OldTimer

Hello from Australia! I've only recently joined, and only started to collect Swiss shooting medals these past nine months. What prompted me to do so is that I collect Swiss rifles from ca 1839 through to the late 1950's/early 1960's; the latter date seeing the end of the bolt-action, straight-pull model K31 rifle; which I first started using in 300m UIT competition. What also drew me to collecting Swiss shooting medals was the odd idea of purchasing a medal that illustrated a particular rifle in my collection, and like "Topsy" in the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" off I went. Naturally, not knowing that forums such as this one existed, and mainly due to the fact that I had NEVER in my lifetime heard of the word "Exonumia" (I told Rod that it sounded like some form of disease - which it is; after reading 36 pages of postings within this forum)! To cut a lonnng story short, my only lead was ebay for me, back in February 2014, and for a while I was lucky, with our dollar being being worth back then $1.10 US. Now it's worth $0.86 US, and the price of medals on ebay has skyrocketed. To give a comparison, an early purchase cost me (including postage) $150 Aus. The same medal currently listed on ebay, is being offered to the "dumb and dumber" brigade for $1,875.00US. Glory be !! I think I would be right in saying that over the past 6 months ebay Swiss medal prices on the average have more than doubled, and this is one of the reasons why I have joined this forum; to be put on the "straight and narrow" as to where I should look other than ebay for Swiss medals. Regards, OldTimer