Order of the Red Banner Prices

[burgerhaus]

Just for kicks I checked out Atlantic Crossroad's site today after a couple of years of doing no business with him. In May of 02 I purchased a Order of the Red Banner for $45 among other items. I see now the price for the same series award is $95!!! What is going on and is it time to sell???

[HuliganRS]

Large dealers tend to price items above street price. The going rate for a Red Banner on eBay is between $55 and & $80. Lower serial numbers tend to go around $65 and up. Although there are exceptions and a common 200,000+ order will bring in $80...

I was told by a decent source that the prices in Russia for a Red Banner are now at $60.

There are collectors like myself that collect orders by variation and certain serial number ranges will bring more... For example; I'm willing to pay a significant premium for pieces in these S/N ranges: 80,000 - 84,000 and 191,000 -193,000 (missing MM)

Rusty.

[Rick Research]

I've been back "in" imperial German buying mode more the last couple of years, so I get sticker shock sometimes too.

But what I have seen in the last three years is my "local" show sources, emigré dealers now have ZERO fresh "stuff." Oh sure, cheap amber jewelry, commercial "Dynamo" team jerseys, nesting dolls... but they can't get decent militaria OUT any more. And what IS showing up is crap like FAKE Veterans Commissariat file photographs, once so plentiful I had to sift through brown grocery bags full of them.

I don't know if the "demand" has gone up, but what I see locally is the supply has dried up dramatically.

What is still out there tends to be "old" stock, things like the beautiful (but I think overpriced) Mongolian Orders that dealers have had already for years and have never sold.

I haven't found a decent old uniform or cap "live" at a show in four years. Maybe it's different in other areas, but I can't have "fished out" the entire supply up here all by myself!

[Bill D.]

I have ben hearing similar statements repeated for more than a year now, with Soviet dealers telling me that new material is simply not coming out of Russia, insofar as medals and decorations are concerned. I have also been told several times, from several sources, that dealers here in the States have been sending medals and orders back to Russia, where they are commanding higher prices. One preety well established emigre dealer told me that he and others have basically been buying from each other to re-sell, where medals and groups were concerned.

[HuliganRS]

Bill,

You partially heard a true story. Some items are commanding a better premium in Moscow and Kiev than here. This is only true for $400+ items and rarer stuff. Common stuff still sells better in US. Red Banners, Red Banners of Labor, Order Badges of Honor, Orders of Glory, Orders of Labor Glory, Orders of Red Star and most medals sell for higher prices in U.S. Items like Order of Red Star Mondvor and earlier, Red Banner military and civilian screwbacks and all major orders like Suvorov, Kutuzov, Khmelnitsky, Nevsky, Nakhimov and Ushakov command a premium there.

A recent conversation with two dealers from the Empire state claimed that they sold their big ticket items back to FSU (Former Soviet Union).


Rusty.

[New World]

Gentlemen,


You all are correct in saying that there's shortage of Russian awards outside of Russia.

Flow of awards out of former SU reversed about 1-2 years ago and virtually nothing is coming to the US/West anymore.

What you see for sale is either dealer stock or items out of collections.

Law of limited supply and ever growing circle of collectors create shortage and push the prices up.

William