Falling Prices

I thought I’d noticed a few months ago that prices of Soviet medals were falling. Not on dealer sites, but on eBay and in private, blog based, sales. That thought has turned to certainty.

It turned when I noticed that an award, an OPW II, on Collect Russia had been marked down from more than $1,200.00 to $850.00. I noticed because I own a similar OPW and was amazed to see a price well over a thousand dollars. You’ll understand my pleasure – having bought mine back around the turn of the century for under $100.00.

Not that I’m selling; the OPW II is part of a researched group to a Commisar. An ex-Red Cavalry man who became a political soldier, fought through the entire war and survived two wounds to return to his family, only to be expelled from the party in the 1950s. And the first group I ever had researched. No, I’m not in the selling mood. If I had been I’d certainly be disappointed at a 30% or so drop in price. Though that’s not bad, overall, considering the market’s fall of 50%, it’s still a lot of money to be wiped away with the update of a web page.

I wonder how many out there are disappointed? Those who bought even three years ago shouldn’t be – they’ve most probably yet to actually lose any money. Anyone who speculated in 2007, however, could easily be sucking wind right about now.

Personally I’m less chuffed about the drop in prices than I should be, being a historically oriented collector. Reason being I’ve got enough medals. I’m simply not driven to buy any more right now. I look for certain serial number ranges that are likely to have been awarded for certain battles, but that’s a recipe for buying about a medal a decade. The drop in prices of high end awards may motivate me to buy, but probably  not. I’ve never spent more than $1,400.00 on a single award, and that won’t get squat when it comes to high end WWII awards. I’ve got a Lenin (a WWII era Lenin at that), and the next possibility is a Nevsky or OG II. The Nevsky would have to drop a lot more than 30% from their three to four thousand dollar price last year. An OG II is tempting, but I’m put off by how easy they are to forge and how many really good frauds are out there. The medium range medals that I can afford – Partisan, Belgrade, Odessa, Sevastapol – are also so often forged, and unresearchable to boot, that I’m just not tempted to drop $500.00 on any of them.

As for variations… meh. In and of themselves they don’t interest me. I was surprised as hell to discover a couple of my awards (including the OPW II mentioned above), are “rare variations,” and pleased of course that they’re worth more than a not-so-rare variation. But I’m not compelled to hunt them.

So, I may be done collecting. It’s odd to write that, because I’ve not really thought about it. Figuring out what to “do” with the medals I have drove me to create this blog. I’ve still got research requests out there. Does waiting patiently count as “doing collecting?”