Hi Everyone!

[CtahhR]

Everything in York has now closed, with the exception of the "seasonal" shop on the Shambles which isn't cheap nor have anything Soviet. The only time I have ever seen a Communist Bulgarian item for sale at a physical location in England was in York. They had an Order "Kiril And Methodij" 3rd Class for £75 (Then $150). Not cheap at 5% of the price.

Unfortunately with the "economy" being as it is specialised and luxury things get taken out first.

I came to Lancaster (yes wrong side I know) two weekends ago to see what Soviet etc. items I could buy up. My contact on the ground informed everyone with a month's notice to bring out all their Soviet items to sell for me then. When I arrived there was only 1 vendor who offered me some "Soviet Badges". They were in fact DDR and not only that but about 3000% a reasonable price.

Collecting is almost impossible without the online sources.

[Tommy]

Thanks for the PM Eric

I think i may post in the "wanted" thread when i get back from work, if i don't drown in the rain first

York has completely gone to pot in the last couple of years and everything has always been stupidly overpriced in that city!

I have a couple of pieces i'm wondering about too, so i will post some pics for your opinions when i get home!

Thanks again guys,

Tommy

[EricFG]

Welcome, Tom. It's good to see some new blood here.

I'll PM you two dealers; one good and one not so good. Both are useful for getting an idea of pricing.

As for aquiring new items why not place an advert in the 'Wanted' section of our marketplace? I have quite a few duplicates lying around that I haven't bothered to list (including two RBLs) and I suspect there may be a few others like me.

Also, the marketplace is a great place to buy. While it doesn't have the wide selection that ebay does it does not have any fakes.

[Tommy]

Cheers Pacha! Keepin' it Northern!

Wow Eric! Are they yours?! They're awesome!

Maybe i really should think about a specific are more...

So many choices though :-)

Better than too few though i suppose!

Tommy

[travel-north]

Eric, nice sets! But I wouldn't consider Partisan medal a campaign medal

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Hello everybody,

I just registered for this forum, and wanted so say "hello" to everybody

First to say, I am not a collector. My grandmother passed away at the end of 2013 and followed my grandfather, who died 4 years ago. Now I have to dissolve their whole house and all thinks they ever owned...

My grandfather collected orders and metals, most of his collection (I estimate about...500 pieces) is soviet.

It would be a great help for me if you guys could help to identify and separare chinese copy fakes from real, genuine medals.

If I will post something you find interesting - contact me. I will give away everything as I don't want to throw it away...collecting orders was grandpas greatest hobby


a big "thank you" to all of you guys,
with regards from germany,
Andy

ps: please excuse my rusted school english

[Greg Collins]

Welcome to the forum! Always good to see a new member. It appears you want to establish the validity of your grandfather's collection- hopefully there aren't any fakes. This is the place to do that, and have some fun in the process. Enjoy!

[Henry Sakaida]

Welcome! Go to the fake alert section and start reading! There are too many high end fakes out there. I stopped collecting because of it. Collecting becomes exciting when you can attach a name to the medal you have and learn how it was warned by the award recipient.

[Bulmer]

Hi everyone!
I am a long time fan of the site. I found it after thinking about all the medals that were awarded on computer games. I play a lot of computer games. Not all soviet war games. but it is interesting to find out what i'm looking at. Red Orchestra 1 and 2 give a really good fell of how intimidating it would have been to fight in the war. Close combat has strange medals.
does anyone else here combine their hobby with gaming? BLITZKRIEG!

[deValcourt]

Not to dismiss the comments about educating yourself, because that is incredibly important - even when some of the best books are a bit pricey because they had limited runs and are not always easily available, but I cannot stress enough the importance of finding trustworthy sellers - even for less expensive items.

When I started buying items after I was back in the US, I only knew about ePay and thankfully only bought stuff under $20-30. I got ripped off a few times, as might well be expected and didn't even know it until I found this forum. I was lucky in the sense that my main focus was on security service items and even in Russia they were not cheap so I didn't get stabbed in the back very often in that area.

Read all you can, study it well, listen to the folks who know and have been doing this for long enough to be knowledgeable and burned (I never really trust anyone who never admits to having made mistakes), but don't think they walk on water because they have more experience than you. This comes back to my original point - find and only do business with people you can trust and who won't charge you outrageous prices.

Just by looking at the "marketplace" on the forum, you should be able to get a good idea of who is selling at reasonable prices.

Oh, and one last thing: don't be in a rush to get everything you want right away. It took me years of waiting for both the right items and the right people that I could trust to land most of the greatest (to my mind) pieces in my collection.

Originally Posted by Tommy

... it's knowing who you can trust!

Tommy

That's a pretty short list I'm afraid, but you can find most of the people I would put on that list right here. Read the feedback before you buy (here and everywhere else you are looking because, amazing as it may seem, not everything on the e-auction is a fake, but you have to dig deeply to find the good stuff).

Phillip