·  Is the Penny Black the world's rarest stamp?

No, but it's the world's most famous stamp. It heralded the greatest communication boom in history. Back before its introduction, postal services were very expensive with the recipient having to pay for the letter before the postman handed it over! A victorian social reformer 'Roland Hill' overheard a conversation between a postman & a lady who could not afford to receive a letter from her son - Mr Hill began a movement for a cheap postal service on the basis that the sender would pay for postage. How best to prove to the postman that delivery had already been paid for? "a gummed label" was the preffered method and the postage stamp was born!

Penny Black's with postmarks can be purchased for less than £100 - see our special offer by clicking here.

Penny Black's that have never been used and still have the gum on the back can be worth several £000,s depending on condition!

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·  What is the world's rarest stamp?

There are a few stamps of which only one exist, the last unique record breaker was the Swedish 1855 3 skilling stamp printed in yellow instead of green which sold for $2,300,000 (£1.5 million+) in 1996. However this stamp pales compared with the great granddaddy of all rarities, the British Guiana 1 cent stamp of 1856 (the so-called "one cent black on magenta") which has been hailed as the 'worlds rarest' for over 120 years, it hasn't changed hands for 20 years. When it does, the current record will be shattered!

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·  Should I collect mint or used stamps?

It doesn't matter, it's simply a taste and/or budget, many collectors believe a stamp is not a stamp until its seen postal duty and received a postmark, others believe the postmark detracts from the design! Basically, both are equally collectable.

In general, mint stamps are worth more than used stamps (if it was the other way around unscrupulous people would be asking their local postman to postmark all their mint stamps!!), however as always there are many exceptions with older stamps in superb used condition being very rare indeed. Experience and price guides will help.

Until a few years ago the most poular method of displaying stamps in an album would have been to use a 'stamp hinge', a small piece of paper gummed on one side which adhered to the album page and the back of the stamp. This is no big deal on used stamps which already have the gum washed off, but the effect of hinging is to disturb the gum on the backs of the mint stamps and now, with the advent of hingeless mounting systems, there is often a price premium on never hinged mint ("NHM") stamps although both qualities are, in general, equally popular to collectors.

It is often difficult to find NHM stamps issued before the 1950's and most collectors will collect mint stamps from these earlier periods.

Your fingers are not designed to pick up delicate pieces of paper and you will crease stamps moving them around that way, also mint stamps will often show your fingerprint on the gum and potentially detract from the value.

A little practice and you will find tweezers are by far the most comfortable method of moving your little treasures (but use proper stamp tweezers!)

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·  What accessories will I need?

If you buy one of our Foundation Collections then it will come in its own album, however if you're starting from scratch:-

1) An album
2) Tweezers ('Tongs' to you Americans!)
3) A catalogue/reference book
4) Perforation gauge
5) Watermark detector
6) Stamp mounts

We recommend you visit www.stampalbums.com which allows you to printout your own album pages (it's inexpensive!), for all your accessory needs we suggest you try www.vtrinder.com who stock just about everything.

Not sure what to buy? Give us a call!

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·  How much will the hobby cost?

Thats up to you! It's possible to buy thousands of attractive common stamps for just a few pennies each.

At the other end of the scale the world's greatest collections are worth millions of pounds with individual items worth £100,000 each!

You can spend as much or as little as your tastes or pocket allows, we tend to sell stamps, sets and collections from £20 to £20,000 each in our auctions, here we also offer directly for sale good starter or 'Foundation Collections' for between £1200 - £8000 each.

Whatever you want to know, please give us a call (we are here to help, not just sell stamps!)

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