So sad...

[Bob]

Let's not forget that sometimes it's the family itself which is the cause of this.

I have a very, very large group belonging to a Mongolian General (Jamyan) - many items not even posted here. And despite my desire to keep it all complete as a group, many items were not bought by me:
- for financial reasons (limits to collecting funds)
- for practical reasons (I collect medals and their documents... in case of Jamyan the amount of documents was huge, and then I also bought a sculpture related to him, vases, shoulder boards, photographs, but there came a limit when uniforms etc also were offered... I have space limitations)

In this specific case the family invited multiple dealers to come and bid on pieces. And they did this on separate occasions as they over time felt more comfortable 'letting go' of items. As a result, I've had to scramble (with a lot of help from others - especially in UB -who kept their eyes open and know I am trying to maintain as much as possible of the Jamyan group) over past years to buy Jamyan items in the 'aftermarket'. I had a medal and various documents just arrive a few weeks ago despite buying the original group 5+ years ago.

http://soviet-awards.com/forum/sovie...16-2007-a.html

Another example I also often run into is that families want to sell the awards but not the documents.

Etc.

Maybe there'd be a 'market' for group reunification - just like the current serial nr database? I am 100% certain that I have some items which belong with items held by other collectors on this forum as well as on GMIC. In some cases that then becomes a case of "which of the two collectors should give the right of way to the other one to consolidate the group"? Does owning a document 'outrank' owning the related award?