UPDATE 9 October 2022
There isn't really much to add to this page, only that things are continuing much as before. My time is still much taken up with domestic matters.
As Royal Mail have decided to make all unbarcoded Machin and Country definitives invalid from the end of next January I have taken this as an excellent opportunity to leave this sector of the market. I have already prepared some price lists, linked in the right-hand side bar, and would like to do more. Unfortunately domestic matters preclude this for now.
But if you have any particular requirements for straightforward stamps & panes - not varieties or scarce stuff, just the normal stamps that you overlooked at the time - do please write adn I will do my bes to help at really good prices.
National and regional/country Machins, and pictorial country definitives, prestige book panes, ordinary booklets and panes.
Buy them now or they go to Royal Mail's big incinerator!
UPDATE 14 January 2022
Thanks again to all the readers who have continued to support the blog with news on all subjects while I am trying to publish Royal Mail's news as early as I am permitted to in each case.
I had a visit to Midpex in Warwickshire back in the summer, but I shan't be going to York this month, nor to the international London 2022 next month. We have, thankfully, kept clear of Covid so far and I have no intention of spending any time among crowds with Omicron still raging through the population, despite being triple-jabbed.
The domestic situation with Norvic HQ, after our move in summer 2020, continues to take much of my time, so I have not added as much as I would have liked to our shop, although I have much to sell, the majority of it not mint GB.
As 2022 starts Royal Mail have been even more secretive than usual over the stamp programme so there will be plenty to read when it is published. Where possible I am getting ahead of the publication date so that if I am prevented from publishing on the actual date, something will appear even if it is incomplete.
UPDATE 17 March 2021
Thank you to all our supporters who have continued to supply us with news and slogan postmarks, and/or bought from our shop. We are visiting the local village post office just once a week, where the postmaster kindly cancels everything I post. So we hope they get through to you in the same condition!
We are continuing to add more product ranges to the shop and have started on folded booklets of the original decimal era, ie from 1971 onwards, and some world postal history, starting with independent African countries.
We will try to make these additions organised so that specialist collectors will have a selection to look at, rather than have a scatter-gun approach with covers from all over the world at random.
Visits to the Post Office to send orders will still usually be once per week only.
If you have particular interests that you would like us to add, please do let us know so that we can look them out and list them, or send you images of a selection.
Email:
ian@norphil.co.uk
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE Monday 21 December.
Well, here we are almost back to square one - and although we in Norfolk are in Tier 2, London and many Home Counties areas are in Tier 4, which is equivalent to where we all were in March.
THE GOOD NEWS!
Our online shop will open on Wednesday 23rd to give you something to do over the festive season and get away from the television and food! We won't process orders until January, but anything ordered will be reserved and we will post as much as possible by 7 January.
Thanks for looking and Festive Greetings and a better New Year to everybody.
Historic record
Coronavirus
update - Sunday 22 March 2020
You have probably had
the greatest number of emails on a single subject ever, over the last
two weeks, as your online supermarket, utility providers, banks,
mortgage companies, internet service providers, etc, all tell you how
you will be affected, either by changes to their services or by
allowing payment holidays if you are in financial hardship.
What are we doing?
Well, despite some people thinking we have an army of people sending
out orders and maintaining website, blog and shop, it is only a
family business. And we are all in one or more of the 'vulnerable'
categories. So travel is kept to the minimum, our post is delivered,
and we will try to get some home deliveries of essential foods.
Fortunately we stock up during winter to ensure that if there are any
normal seasonal problems we can survive.
(See update below)
(See update below)
About
stamps, the blog and the shop.
The Blog: as you
will have seen there has been a flurry of activity this week. With
the help of contributors, normal reporting will continue while we
can.
Stamps and the Shop:
In periods of self-isolation, or enforced lockdown, working
on your stamp collection is one way to keep yourself occupied –
after all you can only watch so many tv programmes in a day.
To
avoid going out, we looked at using
courier services which
would collect orders from us and found that the minimum costs of
sending a basic letter-sized packet (c5, under 500g) would be around
£4.50 to UK addresses. We can't go down this avenue.
We
could could take
paid orders but only
go to the post office when it can be combined with other journeys.
This would work, but would leave customers uncertain as to when their
stamps would arrive, and mean that we had their money for an
indefinite period without supplying anything.
We could take unpaid
orders, and let customers know when to pay us. So you could still
choose and reserve stamps; you could change your mind and we would
simply cancel the order – no questions asked; we could then make
available everything that is on our product database, and make the
hidden categories re-appear.
But
ultimately the situation is going to escalate. We don't expect to be
going out much at all. What we all thought was a good idea – get
fresh air in the country – is not because facilities there are
fewer than in the cities and the local population will be vulnerable
to visitors from the cities.
So
reluctantly we have decided to close the shop indefinitely, until the
crisis is over. You've probably got enough stamps to keep you
gong for a while, and as we are not selling, everything we have
listed will be there when we come back – and maybe there will be
more.
Update evening 23 March 2020
So, as it happens, we were only just ahead of the government on this. Tonight's announcement by the Prime Minister would have solved the dilemma for us if the decision had not already been taken. For the benefit of those outside the UK, all non-food/banking outlets have to close, and we are prohibited from leaving the house except for brief exercise and then only with members of the household or one other.