10-19-2010, 05:52 AM
There is no point in even trying to guess when it comes to prices. I've said it many times before: something is only worth as much as you are willing to pay for it. That "you" can be somebody with no knowledge of the history involved, but has lots of money, in which case the price will be high, or that "you" can be someone who has a significant interest in the actual item for amateur academic reasons but limited funds, in which case the price will be lower.
As mentioned above, items without specific functions are not a good investment at any time, much less these days. Even if the world economy rebounded completely and overnight, people are going to be wary of "frivolous" spending for many years to come.
The supply and demand aspect (as time goes by, supply will dwindle) is valid, but there also has to be a corresponding rise in demand for prices to go up. Half of my college-level students think the Soviet Union was Russia and only Russia. The only examples of "communism" they know are China and after Palin's comment today - the new US (though to be fair she did say "socialism" and made a bad joke about Russia).
My point is, real historians - even amateur ones like me - are not a large group and as we get farther from the Cold War, it is less likely that droves of new people will suddenly discover Soviet history and want to know anything more than they got from their bad high school text books.
Sorry to sound so glum, but I think this is a valid point of view whether we choose to recognize it or not. However, certain types of awards will always have some value either based on their precious metal content or their reputation (Order of Lenin and KGB, respectively).
As for awards made in the SU for other countries, I can only say that from personal experience only, Mongolian awards will have value because of the quality involved. But remember, the Mongolians were more involved in the production of the awards than most and as soon as they had the facilities started to do the work themselves. As for other countries mentioned, I'm not interested in collecting anything from any region that is still openly hostile towards the rest of the world.
I also think that as more sellers from the former Eastern Bloc continue to get on ePay and sell off those items, the price will continue to drop - they picked the wrong time to suddenly start unloading the really good stuff onto the market when there isn't that much disposable income available.
All of this is my own opinion and is not based on much information other than my gut and what is popping into my head right now.
Phillip
As mentioned above, items without specific functions are not a good investment at any time, much less these days. Even if the world economy rebounded completely and overnight, people are going to be wary of "frivolous" spending for many years to come.
The supply and demand aspect (as time goes by, supply will dwindle) is valid, but there also has to be a corresponding rise in demand for prices to go up. Half of my college-level students think the Soviet Union was Russia and only Russia. The only examples of "communism" they know are China and after Palin's comment today - the new US (though to be fair she did say "socialism" and made a bad joke about Russia).
My point is, real historians - even amateur ones like me - are not a large group and as we get farther from the Cold War, it is less likely that droves of new people will suddenly discover Soviet history and want to know anything more than they got from their bad high school text books.
Sorry to sound so glum, but I think this is a valid point of view whether we choose to recognize it or not. However, certain types of awards will always have some value either based on their precious metal content or their reputation (Order of Lenin and KGB, respectively).
As for awards made in the SU for other countries, I can only say that from personal experience only, Mongolian awards will have value because of the quality involved. But remember, the Mongolians were more involved in the production of the awards than most and as soon as they had the facilities started to do the work themselves. As for other countries mentioned, I'm not interested in collecting anything from any region that is still openly hostile towards the rest of the world.
I also think that as more sellers from the former Eastern Bloc continue to get on ePay and sell off those items, the price will continue to drop - they picked the wrong time to suddenly start unloading the really good stuff onto the market when there isn't that much disposable income available.
All of this is my own opinion and is not based on much information other than my gut and what is popping into my head right now.
Phillip
Phillip
