08-24-2005, 03:57 PM
I do not know if the dealers are the ones pushing the prices artificially. It definitely is more expensive to buy almost anything Soviet today, even the more common orders and medals the main supply of which come from people in Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation. And these are the only sources of these items. I am sure everyone in this forum who purchases from suppliers overseas can attest to this. And if it costs a dealer more to buy a piece he is going to be asking for more when he sells it, this only makes sense. There are alot more collectors of Soviet stuff now than ever before and this does drive prices upwards for sure. It just stands to reason that a dealer does not pay (speaking in hypothetical numbers) $50.00 for someting he sells for $50.00 he will of course be asking for more. On the other hand I am certain dealers do not try to charge $1000 ( I am exagerating of course) for something they pay $50 for too.
I would love to see a return to the prices of the past on Soviet stuff but on the other hand I would also like to be paying less than $1.23 (Canadian) per litre (High Test) for gas too (One year ago $0.82/litre)!
Orders and Medals are not really a commodity so I don't consider them "investements" per se, rather one should collect for the love of history and of collecting. I would also point out that what the Soviet collecting community is seeing is what happenned to the WWII German collectables that were relatively cheap into even the mid to late 1970's but started to take off in the mid 1980's but you will notice that the prices on these have reached a sort of plateau where they have pretty much stabilized albeit at much higher levels than back in the 1970's when I bought my first 1939 Iron Cross 2nd class for $20. I would indeed love to see them available for that price now; speaking as a buyer of course.
I would love to see a return to the prices of the past on Soviet stuff but on the other hand I would also like to be paying less than $1.23 (Canadian) per litre (High Test) for gas too (One year ago $0.82/litre)!
Orders and Medals are not really a commodity so I don't consider them "investements" per se, rather one should collect for the love of history and of collecting. I would also point out that what the Soviet collecting community is seeing is what happenned to the WWII German collectables that were relatively cheap into even the mid to late 1970's but started to take off in the mid 1980's but you will notice that the prices on these have reached a sort of plateau where they have pretty much stabilized albeit at much higher levels than back in the 1970's when I bought my first 1939 Iron Cross 2nd class for $20. I would indeed love to see them available for that price now; speaking as a buyer of course.
