Glory.

[medalklector]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Feel a little.....annoyed, but I suppose you learn something from these events. The dealer in question is currently on holiday so I will talk to him about it when he returns.

Sigh.....

[Lauri]

Hi,

i was reading this older thread because... yesterday i accidentaly bought an order of glory 3 class from a flea market what measures 1mm at the star tip... thin thin piece- serial number is 660 005. I try to post some scans also later on.

regards,

Lauri

[slava1stclass]

To all:

It has finally happened. A well-known NYC-area dealer is currently offering a single Order of Glory 1st Class (without research but with a PMD COA) for the mind-numbing price of $5,600.00. When one recalls that just a few years back he was offering Full Cavalier sets for upwards of 4,000.00, one can only shake one's head in amazement.

Regards,

slava1stclass

[Tal Inbar]

Originally Posted by slava1stclass

To all:

When one recalls that just a few years back he was offering Full Cavalier sets for upwards of 4,000.00, one can only shake one's head in amazement.

amazement? WHY?

Why are you thinking the high prices of Soviet orders will skip this order?

T

[DutchBoy]

The way I see it, these extremely high prices are fine for dealers. They will still sell the item to someone eventually, and meanwhile they are creating a market for other Soviet bloc items and selling those as well at increasing prices. So I think dealers win both ways.

[Nota Bene]

DutchBoy,

I will have to disagree. The way I see it dealers are the first ones to loose - because of this crazy price hike I have lost a lot of valuable customers and collectors, interested in history and research, as oposed to investment potential. I would love to keep my prices down, but guess what I have to pay for those items.

Alexei

[Alex.S]

HI EVERYBODY

JUST WANT TO AGREE WITH ALEXI ON THIS ONE. THE MOMENT PRICES FOR 2ND CLASSES HIT $7500 I LOST ABOUT %50 OF POTENTIAL CLIENTES, NOT TO MENTION THAT I HAVE NOT HAD A CHANCE FOR PAST 6 MONTH TO ADD ANY NEW GROUPS OR SINGLE ORDER TO MY COLLECTION :mad:

ALEX

[new world]

I agree with Alex 100%.

Dealers are making less. The prices went up, but the sales volume dropped to almost non-existent. I doubt dealer spread increased that much to compensate for lower sales.

It's been a while for me too since I added anything Soviet to my collection. My last purchase was about 8 months ago from a collector; the one before that was over a year prior...

I am still building my collection, but in areas like Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania.

William

[redmedals]

Originally Posted by Nota Bene

DutchBoy,

I will have to disagree. The way I see it dealers are the first ones to loose - because of this crazy price hike I have lost a lot of valuable customers and collectors, interested in history and research, as oposed to investment potential. I would love to keep my prices down, but guess what I have to pay for those items.

Alexei

Well said Alexei. I totally agree with your statement. It is sad but true the collector interested in the history associated with these awards is having to compete with investors who have no interest in them beyond what they are worth in dollars. I find myself constantly "explaining" higher prices to people. The simple fact is the dealer has to pay more to get Soviet stuff and that means the price to the buyer has to go up whether we like it or not.
Ron

[DutchBoy]

I agree that to buy these items for investment purposes is the wrong way to go. I buy my items and I display them and look at them every day. I also show them off to my friends (who are nice enough to nod politely when I explain about different variations, etc ;) ).

What I meant to say is that the increasing prices in Soviet stuff is causing a shift towards other communist countries (well illustrated by the burgeoning Soviet Bloc section on this very forum). And this is a field where dealers can profit quite well (I'm not a dealer so this is just my opinion here). So they may sell fewer Soviet items at a high price, but sell more and more Yugoslavian, Mongolian, and Bulgarian stuff to replace that loss, diversifying to those countries.

I for one prefer dealers instead of eBay etc. because of the service and the consistent quality of the items, and the chance to learn about the history of these items and countries through exchanging emails and posts.

:thumbsup