Hauptmann

Well said! Sadly, I've seldom been able to be on for the last two years due to my work. How I miss you all and I especially miss my friends Mervyn and Rick. They were great libraries which have now burned down. Thankfully, they put so much of what they contained... their knowledge, wisdom and even a great deal of their personalities here on GMIC where it will, I hope, live on for many, many years to come. They are both irreplaceable. Rick always shared of his knowledge with me and all others freely and Mervyn kept up that tradition after Rick died. Things just won't be the same without them... but that's where we, including myself as much as I'm able, have to continue to carry on and keep their spirits alive.

I'm am honored to have counted them among my friends in this life. May they both RIP. I'm sure they're up there in the great beyond sharing stories and having a grand old time just waiting for the rest of us to show up down the road.

Dan

Welcome Tracy... glad to have you here with us!

No apologies necessary... we all had to start with little knowledge way back when... you'll learn alot as you go along.

You're very luck to have custody of such family treasures. As I think you're learning it's not so much the items but the stories and family history they represent. All too often folks come into possession of such things only to sell them off or toss them out. They don't realize what they have. It's sad. But I'm glad you care enough to find out more and cherish them for what they represent.

I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing and hearing more.

Many thanks for sharing all this with us... it is an honor. I hope we can help fill in some of the blanks and add to what you have.

Dan

Well... actually 7 as I PM'd him before the first reply.

Dan

Excellent question Frank. I too have heard alot of negatives and put downs on the things that came after the Soviet period and experienced the same general lack of interest.

I think one reason is that after folks put out a sizeable amount on Soviet ODM's plus alot of study to learn all their was in that area of collecting that when the new stuff started to come out they were a bit burned out from it all. Soviet went way up, fakes hit the market and so they gave it a break and went on to what seemed to be greener pastures.

Also, much of what initially came out were the so called Umalatova awards... mostly cheaper copies of Soviet awards. I for one grabbed what I could for cheap when I could including examples of the OGPW's they put out. Again made much cheaper than the Soviet types, even the 85's but I felt and still feel they needed to be represented in a collection that included the OGPW. I still don't know if they only put them out in one class as I've only seen the one type.. There are several of their awards that I would like and still have not been able to add to the collection but I've not seen much on offer for a long while.

Then there were (and still are) a literal ocean of "awards" that were (and are) put out for vets, etc. They can be had for fairly cheap in most cases although it seems they've gone up a bit in the last few years. They're unofficial and seems new ones are being put out on a continuous basis.

So by the time the Russian Federation started to put out official awards I think these others had put folks off. Plus, there seem to be many times the total amount of awards in the new system as there were in the Soviet system of ODM's. Way too many at todays prices and availability for most folks to put together a comprehensive collection... but only being able to obtain a few pieces they really like. I don't think there's an end in sight as seems they keep adding things as they go along. I think the Orders are pretty set but as far as medals I nearly expect a series for heroic milk men and another for heroic delivery drivers, etc., before it's all over and done with.

Also, it seemed whenever someone who had an interest in any of these would post them alot of negative comments would be made and I think that made alot of folks either give up or just keep their interest in all this to themselves.

Again just my opinion but it's definitely the feeling I've had for a long time.

As far as Imperial ODM's or militaria in general, it's always seemed to make that such things were WAY beyond the average collectors budget and it only seems to have gotten worse. I have one cap cockade and a few replica pieces and consider myself lucky to have that. I can't dream of owning any of the Orders not to mention most of the medals. Plus they have pretty much been faked to death too so unless one has alot of expertise in the area it can also be a minefield.

Anyhow, that's my twenty Rubles be it for better or worse. Hope it helps.

Dan