Soviet NOTA BENE closed!

[Gerd Becker]

Darrel, he wrote me, that he just wanted to try something else and the authentification service was an idea, which he had for a while. The rest you know already...

It has good and bad sides. The bad side is of course, that we can?t buy militaria from him anymore, but the good sides are his new business, which will be very useful for many of us, especially with the price-range, he mentioned to me (please ask Alexei himself, as i don?t know, if he wants it to be public yet) and the other good side is, that he promised to stay with us and will also frequent the forums a little more, also this one. I guess, when the dust has settled a bit, he will comment himself at this place and tell us the reasons and the terms for his new business.

However, i agree of course with the sentiments above. He was the best most trustworthy dealer out there and i will miss his offers too. But fortunately the friendly and knowledgable person stays with us and i look forward to his participation here on the forum.

[Christian Zulus]

... I look forward to his participation here on the forum.

Dear Gerd,

well, I hope so .

But some weeks ago Alexei mailed to me, that he is too much engaged at the "other" Soviet forum, so he can not participate in an active way here at GMIC .

Best regards

Christian

[NavyFCO]

Gentlemen, we have to accept, that the Soviet Awards are THEIR national heritage and the upper middle-class in Russia has now the money (and the specific interst) to buy them. RF isn't anymore "Ghana + intercontinental nuclear rockets" .

Very well said!

I think the "end of the road" has come for some of us older collectors, such as myself in the very near future. I still enjoy Soviet awards, but I find that I cannot afford many of them anymore. I can now only buy the items that I once turned up my nose at 10 years ago as "the little stuff". Unfortunately for me, I didn't have much interest in lower items then (or bought so many that I eventually lost interest in them!) nor do I have interest in the items that I can afford anymore. I have moved into collecting WW1 US Army uniforms (my old love) and have established a very large quality collection (30+ uniforms, all documented) for less money than a single HSU group would cost!!!

At the same time, very little new stock has come out of the FSU. I used to get two to four groups PER MONTH from Russia/Ukraine/etc. and many of these groups were direct from veteran's families. Those groups started trickling off in mid-2004, and as of about 2005, I haven't bought a single group directly from the FSU.

I still love the research aspect of Soviet awards, but even at that, I am getting tired. I have seen too many "killed up to a squad of Hitlerite soldiers with his gun" citations!

I plan to still maintain my "nitche" collections - posthumous Soviet awards and Soviet awards to foreigners because there is still the excitement of finding that rare award, and I have yet to encounter much competition (especially with what I am willing to pay) from collectors in the FSU.

Shortly, I will be parting with my last groups, and will put my two last groups (very well documented straight-from-the-veteran heroism groups) in storage. I have contemplated selling my Soviet reference collection, but have been too tapped at work to spend the time coming up with a list of the 200+ books in it! Maybe one of these days.

Although it's the end of the road (for the most part) in Soviet collecting for me, I am glad to see that there are still many new collectors out there who have the excitement that I once did. I think that's awesome. I hope that other collectors will be able to experience the fun I have had with Soviet award collecting over the past 15 years - it's been a great ride!

Dave

[Christian Zulus]

Very well said!

I still love the research aspect of Soviet awards, but even at that, I am getting tired. I have seen too many "killed up to a squad of Hitlerite soldiers with his gun" citations!

Dave

Dear Dave,

many thanks for your commentary .

Well, infantry had been the main force in WW II and also the backbone of the Red Army. So killing Hitlerites with the gun happened rather often .

My "Glory-Trio" to Serg. Gnitienko http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5536 has also these rather "typical" citations:

Glory 3 cl:

For rescuing 4 (four) severly wounded comrades from the battle field under risking his own life (Crimea, april 1944).

Glory 2 cl:

For killing several Nazi-soldiers (Crimea, april 1944).

Glory 1 cl:

For killing 20 (twenty) Nazi-soldiers ("Operatian Bagration", Latvia, Jeglava, august 1944).

O.K., the citation for the 3cl might be something special .

Coming back to the present market situation of Soviet awards & groups: If you look around at the big dealers websites, you still find a handful of highly interesting groups - some of them already completly researched! - with price tags of under USD 1.000,-. Also Helsinki auction showed rather moderate results in the field of awards to partisans, NCOs and privates.

So I think, that collecting interesting awards from the Soviet Union is still possible for smaller budgets, if you don't focus at the high-end orders or full Glory-sets & HSU-sets.

Best regards

Christian

BTW: Many thanks again for publishing your outstanding reference-book about the citations . That has been an outstanding phaleristic & historic work .

Edited June 2, 2007 by Christian Zulus

[ALEX.S]

hi dave

let me know then you ready to sell some of your groups i will be interested

thank you

alex

Very well said!

I think the "end of the road" has come for some of us older collectors, such as myself in the very near future. I still enjoy Soviet awards, but I find that I cannot afford many of them anymore. I can now only buy the items that I once turned up my nose at 10 years ago as "the little stuff". Unfortunately for me, I didn't have much interest in lower items then (or bought so many that I eventually lost interest in them!) nor do I have interest in the items that I can afford anymore. I have moved into collecting WW1 US Army uniforms (my old love) and have established a very large quality collection (30+ uniforms, all documented) for less money than a single HSU group would cost!!!

At the same time, very little new stock has come out of the FSU. I used to get two to four groups PER MONTH from Russia/Ukraine/etc. and many of these groups were direct from veteran's families. Those groups started trickling off in mid-2004, and as of about 2005, I haven't bought a single group directly from the FSU.

I still love the research aspect of Soviet awards, but even at that, I am getting tired. I have seen too many "killed up to a squad of Hitlerite soldiers with his gun" citations!

I plan to still maintain my "nitche" collections - posthumous Soviet awards and Soviet awards to foreigners because there is still the excitement of finding that rare award, and I have yet to encounter much competition (especially with what I am willing to pay) from collectors in the FSU.

Shortly, I will be parting with my last groups, and will put my two last groups (very well documented straight-from-the-veteran heroism groups) in storage. I have contemplated selling my Soviet reference collection, but have been too tapped at work to spend the time coming up with a list of the 200+ books in it! Maybe one of these days.

Although it's the end of the road (for the most part) in Soviet collecting for me, I am glad to see that there are still many new collectors out there who have the excitement that I once did. I think that's awesome. I hope that other collectors will be able to experience the fun I have had with Soviet award collecting over the past 15 years - it's been a great ride!

Dave

[deptfordboy]

Hi All,

I have been distracted from the hobby a little while, but was genuinely shocked when I logged onto Alex's site and found he had shut up shop. I had a few dealings with him and found he was genuine, honest, reasonable and not suffering from the rampaging ego which leads you to tread on eggshells with certain other dealers. However, life goes on and he no doubt has sound reasons for moving on.

Cheers

Gilbert

[Guest andrew67]

Like everyone else , I was shocked to see Alexei closing shop. It will be the end of me collecting Soviet Awards and Medals in general , though I have decided to keep collecting Order of Glory 3's which are still affordable. With all due respect to other dealers , Alexei's prices were always very fair and his advice and service second to none.

Its unfortunate that you now have to be fairly wealthy to be a collector , but thats life. I will still have an interest in Glory 3's and will buy a few more , but intend to start collecting Australian WW2 groups as well. And maybe the odd WW1 Australian medal.

Thanks for the sales Alexei and best wishes with the authentication service.

[Nota_Bene]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your kind words! I hereby confirm that my selling business is finally closed and I am not accepting any more requests. This business of mine was becoming a monster, too big for one person to handle and customer service was suffering. I could not have that. Besides I have always been more interested in the research, and with PMD closing his website, this seemed like a good time to switch. I now provide authentication services for Soviet awards, and you can find all the details on my website (still at my old URL for now).

Alexei

[Christian Zulus]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for your kind words! I hereby confirm that my selling business is finally closed and I am not accepting any more requests. This business of mine was becoming a monster, too big for one person to handle and customer service was suffering. I could not have that. Besides I have always been more interested in the research, and with PMD closing his website, this seemed like a good time to switch. I now provide authentication services for Soviet awards, and you can find all the details on my website (still at my old URL for now).

Alexei

Dear Alexei,

these are great prospects and a big help for the collectors community - many thanks .

Hope to see you (& your expertise) more often at GMIC .

Best regards from Munich

Christian

[Nota_Bene]

Thank you very much! My new URL is sovietauthentications.com There are still a few bugs, that need to be taken care of, but basically I am in business.

Alexei

P.S. Please give my regards to Munich, love that city!

A.

[ilja559]

Im not the dealer, but can help with purchase of the Soviet awards.At least I shall try to help.

ilja559@yahoo.com

Ilja

[Bob]

This thread popped out when I was doing a search. Boy, I sure do miss sitting in the office and visiting NB's site at least once a day to try to catch one of his super offers.