Bob

Indeed. Virtually nothing left on eBay and am also experiencing trouble getting items which I acquired via eBay several weeks ago from the typical sellers (not getting invoice, no mail contact despite repeated reminders, items not being delivered). World has certainly changed the from 6-9 months ago.

Nice these mixed ribbon bars - especially the Mongolian ones at bottom of course:)

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8495 Useful link - Ed, please post pics of the cased award mentioned in that thread

come on, UK hasn't been a superpower for 100 years or more - at a certain point you've gotta start living within your means

Praise to the person who triggered / is hosting this forum! Much progress the past 6 months!

Just in, already shown in this thread but still, nice to see a 2nd class pinback and 3rd class screwback next to each other:)

Supply is a bit strange... a tremendous flow of great new items on Alexei's site (especially a "diarrhea" ORCB's!) and at reasonable prices... but for me to simply find a bronze grade Udarnik has proven close to impossible sofar. Either we are all kidding ourselves when we are kicking ourselves that we didn't buy item such and such because supply will continue, or this flux of items will end in the near future and it will then become virtually impossible, at reasonable prices, to fill the "gaps". It's a bit like the boardgame risk... everybody's scrambling for their part of the pie:) Note... if you are looking for some rare pieces, I can point you to a good direction (e.g. first type Polar Star for sale... at a hefty price tag though). Us Dutchies need to help each other out:)

Let me help: I have a type 1.1 with serial number 393 - getting VERY close now:)

Jan - isn't it about time you post a nice overview pic of your ENTIRE Mongolian collection (awards, docs, etc.)? Between you, FJCP and myself we probably cover about 99% of the Mongolian awards in the hands of "lowland countries" nationals

And the wallpaper (?) in the background is nice as well

labour hero nr 44 for sale on collectrussia either i got a very good deal on my 2 or prices are rising on these...

Perhaps slightly out of place here... but still... have seen several rare awards from Manchukuo at auctions recently and I've been flabbergasted by their beauty. Old items... but with designs that appear almost like modern art (with the corresponding price tag!). Anybody know a good online reference site?

Will see if I can post some more scans on specific interesting awards in those respective threads over the weekend.

and very low numbers... for the numbers fetisjists among us

Numbered I hope

Not a high quality scan but trust me, this one is completely silver colored and - despite scan perhaps giving wrong impression due to light effect - it is not just a faded bronze / gold colored one - 2 classes (or more) after all?!!??!

First class - intricate ribbon

Order - first class Nice small ribbon suspension

Here a comparison of a first type with a second class second type.

http://www.pksh.org The Albanian communist party

Received a silver colored one in the mail - will post scan over the weekend. I think there really might be 2 classes (or even a 3rd?) to this order.

Anybody notice the posting on eBay with different booklet? My guess is that we have the small black booklets for early awardings and then larger paper (1959 onwards as per my recently acquired books) for once it became an offical medal?

Again, I think it has to do with finite demand. There are perhaps (ignore the specific number of course) 100 people in the world interested in purchasing such a type 1 herder badge... and generally these people are interested in buying 1 and not a second one (rather spend the cash on an item not yet in the collection) regardless of how much further the price comes down. If there are then 150 of these badges offered... then probably after the 99th person has bought one, the prices will plummet. This is what I believe has happened. E.g. on ebay, items which would trigger bidding wars in the past are now getting no bids - people HAVE what they want. For the ultra rare items it is different... more of a sellers market. I'm sure it would make no difference whether a seller would ask 10K or 12K for a hero gold star... if there's a buyer, he'll buy it anyway simply because such an opportunity only comes by once every couple of years. I see it myself as well... the "basic" stuff I have, just looking for filling the difficult spots in my collection (Hero Gold Star, bronze Udarnik, etc.).

Just to get it in this thread