Prices/Value Discussion.

[Dave]

Recently, I have come to a point where I simply cannot afford to buy orders and medal. The price for the missing items are simply too ridiculous. But I understand that this is market rules and not dealers' fault. Therefore, I have decided to expand my horizons a little bit.

I'm in the same boat. It's not that I can't afford them, but it's just that I can't rationalize spending as much money as being asked for them, on them. I was pretty unimpressed with the Khmelnitsky/Kutuzov/Suvorov 3rds when they were priced at under $1000. Now that they all bring over $2000, why would I want to buy them? That's just me, of course.

So, like Matteti, I've decided to direct my collecting interests elsewhere. Ironically, it's back to the same focus that got me collecting Soviet awards in the first place. I've decided to sell off the majority of my medals collection, keeping just a few nice groups, and use that money to further my interests in other directions. Does that mean that I'll never buy another award group? Certainly not! My posthumous Patriotic War collection is growing nicely, and finding those presents me with a nice and still relatively inexpensive challenge. Sure, I'll even probably buy a group every now and then if it's interesting enough, but in the long run, I'm pretty much out of the medals business.

And so far, I'm pretty happy with my decision. Sometimes one's interests change... I have been collecting Soviet awards for 12 of the 18 years I've been collecting militaria. I'm still staying on the Soviet side of the house, but am going for things that have more of an interest to me now.

Just my two cents...

--Dave