Low activity among Soviet awards collectors

[Riley1965]

I'm still working on completing my Defense of, Capture of,etc plus I need to pick up some of the moderately priced upper end pieces.

[andrew6767]

I'm still working on completing my Defense of, Capture of,etc

That is also my goal , I just have to start saving for the 3 most expensive ones

[roy]

I'm sporadic when it comes to purchasing Soviet awards and badges. I have gone through a long streak where I don't purchase anything, and now, I have added at least one or two pieces in the last month or so. I started out with the medals, and am very happy to have added a Friendship, and an October Revolution Order, but now have started to focus most of my collection on badges now. I am starting to consider to collect all of the Soviet "Excellence" badges awarded to service members, and while I'm in the process of doing this, may salt back a few dollars here and there to aquire a decent Order of Lenin.

In addition to medals/badges, I do also focus on other Communist Bloc countries, primarily East Germany. Also, I've collected a decent collection of Soviet small arms by hitting the local pawn shops, and have come up with decent examples of the SKS carbine, Mosin Nagants, TT-33, etc.

I had a decent Third Reich collection, but have decided to not keep paying the prices for badges that in my opinion, should not really be rare enough to warrent the current prices. However, with Soviet badges and awards, they have an appeal of of their own. Workmanship in my opinion is much better, and they have "character" of their own that is an attention getter for me rather than say, an iron cross. For example, I would much rather have my Order of Friendship of Peoples rather than an original Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. Of course, there is the enormous price difference between the two, but as far as I am concerned, a Knights Cross is nothing more than any other Iron Cross with the exception that the KC is worn on the neck.

[desantnik]

I'm currently preparing a paper on a Brother-Sister documented Soviet group for the JOMSA.

Way to go!

[medalklector]

Why don't some of the newer collector/experts do more for the hobby? Anyone can write articles for collectors magazines - I haven't seen an article in the JOMSA about Soviet items for a couple of years if my memory serves me correctly. Something as simple as an article about a set you researched will go a long way towards public awareness. There are several contributors to this forum that could even do an article on their favorite or most interesting sets. I've got a book coming out in spring/summer 06 so I'm trying to contribute, but if you want to see more "activity" - do something!

Desantnik, I agree with what you say. I think we all do our bit to promote awareness of the hobby/history. My colleagues at work now look forward to handling my new items. Collecting soviet items has made me more interested in Soviet History. I'm learning Russian, I'm visiting Moscow for New Years Eve. I would be very interested in doing more though....Suggestions/Links gladly accepted :-)

[Tal Inbar]

Money (and a lot of it) will restrict MOST of the collectors from obtaining a lot of orders and medals.

You can either:

switch to other Soviet country (DDR, Yugoslavia, etc.) - I didn't;

Cry and stop collecting;

Try to find a NICHE of awards that YOU find interesting, and that you CAN afford.

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I am NOT going to have Suvorov, Kutozov, BK, etc. I can live with that. I have One Lenin and it's OK for me.

I mannaged to collect a lot of BDHX and BCXB medals with documents. The prices are now higher for the Silver and Gold medals, but I can afford to have a lot of items and variations.

I am sure that one can find another topic - Komsomol awards, Academy badges, Space medals (hey , come to think about it - I am very interesting in Soviet space medals....so DON't collect them....), Red cross items and so on.

Tal

[Lapa]

Tal,

Stop creating new competition for those among us who have been following this approach, pleaaaaaase

Marc

[Tal Inbar]

Competition? Me?

[desantnik]

Desantnik, I agree with what you say. I think we all do our bit to promote awareness of the hobby/history. My colleagues at work now look forward to handling my new items. Collecting soviet items has made me more interested in Soviet History. I'm learning Russian, I'm visiting Moscow for New Years Eve. I would be very interested in doing more though....Suggestions/Links gladly accepted :-)

My suggestion is to write something - that is how I best express myself (although my boss doesn't think so). Write an article about why you got "stuck" on things Soviet and how it led you to go to Moscow for New Years Eve (incidentally I did that for the change of the Millenium - watch out for drunks throwing champagne and vodka bottles and firecrackers, but I digress). You don't even have to write your article for Soviet collectors - I'm sure other collectors or even the general public would take interest. If you are a good photographer, make a montage or offer your services to someone who writes (like me).

[Nack]

It looks as though this thread has triggered some kind of reverse-murphy's-law luck or something for me. I haven't bought an order in months, but fell into a few items this morning, $120 for the lot: