Albania prices i payed!

[bifter]

Hi!

I am wondering about the prices that i have been paying for my Albanian awards; Are these good or are they bad, or perhaps just average?

Skanderbeg 1st - ?75

Skanderbeg 2nd - ?70

Liberty 1st - ?35

Defence of the Homeland 1st, 2nd & 3rd - ?80

Flag Order - ? 70

Red Star 1st, 2nd, 3rd & medal - ?150

I hope that I have not been overcharged on any of these; on a few occasions, when I was a new collector of U.S.S.R. awards I was ripped off a couple of times by being overcharged on genuine awards & othr times by being sold good copies as origionals.

With Albanian awards, all have been genuine & most have been in good condition. The Red Star 1st class arrived with a couple of peices of enamel missing from the 2 lower arms, but nothing too bad; also it was seemingly 'double struck'. It appeared to have a slight 'ghost' or 'shadow'!!! This is the only time any of them had any major faults.

[Bob]

Hi there bifter,

The difficulty with Albanian awards is that it's not (yet) a very transparent liquid market. It's still unclear what the volume o each award (type) is, there's not that many collectors, material (coming out of Albania) is haphazard... if you look at eBay (for example) one week there's absolutely nothing, the other week there's a sudden surge of good stuff. Then out of the blue an auction in Italy comes along, etc. On the Italy auction, a good example is the gold Ikom Skanderbeg... off the top of my head it went for over 2000 Euros while an Albanian friend indicated a much lower amount (and in USD) would be reasonable. But it's impossible to say because I've only seen one of these come up for sale! For the most rare Albanian items that's certainly the case... it's whatever the biggest "fool" will pay or it.

For the more common items, I'd say that eBay prices are generally a reasonable direction. But here again, I've been both burnt (overpaying for what I thought at the time was very rare) but also gotten great deals (because it wasn't clear yet what a rare variation was being ofered for sale).

Some of your prices seem a bit high, some a bit low, but that doesn't help you much I'm afraid:(

Happy Albania collecting!

[albania]

I am collector and dealer of Albanian awards and the market is indeed unstable. To my knowledge there very few (3-4) people in Albania who have rather larger amounts of these medals. these items are finite and rare. Good and bad news is that we had a meeting in Albania and decided to value better the amounts we have because these items are finite. So in the future you will see higher prices at least from medals from Albania. I think you paid good prices for some of them and little higher for some others.

questions contact me at

elviscenko@gmail.com

[Kallarati Heroik]

On 03/01/2009 at 15:23, bifter said:

Hi!

I am wondering about the prices that i have been paying for my Albanian awards; Are these good or are they bad, or perhaps just average?

 

Skanderbeg 1st - ?75

Skanderbeg 2nd - ?70

Liberty 1st - ?35

Defence of the Homeland 1st, 2nd & 3rd - ?80

Flag Order - ? 70

Red Star 1st, 2nd, 3rd & medal - ?150

I hope that I have not been overcharged on any of these; on a few occasions, when I was a new collector of U.S.S.R. awards I was ripped off a couple of times by being overcharged on genuine awards & othr times by being sold good copies as origionals.

With Albanian awards, all have been genuine & most have been in good condition. The Red Star 1st class arrived with a couple of peices of enamel missing from the 2 lower arms, but nothing too bad; also it was seemingly 'double struck'. It appeared to have a slight 'ghost' or 'shadow'!!! This is the only time any of them had any major faults.

Please can you post photos of your 1st Skanderbeg?

On 07/01/2009 at 13:49, Bob said:

Hi there bifter,

 

The difficulty with Albanian awards is that it's not (yet) a very transparent liquid market. It's still unclear what the volume o each award (type) is, there's not that many collectors, material (coming out of Albania) is haphazard... if you look at eBay (for example) one week there's absolutely nothing, the other week there's a sudden surge of good stuff. Then out of the blue an auction in Italy comes along, etc. On the Italy auction, a good example is the gold Ikom Skanderbeg... off the top of my head it went for over 2000 Euros while an Albanian friend indicated a much lower amount (and in USD) would be reasonable. But it's impossible to say because I've only seen one of these come up for sale! For the most rare Albanian items that's certainly the case... it's whatever the biggest "fool" will pay or it.

 

For the more common items, I'd say that eBay prices are generally a reasonable direction. But here again, I've been both burnt (overpaying for what I thought at the time was very rare) but also gotten great deals (because it wasn't clear yet what a rare variation was being ofered for sale).

 

Some of your prices seem a bit high, some a bit low, but that doesn't help you much I'm afraid:(

 

Happy Albania collecting!

Do you have photos of gold ikom Skanderbeg ???

[Bob]

No, was an auction years ago (in Italy I believe)

[Kallarati Heroik]

On 01/10/2018 at 13:48, Bob said:

No, was an auction years ago (in Italy I believe)

It was solid gold ikom or just 1st class ikom ???

[Bob]

solid gold

[Elmar Lang]

Hello,

the Skanderbeg Order 1st class in gold, mentioned in this discussion, was lot 681 (page 242, printed catalogue) of the "Asta Rossa - The Red Auction", held in Genoa, Italy, on Nov. 22nd, 2008.

The piece, a beautiful one and hallmarked by IKOM, was formerly acquired by Amb.Dr. Spada early in 1994.

Best wishes,

E.L.

[Kallarati Heroik]

This Dr.Spada is recipient of it or he bought it,?

Because in 1994 doesnt exist IKOM issues in Democratic Albania.

And can you find a photo of that piece.?

Let me know.