07-11-2003, 02:47 PM
Guys,
Chances that demand will decrease are slim.
Soviet awards collecting is relatively new hobby, most of the collectors got into collecting during the last decades. We need to compare our situation to other contries with more collecting history, such as UK or Germany.
From talking to some German WWII period collectors I understand that they have quite a history to tell. German items became collectable almost immediately after WWII, giving us over 50 years of track record.
Well, during those years the prices only went up. Most of the prices for German items increased substantially, somthing like 10-20 or even more times!!!!!
What they have today in the market - plenty of fakes with even the simplest items costing $100 and up. For me it just doesn't make sense to pay $300 for some old Nazi badge of horrible quality (made from zinc or soft alloys), but that's what the reality is.
Given that German items attarct more collectors and demand is higher - still, I don't see more Soviet items coming into the market.
Let's face it - today the flow of awards coming from Russia already stopped and even reversed (rumors are that recent huge sale ot top WWII awards from one major US dealer went back to Russia).
The only source of Soviet items for us in the US from now on most likely will be items from existing collections here in the West. And with the way the prices are in Russia - these items could be heading back to the Motherland.
William
Chances that demand will decrease are slim.
Soviet awards collecting is relatively new hobby, most of the collectors got into collecting during the last decades. We need to compare our situation to other contries with more collecting history, such as UK or Germany.
From talking to some German WWII period collectors I understand that they have quite a history to tell. German items became collectable almost immediately after WWII, giving us over 50 years of track record.
Well, during those years the prices only went up. Most of the prices for German items increased substantially, somthing like 10-20 or even more times!!!!!
What they have today in the market - plenty of fakes with even the simplest items costing $100 and up. For me it just doesn't make sense to pay $300 for some old Nazi badge of horrible quality (made from zinc or soft alloys), but that's what the reality is.
Given that German items attarct more collectors and demand is higher - still, I don't see more Soviet items coming into the market.
Let's face it - today the flow of awards coming from Russia already stopped and even reversed (rumors are that recent huge sale ot top WWII awards from one major US dealer went back to Russia).
The only source of Soviet items for us in the US from now on most likely will be items from existing collections here in the West. And with the way the prices are in Russia - these items could be heading back to the Motherland.
William
