USSR Wrote:Hi all, I visited (surprisingly safe) Belarus this summer which was an amazing experience! Lots of Soviet memorabilia and very friendly people. In Minsk there even was a huge flee market with many Soviet orders and medals! Unfortunately they weren't really bargains although still cheaper than on E...

This what I saw for sale (for people who would like to visit Minsk and buy Soviet Orders):

ORS's: ~$50
OL: $1700
ORB's: ~$200
Order of the October R.: $350
OG's (3rd): ~$60
Defence and Capture Medals: ~$15-$35

CtahhR Wrote:I hear OGIIIs go for $50 each in Melbourne, Australia.

What were the prices on documents? Recently a large wave of Minsk region awarded Jubilee Medal (1965-88) documents have come onto the market for 20 to 50 cents each.

charlet Wrote:hello, and how do you do to let them leave the country with all that friendly custom policemen?

CtahhR Wrote:I hear OGIIIs go for $50 each in Melbourne, Australia.

What were the prices on documents? Recently a large wave of Minsk region awarded Jubilee Medal (1965-88) documents have come onto the market for 20 to 50 cents each. Not the sexiest of high end items but not to be sniffed at for the price.


With the digital communication revolution prices will be very similar wherever there is internet. Long gone are the days where you can get a box full of awards down a back alley in some backwards nowhere for buttons then fly it to another nation and through middle men before finally arriving at the collector with profits all round. Now the marketplace is far more global and people far closer to the source can offer the items to the global market. This improvement in communication negates the need for middle men and has a large effect on prices. If a dealer has to purchase their stock in the same way as a collector as soon as the dealer has paid for postage to break even (let alone adding a profit) the item is already equal in cost to what the collector could have purchased the item for - then the dealer will want to add profit and probably postage again. Why would a collector want to have the item they want to buy go through an extra set of hands with extra mark up when they don't have to?

There's the internet being a real leveller.

USSR Wrote:You are right about customs in Belarus. They aren't friendly at all! (Althought not as bad as the custom employees in Kaliningrad, Russia)

That being said, they didn't check our luggage nor our car, so exporting medals and orders wouldn't have been a problem. Besides, Putin put a ban on trading Soviet orders and medals. As far as I know, Lukashenko didn't... (Yet) ;-)