06-18-2009, 09:36 PM
To your original question, no, there are no reliable published price guides for Soviet orders, medals, paperwork, badges, etc.
lol... after typing and erasing for 10 minutes I've decided this question is unanswerable. Not really... but it would take a long time to answer well. If it could be.
In short there is no yardstick, no guide. Lots of opinions. No rules. It is almost purely a case of “what it’s worth to you.” And “how bad the seller needs the money.”
The most common pitfalls to watch out for are:
1) Disparate knowledge. You’ll pay more than you have to if the seller knows more than you do. (Marc’s comments on rarity for example.)
2) Fakes. There are a lot of them out there.
3) Quality. What is quality, to you, and how do you recognize it? Unless you define this first you’ll buy stuff you wouldn’t if you’d thought about it more. For example, some folks want war medals, some want shiny medals, some want medals awarded to guys who flew airplanes, some only want them to “secret agents”. The list is endless. What exactly are you going for in collecting?
One warning: buying for resale should only be done after you're at the point where you're no longer asking the question "how do knowledgeable sellers and buyers determine prices.”
Welcome to Thunderdome.
Liam Wrote:Just wondered how knowledgeable sellers and buyers determine prices.
lol... after typing and erasing for 10 minutes I've decided this question is unanswerable. Not really... but it would take a long time to answer well. If it could be.
In short there is no yardstick, no guide. Lots of opinions. No rules. It is almost purely a case of “what it’s worth to you.” And “how bad the seller needs the money.”
The most common pitfalls to watch out for are:
1) Disparate knowledge. You’ll pay more than you have to if the seller knows more than you do. (Marc’s comments on rarity for example.)
2) Fakes. There are a lot of them out there.
3) Quality. What is quality, to you, and how do you recognize it? Unless you define this first you’ll buy stuff you wouldn’t if you’d thought about it more. For example, some folks want war medals, some want shiny medals, some want medals awarded to guys who flew airplanes, some only want them to “secret agents”. The list is endless. What exactly are you going for in collecting?
One warning: buying for resale should only be done after you're at the point where you're no longer asking the question "how do knowledgeable sellers and buyers determine prices.”
Liam Wrote:Some stuff on EBay looks ridiculous and on different websites prices vary wildly even accounting for authenticity and quality.
Welcome to Thunderdome.
Steiner: "Why do you want it so badly? It's just a worthless piece of metal. Look."
