Future Of Combloc Medals And Awards

[gjw]

Hey all, posted this elsewhere,  but why not here also. We all know how collecting TR(and other countries) ODM's have become more expensive over the years. And continue to go up in price year after year, and the fakes have gotten better and better.

At present all know most Combloc ODM's are very reasonable (with exceptions) and faked much if at all.

Which leads me to wonder if the medals and awards of the former Warsaw Pact nations (except the USSR) will also increase in price over the years?

I think in time folks will discover and begin to appreciate these ODM's and prices will increase.

so....your thoughts please.

Stay well my friends

Greg

[Philip.S]

Greg,

 

In my opinion, of course the prices will (and have) go up! 

I see no reason for them not to.

Fakes wise, there are already fakes of the higher soviet awards, and as soon as the "faking process" can be cheapened, the fakes will dribble down to the lower awards as well. Combined with that, i cant help but hazard a guess, that in 50 or so years time, the cold war, and combloc ODMs collecting scene will be similar to that of the TR, or Imperial german scenes.

 

Regards,

 

Philip.S

[Gordon Craig]

Greg,

Fakes of the Hero of the DDR and the Blucher medal, to name a few,  have been in circulation for some years.  As Phillip says, if they can be made cheap enough for a profit, they will be reproduced.  Copies of DDR daggers have been on the market for some time as well.  I'm not sure if medals etc. of other ex Warsaw Pact nations have been copied but I wouldn't be surprised that if they aren't copied now they will be in the future.  Wartime Polish medals would be a perfect example.

Regards,

Gordon

[new world]

Good and rare items from ComBlock countries were never cheap. Take DDR Hero titles, Yugoslavian high classes of awards, Bulgarian Hero / Prizes and Dimitrov awards, Romanian early and precious metals awards. These always commanded super high prices and were also faked. 

However, I've noticed that fakes of more common awards started to appear on the market. These items can be made for little money in China and are often sold as souvenirs to tourists visiting former Com countries. Sadly some sellers try to pass them for real awards.  

 

[Graf]

On 04/06/2024 at 10:36, new world said:

Good and rare items from ComBlock countries were never cheap. Take DDR Hero titles, Yugoslavian high classes of awards, Bulgarian Hero / Prizes and Dimitrov awards, Romanian early and precious metals awards. These always commanded super high prices and were also faked. 

However, I've noticed that fakes of more common awards started to appear on the market. These items can be made for little money in China and are often sold as souvenirs to tourists visiting former Com countries. Sadly some sellers try to pass them for real awards.  

 

I agree I noticed this trend as well

[gjw]

Some great responses and thoughts on this subject.

 

It seems fakes as you all said are appearing even with lower end awards.  Some are so crude and obvious they wouldn't fool anyone (even me).

 

Thanks again for all your thoughts......great reading!

 

Best Regards 

 

Greg

 

 

 

 

[new world]

Sad part is that as time passes by and collector/specialists leave this word, there will be less and less expertise and some day no one will be able to tell fakes from real awards. Imagine 50-100 years from - all awards will be old and will look the same. For what we know they will probably call fakes jeweler versions and treasure them the same as real medals.

[Megan]

So we need to document both the "real" medals and the "copy" ones thoroughly now... we cannot guarantee that future generations of collectors will actually read the records, but if we don't bother to make them they certainly won't be able to 🤓

[Philip.S]

I quite agree, though written material will undoubtedly get scarcer, and more expensive, I think its wonderful that there is so much information available on forums, and other sites, such as GMIC, or, of course, medals.org.uk, available for free! So long as forums and sites such as this continue to thrive, I don't see any reason why any information should be lost!

 

Regards,

 

Philip.S

 

 

[new world]

of course, we try our best to preserve the knowledge, however I doubt that in 50 and especially 100 years this and other forums will be around. Books likely will be extinct as well, with select few humans having access to printed materials. The part that worries me the most is how many people will be interested enough in history to care about awards. 

[Graf]

On 15/06/2024 at 04:12, new world said:

of course, we try our best to preserve the knowledge, however I doubt that in 50 and especially 100 years this and other forums will be around. Books likely will be extinct as well, with select few humans having access to printed materials. The part that worries me the most is how many people will be interested enough in history to care about awards. 

I agree it is very doom future

[Megan]

Books will survive, although prices may become prohibitive... one reason I advocate the PDF/priint-on-demand route for publishing and intend to use it for the stuff I'm writing.