd like to authenticate, I just look up a chart, and see it in group #3, where the price for COA = $35. And if I have Lenin "Traktor", I look up the chart again, find it in group #1, and pay $85 for COA. And everyone's happy, the prices are justified.

btw, he now states there are no discounts.

[ericlida]

Guys,
Are we making recommendations for Paul, how he should run his business?
I think it's only his decision.
I doubt he even reads our comments.
Eric

[Dolf]

Alex,

The only Rarity Rating that really counts for Soviet awards collectors is PMD's RR. This one is considered by us all as the "official" one, the others are just either a joke or a simple curiosity. Who among us gives any credit to the RR of that dealer (D.M. I guess) you mentionned?!

What shocks me on these new PMD authentication prices (even thought I never had a piece authenticated before, because I only buy from really reputable dealers so I don't need a COA for a piece I already know it's authentic, but never knows what may happen in the future) is the fact that he suddently increased his prices from $80 or $100 to $225! It's a big jump!

IMHO I guess that with these new prices he will do authentication only for dealers in the future, and maybe it was his intention when increasing the prices! Of course this will increase even more the prices of pieces with a COA sold by these dealers! And each day more Soviet awards collectors will move to collecting other countrie's awards!

Dolf

[AlexF.]

Dolf,
I agree with you, actually, almost agree, since Rarity rating is always subjective, regardless who's system we use, to say the least...