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What was your biggest mistake as collectors?
Award that you regret you boght / didn't buy?
Missed opportunities, regrets etc.
My missed opportunity - Khmelnitsky 2nd
(ORIGINAL, I can assured you...) for $600 in 2000.... 
Tal
Under the banner of Marxism-Leninism, under the leadership of the Communist Party--forward to new victories in the construction of communism!
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Tal,
That's a good thread!
I started collecting when I was 9 and received as a gift 7 Imperial Russian silver coins, not very valuable, except for one. They looked dirty and dull, so for the next year or so, untill I knew better, I was religiously polishing them. Needless to say they are all ruined. Boy, was that dumb! I still have those coins in my collection, and every time I look at them I just want to kick myself. Not exactly a medals story, but I thought I should share it with you.
Alexei
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As far as biggest mistake...hmm. For Soviet ODM, not getting a good ref book prior to making my 1st purchase, tho it was a relatively small purchase and by luck I did ok. It could have been much, much worse.
As far as missed opportunities...I'm sure many of us could write books a piece on that.  I have only been into Soviet ODM for a couple years now, but I've been collecting other militaria/ODM for well beyond a decade. Lots of missed opportunities. The days when PH groups could be found for $50 or so are pretty much done (at least online, esp on Ebay).
M
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12-07-2002, 08:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-07-2002, 08:09 AM by yolkin.)
This hurts me more than you...believe me...
2 Cases...
1) My Dad's aunt was a Major in the WWII. She served with the one and only L. I. Brezhnev. (Quick digression - in the 1970s there was a shortage [deficit] of phone connections, meaning one had to be in a line and await their turn which obviously took a long time. So Berta simply wrote a letter to her war-time friend stating: "Lyonia, we did not shed blood during the war and earned all these medals to be behind progress..." so on and so fourth. Anyway, within a short time there was an !EXECUTIVE! directive sent down to the local leaders to attach a telephone line directly from the GORSOVET [City Hall] to Berta's apartment. Luckily she lived across the street from the city hall. This story was told to me by my Dad) Anyway, Berta kept her medals and orders in a secret hiding place inside a dining room table with a hollow inside. Apparently she only told my Dad about her secret hiding place, and when she died in the late-1980s my Dad (having no interest or seeing any collecting value) simply turned over to the rest of the family all her real WWII Medals and Orders with all documents... This hurts!!!!
2) When my family and I were immigrating to USA, we had to live in Italy for several months. As we were used to shopping at "farmer's markets" aka BAZARs we used to frequent the "Mercado" in Rome. One day we saw a Hero of Soviet Union + Order of Lenin with all the documents and GRAMOTAs offered by the veteran himself for 100,000 lire (+/- $70). Because of our "soviet" mentality, we looked down at this person because of our propaganda-driven sense of pride, questioning "how could he have stooped so low, as to sell his orders and medals?!" Though there were not an abundance of HSUs in my city (Lvov, Ukraine) we still could not even imagine paying for something like that... In retrospect... I still have not forgiven my Dad for letting go of that lot. This really hurts...
OK, now I am depressed 
Thanks for reading...
Eric
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I saw a two HSU's (Labour) with corresponding 2 x Lenins with all the documentaion for 2000 dollars
As I had a lenin and HSU I thought I could pass.
I now realise how hard it is to find such a group.
Chris
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Eric, don't feel so bad...
If your family is anything like mine and left Russia in 87 or 88 then it was agains the law to take the medals with you. If you ask your parents, there was a restriction on how much money and gold (Personal jewelery) you could take with you!
My dad had to leave his fathers medals to a family member, who'm lives in Germany now and won't give 'em back!!!
Rusty.
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On a business trip to Russia in 1999 I arranged so that I had three saturdays in Moscow - to look around Izmailova of course. On the last saturday, while leaving the park to get to my hotel and head out for the airport to return home I saw a guy with some uniforms at the cheap and lonely end of the park. Among some aveage stuff he had a long-leather coat with Marshal of the Tank troops boards. Both coat and boards were very genuine and not the modern tinsely repro junk. The coat had signs of very long wear where the boards were so they were probably original to it. The prce was $400 US.
Sadly I had no money left! No chance to get more as there were no cash machines in the area that took Visa. No one to borrow from! An opportunity lost forever. Boo hoo.
Shawn
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Hi
When I was in Lithuinia the first time in 1987 I went to a little shop. There an old woman sold medals. This was before the first herfurth catalog was out and I bought a couple of medals. Mostly jubelee and on with a tank on(bravery) The price for these was below one dollar. There were more expesive medals too, but I didn´t buy them. Medal for distinguished labor and for excellent labor in wwII on Triangular suspension. 10 of them all original. This was before copy age. 5 dollars a piece, and an newskij on suspension for 50 dollars and the order of the white eagle imperial for 150 dollars and I didn´t buy any of them. I hate myself to this day for it.
Best wishes
sovvisor
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when i first srated collecting i saw a 20 year medal of the red army(the 1st jubalee one!) for about 20 pounds and didnt know what it was so i past it by DOH!!!! but then life is like that :eek:
"Right ok so apart from the roads,education,sanition, medicine,the wine,the aquaducts, irragation, the public baths,a fresh water system and public order, what have the romans ever done for us?"........
reg from life of brian.
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Well,
When I first started collecting, I was the one who purchased a Victory over Japan for $100.00!!!!!
And I didn't even get doc's with it!! The person who I purchased it from I guess felt so bad that he threw in a handful of badges, probably worth $10 + or -.
So get your holiday laugh on me.
Hopefully I have made up for the mistake!
Alairvine 
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