Low activity among Soviet awards collectors

[Tretov]

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:

That's a very good price..! Congrats!

[Riley1965]

What a find!!! I wish I were so lucky!! I don't know if it's appropriate at this forum to ask where you got these from?

[Nack]

Riley--I think it's an ok question--I got them at a military show in Michigan. It was a suprising find, because a few other dealers had some soviet stuff, but at high prices by anyone's standards (like $20 for a 50-year anniversiary of GPW medal). These were under the radar i guess.

[Riley1965]

Thanks!! It was truly a lucky find. Enjoy!!!!
Mike

[Dolf]

It's less than $20 apiece!...
It's far below the average price of these Glory 3rd Class!...
Yours are all 3rd Class, right? There's at least one with a "golden" overall look (the one right in the middle) but I guess it's like one "golden" look 3rd Class I have.
Congrats!

Dolf

[Nack]

Dolf--yeah, they are all 3rd class, which is fine with me

[new world]

I don't think it's a slow down as much as availability is not there.

Let's take eBay as an example. It's the same dealers pushing the same fakes and the real stuff is far and few in between.

Dealers: I had the pleasure of speaking with several dealers that have and are getting inventory but are reluctant to put it for sale seeing the prices jump every few months.

I personally hope the prices will drop dramamtically! This way I'll be able to fill in the holes in my collection. I don't think it's going to but I can always hope.

I do agree with the statements that the prices are astronomical. I paid a tad over $2,000 for my Suvorov 2 and now major dealers are asking $13,000 +
I just can't bring myself to spend $7,500 on Kutuzov 3 to complete the set of my polkovodskie orders of 2nd & 3rd class.

I don't see any prices dropping, maybe just slight adjustments.

Rusty.

Colleagues,

from reading your posts I can observe several issues here:

1) Collectors decided not to go after high-end items due to extremely high prices.

2) There's some activity in the collectors community, focused in most on low-end items.

3) We shifted attention to other countries as well because they are still affordable.


For the market to be in existence there need to be sellers and buyers willing to pay asking prices. I think the biyers are missing from the present state of the market (judging by no activity on dealers web sites and general mood here on the forum).

Goint back to Rusty's example, Suvorov 2nd class is offered at NJ dealer's site for $14,800. It's been sitting there for several months, the dealer already lowered the price and still no takers.

if you consider $15,000 price - it's absolutely ridiculos. Think about it - Suvorov 2nd class is fairly common award, almost 3000 issued. Some of them are in museums, but there are plenty in the collectors hands. I'd estimate there are several hundreed of them in the market, which should be enough for collectors willing to shell out serious money.

If you compare $15,000 to the prices for other countries - I can't come up with an example of what other award can be sold for $15,000. Even in the most popular collecting area - WW2 period Germany - for $15,000 you are talking awards that were issued in much lower quantities than Suvorov 2nd class, even fever survived.

So, I'd conclude that the market for Soviet awards is artificially inflated and is completely out-of touch with reality. The price of $15,000 has no practical connection to the real life. I'd say even $10,000 or even $7,500 would be too steep. I mean, try selling one for $10,000 - who will you sell your Suvorov to? For the new collectors this will be a prohibitive price, as far as older collectors are concerned - they already bought Suvorov 2nd classes when they used to sell for $2,000 - 3,000.

William

[kingsnorth]

Another factor which has not helped has been the weakness of the U.S dollar.At $1.70 to £1 I have to admit I've bought quite a lot of stuff because they were bargain prices.Once the dollar goes back to $1.40 to £1 then it will not be worth buying anything any more.Mind you, as other members have mentioned, there has been a lot of over priced stuff out there in the last few months particularly on E.

[medalklector]

I thought the rise in prices could be contributed to the lack of items coming from the Russian Fed due to the exportation laws????.

I used to collect WW2 German items. $12,000 was the most I spent and that was on a Knights Cross, with research and case. German items are still going up in price, but I would bet that if the law suddenly changed to stop items leaving Germany then prices would sky rocket also.

At the end of the day, collect what you can afford. I'm certain that people (like myself) who only started collecting this year will look back in 5 years time and say "I remember when you could get a Suvorov 2nd class for $14K"

Just my thoughts...

[Dave]

I'm another one who, like Tal, went and started collecting in another field. I found that about two years ago I could no longer afford the high-end combat valor groups that I used to buy on a regular basis (remember when Glory Cavalier groups could be had for well under $3K? And HSU groups for under $4K?) I can remember back in "the day" when I only bought awards that came straight out of Russia, and later, only complete groups. I remember passing up a Kutuzov 2nd group from a fellow forum member for $2K because it was missing the Lenin... :eek: I digress...

When I started collecting Soviet items, I started out with uniforms - and I have gone back to those. I also have my small collection of single, researched awards. For the latter, I find a bit of irony that I have gone from passing on nice groups with missing awards to buying only single awards - that two years ago I would have turned my nose at!

I'm also co-authoring an article for the JOMSA in the area of single awards that I collect. To me, they are fascinating and still a challenge to find, but without the cost that most of the "big" awards.

I do agree with William (new world) in his findings in the thread. I think that the market is a bit inflated. I don't know about you all, but if I were to go and spend $14,800 on a medal or $26,000 on a single document (both of which are currently being offered on a major dealer's website) I think my wife might quickly lose her tolerance for my collection... Besides, being a mere "mortal", working for the government with a wife, three kids and two dogs doesn't exactly leave me much play money to buy those high-end awards, and even if I did have the money, could you imagine the spectacular US, British or even German group that I could buy with almost $15K???

In all honesty too, part of me just can't get over the whole inflation in the market. I remember back when Nevskys ran $300, Ushakovs at $350 and the like. (Which was what I was paying for them less than two years ago.) I can understand the raise of prices in a collectable market - that always happens, but a 400% raise in two years? There's something just not right about that...

This rise in prices has also brought out the worst in a lot of collectors and dealers. I, for one, have gotten the "raw end of the deal" when a dealer has raised prices dramatically on something I was buying and seen items that I sold to trusted individuals who complained about the high price - only to be sold for double the money the next month. Yeah... no thanks on that! :mad:

Anyway, just my two cents...

Dave