12-22-2014, 07:48 AM
The Baltic States are still very often the main suppliers for those who haven't been doing their homework!
As researching by name is rather difficult if the recipient has a common name I tend to collect the "minorities" of the USSR, Georgians, Armenians, Moldavians, Uzbeks, etc. so most of my sources are Georgia, Armenia, Moldova and Uzbekistan. Rarely directly from Russia (and there are some extremely cheap bits currently coming out of Belarus). The laws they also have in place in the Russian Federation don't make them easy to be the primary source of supplies for collectors in the west.
The actions of "Russia" that are reported and seen as negative in the west will of course have a direct influence on all things "Soviet". "A "New Cold War" enemies pushing into Europe"'s history isn't going to be appealing as the "Heroic destroyers of the Reich". This will cause Soviet items from whatever source to retreat in price or at very least demand.
Political systems, parties, nations, societies, cultures, opinions, history, "truth" and more all bend and change with time. Ten years ago Bush and Putin were best mates against terrorism, now there is supposed to be the "new cold war". In ten years the situation will be completely different again but in which way we don't know.
I never buy for "speculation" or "investment" but always to retain the history and honour of the items and their recipients, no matter what their actions. There are many awards in the collection that I can not condone the actions of the recipient, or often the entire regime, then there are other cases where I didn't personally like the recipient but the action was indeed outstanding. It is not my place to judge the people or the awards but to preserve them.
Lots of people like to shout things like "look what I bought, aren't I the greatest?" but the simple answer is no. The item may be the greatest, the price may have been the best deal going but this does not make any difference at all to the actual award or recipient.
Lower prices means to me more purchasing power but it certainly doesn't mean the items themselves are held in any less regard. If lower prices means less production of fakes then that is the greatest victory for us all.
Money and awards are two completely different entities, let the people who want money have the money for whatever purpose but those who are going to honour and maintain the awards, rather than try and exploit them as a tool are those who should be custodian.
As researching by name is rather difficult if the recipient has a common name I tend to collect the "minorities" of the USSR, Georgians, Armenians, Moldavians, Uzbeks, etc. so most of my sources are Georgia, Armenia, Moldova and Uzbekistan. Rarely directly from Russia (and there are some extremely cheap bits currently coming out of Belarus). The laws they also have in place in the Russian Federation don't make them easy to be the primary source of supplies for collectors in the west.
The actions of "Russia" that are reported and seen as negative in the west will of course have a direct influence on all things "Soviet". "A "New Cold War" enemies pushing into Europe"'s history isn't going to be appealing as the "Heroic destroyers of the Reich". This will cause Soviet items from whatever source to retreat in price or at very least demand.
Political systems, parties, nations, societies, cultures, opinions, history, "truth" and more all bend and change with time. Ten years ago Bush and Putin were best mates against terrorism, now there is supposed to be the "new cold war". In ten years the situation will be completely different again but in which way we don't know.
I never buy for "speculation" or "investment" but always to retain the history and honour of the items and their recipients, no matter what their actions. There are many awards in the collection that I can not condone the actions of the recipient, or often the entire regime, then there are other cases where I didn't personally like the recipient but the action was indeed outstanding. It is not my place to judge the people or the awards but to preserve them.
Lots of people like to shout things like "look what I bought, aren't I the greatest?" but the simple answer is no. The item may be the greatest, the price may have been the best deal going but this does not make any difference at all to the actual award or recipient.
Lower prices means to me more purchasing power but it certainly doesn't mean the items themselves are held in any less regard. If lower prices means less production of fakes then that is the greatest victory for us all.
Money and awards are two completely different entities, let the people who want money have the money for whatever purpose but those who are going to honour and maintain the awards, rather than try and exploit them as a tool are those who should be custodian.
"Signed with his own rubber stamp"
