Guide to County Auctions Mail Bid Sales
Quality at YOUR price - Safe and Simple.
Choose from 3100 lots of fine British and Foreign Stamps see home page for Catalogue Link.
Lot descriptions are colour coded:
Lot number green, Country black, Description blue, Estimate red (UK Pounds).
Example:
457 Cameroons 1960 Ovpt set on Nigeria sgT1-12 vf mint cat £30. {photo} £10
Estimates are the prices we expect the lots to sell for. These are at a substantial discount below catalogue value. £1 is about US$1.30. Abbreviations.
- How to bid: For any items of interest, just email us the lot numbers and maximum you are prepared to pay for each in UK pounds. You may well get them for less. To avoid errors please include a brief description of the lot. Bids are accepted by mail, email, fax or telephone until noon (UK time) on the day of the sale. Valid bid steps.
- How much to bid? Except
on the clearance section and lots marked ‡,
bids below 90% of our estimate are unlikely to
succeed.
To acquire the many better items and offer such extensive
choice, their cost to us is often 80% or more of our estimate.
To stand a good chance of success, bids should be close to or above our
estimate. Low bids waste our time and yours.
Bidding high makes it more likely you will secure the item. It does
not mean you will pay high. You will get the item at just one
bid step above the next bidder. If in doubt bid the estimate –
we guarantee that all lots are good value at our estimate. More details
in bidding
guidance and how a postal auction works.
- Our computer uses the estimates as reserves. Bids below estimate are considered and may or may not succeed. Except on lots marked ‡, bids should not be less than 90% of our already conservative estimates which take condition fully into account. Over the last 5 years, on average, bids received have been 15% above our estimates and realisations within 2% of estimate.
- Additional Charges: NO Buyers’ Premium, NO Lot Handling Charges, NO Credit Card Surcharges. The only extra is Postage at Cost.
- Payment: is due in UK
Pounds within 7 days of notification by bank transfer
or debit/credit card. We will take
cheques or cash if necessary, but it is no longer our preferred option.
For payments in other currencies or by other methods please
ask us first for details.
- We accept Visa, MasterCard and Debit cards but not American Express. For guidance on sending card details securely by email please ask.
- Extended payment terms may be considered on purchases over £200.
- Overdue accounts may be surcharged at 2% per month.
- Guarantee: if any lot is not as described, simply tell us why and return it in its original condition for a refund or replacement.
- Illustrations: About 600 items are illustrated on the 16 colour plates lettered A – P in our hardcopy catalogue. However, nearly all lots are illustrated on our website, click {photo} in the lot description.
- Catalogue organisation:
- Collections/Mixed Lots
- Accessories
- Literature
- Thematics (Topicals)
- Countries A to Z
- Clearance section: These are lots on which low (but still reasonable) bids will be considered. What we consider ‘reasonable’ depends on the item. It is not a fixed percentage of our estimate.
- Viewing: See website images - click on {photo} in the online catalogue. Please ask if you need more information.
- Searching for What you Want: To locate lots related to a country or topic use FIND (hold down the CTRL-key and press F). In the box displayed, enter the character string of interest and press enter. For example, to find all the China lots – CTRL-F – china – enter– each enter key will find the next lot with china in its description. When you find China in black text, that is a section heading – stop using FIND and look at the lots that follow. These are also China until the next section heading. To find all Perfins, do the same looking for the character string perfin.
- Purchase of unsold lots: After the sale date unsold lots will be available for direct sale at the estimated price. Postage is extra.
- No quibble refund Guarantee: We want you to be satisfied with all purchases and be a contented customer for many years. In the unlikely event that a lot is not correctly described - simply tell us why and return it in its original condition for a full refund. We get so few items returned (less then a half percent) we can afford to give this level of satisfaction.
- Specialised Items: Many of our GB lots are specialised shades, varieties or with difficult postmarks, etc. These are estimated to reflect their scarcity and should not be compared to prices elsewhere for the basic stamps. If you want just basic stamps at competitive prices, please ask us for them.