Wednesday 10 March 2021

Mid-week shop update

As we have settled in for another bout of wet and windy weather I have been working through a different shop category and bringing things up to date.

There are major new additions today in Smilers Sheets.  The original Smilers were eagerly sought after by collectors although later over-production by Royal Mail took the heat out of the product.  But many collectors who started late may have gaps in their collections, so here is a chance for you to go back to the start of it all and fill some gaps.

The first British Smilers Sheets were available at The Stamp Show 2000.  This wikipedia article describes the start, but of course Personalised Smilers and Business Customised Sheets have now finished as a personalisation service, although Royal Mail continues to produce similar 'generic' or 'collector' sheets for stamps which have no personalisation available.  Shown here is the first, and the first redesign sheet using the original stamps. 



These are numbers LS1 and LS5 in the Gibbons Concise catalogue.  LS5 was less popular at the time because the stamps were not new.  We have one of each of these, and first day covers for the LS1.

Prices have been adjusted and are below catalogue and current retail in most cases.  In many cases if you buy more than one copy of a sheet, you get a big discount, large enough to take your purchases below the current value of the postage they contain.  So if you need a sheet for your collection, buy two and the saving on postage will make the additions to your collection less expensive.

 

Also added are many Stampex Sheets.  These were sold by the organisers of Stampex as a fundraising souvenir, and while many are still available on the Philatelic Traders Society website, you can buy them from us at about half the price in many cases.

 

There are also some privately commissioned Business Customised Sheets (BCS) with part of the proceeds going to charity.  And possibly the only BCS produced without the assistance or inspiration of any philatelic organisation, the one produced in 2008 by FIAT to advertise the Grande Punto.  Donations to Cancer Research on all sales of this one.

See them all here, or click on 'Recent Additions' for the time being.  And don't forget, some of these provide an excellent chance to buy postage with which to surprise your friends or customers!

But more new areas will be explored and opened up soon!


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