06-18-2009, 07:37 PM
Liam,
Pricing is a subjective exercise (Man, I sound like I'm teaching Mktg101 again
)
Seriously, in the field of Soviet OMDs, you need to look around at what is offered, how often, in what quantities, etc. Most people on this forum have years of experience, hence have been following more or less closely the price evolution of our addiction for that long.
All I can tell you is that until recently, the market for Soviet OMDs was completely disconnected from the real world. There has been a rather severe price adjustment taking place over the past 6~8 months. If you look at the site of "a certain dealer in NJ", who like it or not tends to be one of the main references in this field (albeit at the very stratospheric end of the scale), you'll see that on average, he has lowered his prices on average by about 50 to 60%, and that is all over the range from the very rare to the very common.
E! is another gauge, although, like all auctions, aberrations happen.
I have noticed that, quite understandably, some sellers are trying to ask for "pre-crisis" prices, sometimes because they did spend that much to acquire the item. Unfortunately, unless you are dealing with a mega rarity, this won't be very practical. If you intend to actively purchase Soviet OMDs, my advice is to shop around, take your time, look for item condition - full price is only for pristine examples, others go at a discount, compare prices.
I believe that you should use your common sense in deciding if a medal or an order is worth what the seller asks for. For example, how can an order issued about 500,000 times, 75% of which being given for long service, be worth $600~$700? IMHO, there is simply no logic nor reason for it. Remember, what is rare will always remain rare, but what is common is highly unlikely to ever become rare (although there has been multiple attempts to demonstrate the contrary, including a thread on this forum relating to the T3 OPW... :laff).
Do not hesitate to ask the members, they can most likely provide you with the information you need. Oh, and one last word of caution: BEWARE OF FAKES, the Soviet OMD field is replete with them :mad:
Marc
Pricing is a subjective exercise (Man, I sound like I'm teaching Mktg101 again
)Seriously, in the field of Soviet OMDs, you need to look around at what is offered, how often, in what quantities, etc. Most people on this forum have years of experience, hence have been following more or less closely the price evolution of our addiction for that long.
All I can tell you is that until recently, the market for Soviet OMDs was completely disconnected from the real world. There has been a rather severe price adjustment taking place over the past 6~8 months. If you look at the site of "a certain dealer in NJ", who like it or not tends to be one of the main references in this field (albeit at the very stratospheric end of the scale), you'll see that on average, he has lowered his prices on average by about 50 to 60%, and that is all over the range from the very rare to the very common.
E! is another gauge, although, like all auctions, aberrations happen.
I have noticed that, quite understandably, some sellers are trying to ask for "pre-crisis" prices, sometimes because they did spend that much to acquire the item. Unfortunately, unless you are dealing with a mega rarity, this won't be very practical. If you intend to actively purchase Soviet OMDs, my advice is to shop around, take your time, look for item condition - full price is only for pristine examples, others go at a discount, compare prices.
I believe that you should use your common sense in deciding if a medal or an order is worth what the seller asks for. For example, how can an order issued about 500,000 times, 75% of which being given for long service, be worth $600~$700? IMHO, there is simply no logic nor reason for it. Remember, what is rare will always remain rare, but what is common is highly unlikely to ever become rare (although there has been multiple attempts to demonstrate the contrary, including a thread on this forum relating to the T3 OPW... :laff).
Do not hesitate to ask the members, they can most likely provide you with the information you need. Oh, and one last word of caution: BEWARE OF FAKES, the Soviet OMD field is replete with them :mad:
Marc
