BW Medal Bar Prices

[PaulR]

Hello,

I made an observation over the past couple of weeks on Ebay.de. It seems that current BW medal bars are very expensive. Of course, legitimate mixed 1957 ww2 and BW medal bars are even worse.

I saw a four place BW bar priced at over 100 dollars on ebay.de yesterday. Are these true values on even current issue german medal bars these days? They seem to be coming close to WW2 medal bar prices.

What have you all seen?

Paul

[Gordon Craig]

Paul,

Yes they are getting more expensive. Don't know the reason. Perhaps supply and demand? I haven't bought any through ebay.de lately as I haven't seen any of interest. Perhaps the prices of BW items are catching up with NVA stuff.

Regards,

Gordon

[PaulR]

But the part the surprises me is that DDR bars are in many cases less expensive AND they are no longer being made. I really have not seen a boom in BW (esp current stuff) collecting either.

I still have all of my NVA stuff. I am glad that I kept it now. I was able to get some really cool stuff that we do not see anymore. For example, I've not seen Hafenpolizei nor Wasserwirkschaft uniforms lately.

[Collectinsteve]

The older pieces, original to the 1950s and early 1960s period, do tend to sell for quite a bit of money. $100 for 4 ribbons? That's not normal. Was there a Knight's Cross or something else exotic on it? In that case that punches the value up quite a bit.

I haven't bought any in a while as I don't have a spares as it is, but generally I saw non-exotic 4 and 5 ribbon bars going in the EUR 25-40 range. If there was something like a German Cross or airborne ribbon, then it could go a lot higher.

What I would love to get is a BGS ribbon bar. I just don't see them

Steve

[Gordon Craig]

Paul,

I think that the reason DDR bars are less expensive than BRD bars is that there are lots of components still available and you can make up any bar that you want. There are also many "put-together" DDR bars being made now and sold on ebay.de and through dealers in Germany.
BRD bars were never plentiful and less so now. The growing community of 57er collectors of medals and bars is driving these prices very high.

Regards,

Gordon