We aren't professional sellers, but collectors whose interests have developed - and we buy as well as sell. Still got that collection to maintain! Consequently we believe in treating our customers in the way we like to be treated when we buy.

Below you will find guidance on how to get the most out of our auctions. Please take time to look at our grading guidelines, auction principles, and our payment and returns policies.

Stamps are graded according to best commercial practice. We don't follow the practice of labelling everything 'Fine'. A Fine stamp should have no faults - none at all!

Used stamps graded as follows:
SUPERB - crisp readable CDS / appropriate cancel, well-centred, excellent perfs and colour.
VFU - CDS / appropriate cancel, well-centred, good perfs and colour.
FU - as above but not so fine. Cancel may slightly obliterate the stamp, or be the commercial wavy line variety. Good centring, full perfs, good colour.
VGU - as FU but may have the odd short perf or weak corner. The cancel should not be heavy, leaving the majority of the detail of the stamp visible.
GU - may have heavier cancel, or slight faults - perfs or very slight bend, but nothing worse!
Def. U - defects such as pinholes, creases, trimmed perfs, cuts and tears. Combine these and you have a gap filler.

Mint stamps graded as follows:
UM - unmounted mint, same as MNH. Stamp should have full gum and no trace of previous hinging.
LMM - lightly mounted. Evidence of previous hinging but no attached residue. Stamp should have most of its orginal gum intact.
MM - mounted. May have hinge residues attached, or a more pronounced previous hinge mark.
Ave M. Average mint - may have slight defects as in GU stamps
Def M. - Defects as above.
UNUSED - Stamps having no franking but no gum.

Auction Principles

Starting price: we believe in 'real auctions'. It's more fun. So virtually all our lots start at 99p with no reserve. Even the rare and valuable ones!

Pictures: This is tricky. We aim to give a clear picture within reasonable constraints of bandwidth. Some folk are still on dial-up! Single stamps are scanned at 400dpi (larger ones at 300 dpi). Sets are usually scanned at 150 dpi. Much less than this and the perfs aren't so visible. Single used stamps are scanned on a green background so you can see the perfs. This is not practical for sets - if anyone can find coloured or clear 7 or 8-row stock pages let us know! If you want a better picture, just ask.

Faults: as buyers we know the disappointment of receiving stamps that looked a lot better on the picture than in real life. We try to describe any hidden faults - and no, we're not perfect and the odd fault does evade us, so please do return anything you are not happy with.

Payment and Returns

We take payment in most forms you can think of. Bank transfer (our favourite as it is cheap and only slightly slower than the post), PayPal, cheques (British only please!) and cash. If you have a sizeable purchase we don't recommend cash unless you send it securely.

We operate a no-quibble return policy. If you don't like what we send you, send it back to us for a prompt and courteous refund. And that includes your postage if we have missed a fault - buyers should not have to pay for seller errors!