Prices/Value Discussion.

[dannybou]

I must agree with Ron. Although I have only been collecting for a few months, I have made purchases, not much but a few from Alexei and he is treated me like gold everytime. I'll buy from him again that's for sure. If you check Alexei's prices with some of his competition, like I always do, I always go back to him because of who he is and his prices.
Now about the prices. It seems that everything in this world is going up, not only medals. I don't know about you guys, but here my price of gasoline, electricity, food, clothing, cars and housing are all going up. So yes, the Soviet awards are heading up. that means 1: We have to pay more for the awards we want but it also means 2: Our awards that we have bought are now worth more. I don't know about you guys, but my stocks that I own on the market haven't been doing as well as my medal collection that's for sure. Can hardly wait to finally get that Order of Lenin!!

Also, I've branched off into other awards of Bulgaria. They aren't near as expensive as Soviet ones. Maybe not as prestigious (sp?) but some nice awards nonetheless.

[Christophe]

Rusty,

Thanks for pointing out my very poor english !!!!

What I meant is that I appreciated Alexei's honesty and clearness. In French, "transparence", is the word defining the details about the structure of his costs and margin, and the way to tell it to us for explaining a price.

Ch.

[sovvisor]

I just want to give you guys something to think about. I read in financial times swedish issue that in Russia there are now more than 9 million people who have more than one million swedish Kr ( 120000 USD) on there bank account. It´s the same amount of people that there lives in Sweden!! If just some percent of these people invest there money in soviet high end awards instead of art, we have a problem. Some have enormous wealth and and if you earns millions and millions on oil or forrest one million ain´t that much money. They buy what they like, collecting interest or not. Much high end stuff is now investment pieces like our daytrader said.
Best

[HuliganRS]

I get it! Thanks.

In English:

A transparent object, especially a photographic slide that is viewed by light shining through it from behind or by projection.
also trans·par·ence - The quality or state of being transparent.

Rusty.

[Dolf]

Christophe, Dannybou,

Come on guys, your English (and mine, for that matter) is perfect for non English language people!

Raising prices: I just heard on the news today that Chrysties (?) is selling a pair of pistols who belonged to Simon Bolivar and that they expect to sell them for $600.000-$800.000 !!!
Do they worth that value? I have no idea! They probably do for someone if they expect to sell them for that price!
As some other member pointed out before, the all thing depends on a basic law of economy: offer and demand!

Even if I'm only a small collector, even if I'm on this hobby for only about a year or so, I have no doubt that Alexei is the most honnest, fair, reliable Soviet Awards dealer I have had the chance to do business with.
I'm sure that if he is selling those RBL for that price that's because they costed him a little fortune in the first place!
I know that he doesn't raise his prices just like that and when he does it that's because his own suppliers do it themselves! And when you're on business, whatever business, you have to make your profit, otherwise you'd better change of profession!

Of course I have already bought some Soviet Awards from other sellers, occasionally, but I always use Alexei's prices as a reference. And when I find some Awards cheaper, that's because most of those sellers have no idea of the current value of such items, in most cases because they bought them a very long time ago (so still making a good profit after all), or because they got them really cheap, God knows how!
Sure I'm happy to make a good deal, but one thing is for sure: buying from Alexei, before I get the items I'm 100% sure that they are authentic, and when buying from an occasional seller I'm never sure until I get them! So when I want to buy an expensive piece (for my wallet anyway) I never take the risk to buy it from anyone else and Alexei is the only guy I can really trust! And trust is something for which there's no price!

Best,

Dolf

[Lapa]

Rusty, Christophe,

I believe that "transparency" or "full disclosure" are both proper business English terms that refer to the same concept.

Marc

[new world]

Originally Posted by Nota Bene

Guys,

I have to confess that I am that crazy shark NY based dealer, wanting to rip off every honest and hard working collector in the country.

I've been trying to get those RBLs for at least a year, and I was getting only fakes or pieces, put together from different awards. The choice was between offering them for sale, even at such an inflated price, or not having them on my website at all. Since no other dealer in this country seems to have those, I have opted for the first. My math was pretty simple - I can always give a $100-150 discount to a good customer and a dedicated collector; I need to make at least $250 on this investment; I had to pay $50 to Paul for his services. I guess now you have an idea what I had to pay for those babies.

Alexei

Alexei,

Don't take this personally, in no way my initial post was intended to blame you.

I realize that you've paid hefty price for these pieces, but do you think you'll find someone here in the US to put that much money on fairly common and low-ranking awards?

My point is that more than 99% of collectors will not be able to buy these RBLs - beginners and intemediate collectors sumply can't afford and majority of advanced collectors already got at least one of RBLs in collection.

Just my 2 cents.

William

[yolkin]

C'mon William...

do you actually believe what you are writing?! Because I could not believe that you wrote that... Of all people, you should know and realize that YES Alexei WILL find a buyer for these RBLs. Rather, a buyer will find Alexei, because if one is in the market to buy a RBL screwback, they WILL pay the seemingly premium price.

It is the same as paying $4100 for Kutuzov3 that cost $700 not too long ago.

Eric

[new world]

Originally Posted by yolkin

C'mon William...

do you actually believe what you are writing?! Because I could not believe that you wrote that... Of all people, you should know and realize that YES Alexei WILL find a buyer for these RBLs. Rather, a buyer will find Alexei, because if one is in the market to buy a RBL screwback, they WILL pay the seemingly premium price.

It is the same as paying $4100 for Kutuzov3 that cost $700 not too long ago.

Eric

Well,

Eric, you should actually know that there are huge differences between collectability of Kutuzov and RBL:
- mintage of Kutuzov is in 3,000s range, while RBL's is in 13,000s,
- Kutuzov (especially 3rd class) is real combat order which creates certain appeal for most collectors,
- Kutuzov can be researched and RBL can't be.

Just for the sake of argument we should start a poll and find out how many of Forum members would pay $1750 for a RBL.

But then again, it's everyonene's personal business on what to spend their money and how to build one's collection.

I wish Alexei would sell these awards to some happy collectors, as he's one of my favorite dealers.

William

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by yolkin

C'mon William...


It is the same as paying $4100 for Kutuzov3 that cost $700 not too long ago.

Eric

Kutuzov 3 didn't cost $700 even many years ago in US.
When Kutuzov 3 was $900, LRB screwback was $300-400. You can notice the correlation.