Soviet "The Red Auction" new details

[Elmar Lang]

Hello,

following to the interesting discussion started in this room about San Giorgio's "Red Auction" (thread "eyes candy") of Nov. 22nd, I would like to inform that tomorrow afternoon (Italy time) we'll put the reverse pictures of many USSR pieces on our web-catalogue (the one possible to see clicking "VIEW LOTS AND MAKE YOUR BIDS" and... excuse me if it is n't the most correct English...), in order to give more details.

I hope this would help a little more. In any case I'm at the disposal of collectors to give any detail.

Best wishes,

Enzo Calabresi

(Orders & Decorations Dept.)

[Ed_Haynes]

Results are up and an AMAZING number of lots went unsold.

[Aurelius]

Perhaps justice, hoarding investment vermin may finally be on the road to getting their medicine. I hope that all GPW heroes got together in a cosmic way and caused this. Perhaps the awards will go to those who would give them a good home and research them. These are HISTORY..........................not cattle or gold. These were won by those who had more guts than all of us combined-we should do them respect!!!

[Ed_Haynes]

I am not quite sure what your point is here. That, somehow, we show respect the recipients by NOT selling and buying their awards? Seems a strange postition to me.

[Aurelius]

Buying and selling amongst those who appreciate the efforts of those who earned the awards is one thing. Vermin which hoard to make a quick buck, with no regard or care for the heroes, is another-a DISGRACE to those who earned the awards.

Gee Ed, for an academic, you are kinda slow. :speechless:

Edited November 23, 2008 by Aurelius

[Christian Zulus]

Results are up and an AMAZING number of lots went unsold.

Dear Ed,

that's true in a certain sense, but the sought after items and groups went away at very, very high prices. The overall result of Enzo's auction might have been well above the estimates in terms of cash.

I guess, that two reasons might have caused the rather large number of unsold items:

- maybe too high reserve prices

- a number of Russian collectors didn't take part at the auction.

It seems, that the economic crisis (still ?) doesn't affect the prices for top items or groups at all - the Russian collectors still have enough cash & interest to buy the gems of Soviet history.

Some prices (incl. buyer's fee and in USD at the current exchange rate):

- Glory full cavalier set (unresearched): USD 40.000,-

- RBL screwback Type 2 / Version 3: almost USD 9.000,-

- RB #2: USD 4.600,- and USD 3.350,-

- Kutuzov 2cl: USD 27.300,- and USD 18.300,-

Besides the heroic & historic value, Soviet awards seem to be an better "investment", than anything else .

Best regards

Christian

[Aurelius]

It is very, very funny that a number of you think that rich Russian collectors are everywhere. In fact, they will be phoning you all soon to buy your collections. However, prior to doing so, why are Igor's shelves not empty? Certainly, instead of buying a Bic Mac meal that day, they could easily purchase a 28K USD cavalier group. Whoops, forgive me, they are focussing on your collections to buy.

The greed in this hobby will see it's demise soon enough. Thereafter, it will once again be affordable to those who TRULY respect the fighting men and women who earned these. The people who earned these awards lived through absolute hell. For some of you, your lack of regard pertaining to their achievements is outright sickening. You WILL NEVER possess a minute fraction of their integrity or courage-merely to continue to be carpet baggers or vultures at the scene of a gopher kill.

To reiterate, for Ed and others, there ARE sellers out there who feel this way and conduct themselves accordingly with the respect.

Shame, shame to you vultures out there.

[Wild Card]

Gentlemen,

I would like to pass on some thoughts which I have been formulating for some time which fall in line with some comments in this thread.

Aurelius - I think that most, if not all, members of this forum agree with the spirit of your comments. Our presence and participation here reflects our sincere interest in and appreciation of these awards. However, I see the childishly paranoid position of the Russian authorities who block access to pertinent records to be as much of a hindrance to our goals as the evil hoarders. I won?t go into this stupid ?what?s in Russia, stays in Russia? policy, other than to repeat how counterproductive it is in raising the understanding and appreciation of the Soviet people in the eyes of the world; which you would think would be a goal. Go figure.

Ed Haynes - Amazing is the right word; so amazing that I am not completely sure as to what to make of it. As you know from my previous posts, I was expecting a softening of the market; but this exceeded my expectations. At the same time, of my six bids, three were not even close and the other three came in second best.

Finally, I have two related points. I think that we have come to a point where are wrongly using a ?broad brush?. Let me explain. There is no doubt that the ?oligarchs? have driven this market beyond reason and that (hopefully) we are beginning (optimistically) to see a decline in their influence. Although I find it difficult to believe that a handful of billionaires have driven Stalingrad medals from $20 to $100 in ten years. In this regard, I just want to say that while it is convenient, it is no longer accurate to blame every sale of $25,000 or more on an oligarch.

My second point is with regard to the term ?Russian collectors?, which is often used to mean ?oligarchs?. We have seen a recent influx of new Russian collectors, several of whom are members of this forum. Several of whom have also presented interesting material and added valuable information.

Just some thoughts Gentlemen. I am curious as to what the results of this auction tell you.

Regards,

Wild Card

[seb16trs]

Dear Ed,

that's true in a certain sense, but the sought after items and groups went away at very, very high prices. The overall result of Enzo's auction might have been well above the estimates in terms of cash.

I guess, that two reasons might have caused the rather large number of unsold items:

Christian

gentlemen, have you considered the possibilty of too many fakes?

some experts and trade mens considered this as a fact...

[Ed_Haynes]

gentlemen, have you considered the possibilty of too many fakes?

some experts and trade mens considered this as a fact...

An interesting assertion. What evidence do you have? Or is this just the sort of thing that "some experts and trade mens" (???) say?

[seb16trs]

An interesting assertion. What evidence do you have? Or is this just the sort of thing that "some experts and trade mens" (???) say?

50/50 Ed, to be honest. One of my source is globaly wrong (he isnt known); another one is very well known and expressed a precise opinion about "crabs"...

[seb16trs]

50/50 Ed, to be honest. One of my source is globaly wrong (he isnt known); another one is very well known and expressed a precise opinion about "crabs"...

I saw too a curious Red Banner screwback 2nd attribution, the KGB general uniform+visor cap, some admiral of the soviet union visor caps... There were gems, there were few crap, there were outpriced items (a romanian infantry officer cap presented as a securitate general visor) :banger:

Edited November 30, 2008 by seb16trs

[Bob]

Buying and selling amongst those who appreciate the efforts of those who earned the awards is one thing. Vermin which hoard to make a quick buck, with no regard or care for the heroes, is another-a DISGRACE to those who earned the awards.

Sounds like you despise the same people who you probably do business with to acquire your awards. There's a word for that... :rolleyes: