RedMaestro

Miguel, I was looking on ebay and I happened to find the page for the auction of this group. The seller only sells fakes. He has been putting together groups of rare, low numbered medals for quite a while now. He has been banned from ebay a number of times because of complaints about his items, but every time he just makes a new account and continues selling. No matter what his account name is though, he is still very easy to recognize. All of his auctions have the same style of photographs, text formatting, and item descriptions, and he is based out of Australia. Look out for this guy in the future, and stay away! -Alex

Ah, the pictures were better than I expected! Now for the document:

ORBL #599,170 to Boris Pavlovich Lyhodid. I'll warn you before hand that like the other one I posted, this piece has no research (). The serial number of these orders seems to have nothing to do with the award date. I just saw one with a number around 7xx,xxx awarded in 1966. How did that happen? The color may seem a bit off in the photo. I couldn't get great lighting and because of that, the background came out strangely. I just photoshopped it out and left it white. -Alex

I thought this might be the case. I feel like I have seen this group somewhere, though I don't remember where. I didn't take a close look at it then, but I noticed two things. I remember the out-of-order medals and the weird stains by the staples. Why is there discoloration there? -Alex

I agree that it is indeed a 3rd class. Shouldn't the bravery medal be mounted before the combat merit medal? Also, I can't read the booklet well from the picture, but it looks like the date is 1955! Can you please post better scans? Thanks! -Alex

Several hours later...nothing... One of these day...maybe

I've been promised some will come today. Any minute now... -Alex

Yeah, it cost me about the same too. Hopefully it will at least make interesting reading, and if I'm lucky there's a 1 in 600,000 chance that I can find the medal. I better start searching! I have been guaranteed that all of my research requests will arrive on Tuesday. I can't wait! -Alex

I have just received an extremely disappointing response to my email. "hi alex sorry but i won't be able to exchage this medal for you. this group was for consigment sale and what is why i want to give you full refund thank you" This is ridiculous. I don't want a full refund. My problem isn't with the group. In fact, if I had known about the faked entries, I probably would have bought it anyway. I have three problems with this whole thing: 1. That I was sold a partially faked item without being informed I know dealers are dishonest often enough. However, from Russian Awards, which has a fairly good reputation as far as I know, I was surprised. 2. That I received the wrong campaign medal (points 1 and 2 should have been obvious to the dealer because of the research, and 2 should be easy to resolve) 3. These issues aren't being fixed What I want is an apology (believe it or not, I still havent got an "I'm sorry"), and the correct campaign medal. Neither should be too hard. The failure to do either is what surprises me most. Well, I won't waste my time ranting too much longer. Incidents like this are all common to many of you, I am sure. Anyway, if anyone would like to trade a Stalingrad medal for this Leningrad one, let me know. I can throw in a coulple of bucks too. -Alex

This medal was actually acquired by a relative of mine, an antiques dealer, well over 30 years ago. Were fakes common that long ago? -Alex

Hi Dave! Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it! -Alex

Hold on, what was I saying? Yes, I should complain, between the added entries and the wrong campaign medal. Hopefully I will be able to swap the Leningrad for Stalingrad without a problem. I'll send an email a see if this can be resolved. -Alex

Thanks so much Rick! That is really quite interesting! He did deserve that red star. So now I just need research for the numbered Combat Merit Medal. One question though, if the research does indeed show that he was awarded a medal for Stalingrad, why is the included medal for Leningrad? How did that happen? I'll have to work on correcting that. Thanks again! -Alex

So now, with my extremely limited Russian, I conclude that the OGPW II and OG III were added entries. Problem solved. No complaints about the dealer, though he really should have mentioned the tampered-with booklet. Any help with the documents is appreciated. If anything is too small or hard to read, let me know and I will repost. Thanks! -Alex

Here it is

Indeed! This is the earliest documented award in my collection and the first time I will ever have research () so I am quite excited! I'll post the research when it comes later today. No translation is included, so I would appreciate it if anyone here could help with that (thanks in advance ). -Alex

Thanks for your input! The added entries are disappointing. The worst part about it though is that the dealer, Russian Awards, didn't mention this on his website. His only comment about the group was "All items in good condition." Considering his fairly good reputation, I am surprised he did not mention this problem, especially since he should have known whether they were false or not based on the research. I hope this failure to note the entries was an honest mistake (as has happened before) or a case of forgetfulness and not intentional. I will send him an email to inform him of this problem. I will probably keep the group anyway, since I think the value of what is included is greater than the price I paid for it. And thanks Christophe for pointing out my mistake with the medal! I edited my first post and changed that. -Alex

Sorry that the bottom part of the previous image is cut off. That portion didn't come out well in the scan from the seller, so I just deleted it.

This is the newest group in my collection, a small and somewhat incomplete set awarded to Grigory Zakharovich Sharapov (please correct me if this is wrong. I am no good with Russian handwriting). Order of the Red Star (#388,189) Two Combat Merit Medals (630,829 and unnumbered) Undocumented Victory over Germany Undocumented Leningrad medal His Order of Glory 3rd Class (#399,974) and Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class (#839,427) are missing, unfortunately, along with the documents for two of his medals. I don't actually have the medals in my hands yet, nor will I see them until the beginning of June (complicated diplomacy around here). However, some research was included, and I will have it tomorrow to post. Thanks! -Alex

Nota Bene informed me that this award too is unresearchable And that's even more disappointing because this one promised to be interesting. Is there any possibility of another researcher being able to find something? -Alex

I just got an email from Nota Bene informing me this one is unresearchable Oh well -Alex

I have just got another email saying that research for my Order of the Red Banner has come in. Except that it isn't actually for the one I have. I accidentally gave the wrong number. My order is #109,558, not 109,668. I misread the number from the picture I had (since I didn't have the real thing with me when I sent the request) and only realized my mistake now. I simply cannot put into words how frustrated and embarrassed I am Hopefully something can be done about this mistake. Besides that, the researcher has informed me that he is still sorting through the research and will let me know about results as soon as he finds them. -Alex