Norvic's sales offers and giveaways 2026 - Week 2

December didn't quite work out as I had hoped, so this is the first batch of offers since Week 48.

I'll start with a reprise of what is still available from the previous offers, and then move onto some miscellaneous post-war covers and souvenirs, and the wartime issues of the Channel Islands.

I thought I had cleared all my Machins but of course I have found more, some of which might be of interest to fill some gaps.  

After that I hope to put up some less common Post and Go stamps, and then maybe some less common definitive first day covers.

So, a reminder of the process.    

Freebies require the Follower ID of blog followers.

In all cases if you want the item, please 

- leave a comment with your name or first name and initial, and then 

- send an email with your Name and Address and Blog Follower ID to my usual address - see top right.  And indicate which item you want (A, B, etc) in case more than one is available.  Please check the existing comments before you write.   

I will process requests in the order they are received but not always immediately - I am not checking every five minutes!   If two other people have already asked, by all means put your name down, but if those are successful your comment will not be published, nor answered as there is no way of doing so unless you send the email.  

I must stress that if you ask for something and don't follow up by email you run the risk of someone else doing what they must in which case you will miss out. 

Buyers outside the: UK email and I'll provide postage cost and payment options. 

First, a recap of previous offers still available.  As they are sold, I will remove them from this list.  Remember postage will be combined if multiple items are bought.

Week 46 - B. Postal Union Congress £1 reproduction pack £14 plus £1 UK postage (1 only available)

In 2010 at the London Festival of Stamps Royal Mail issued a wide range of products associated with two new stamp issues.  They also issued extra unrelated products for the international audience that attended the show, one of which was a high-quality reproduction of the PUC £1 stamp in a block of 4. Individual stamps from the block are being bought on eBay for up to £6.50.  

I have only one of these.  Remember - check the comments before putting your name down to make sure they are still available. 

 

D. Ephemera mixed bag, pick and choose - Free to blog followers!

D3. - British Postal Order Gift Card (undated).  Designed to hold a standard postal order of the time in the same way as Book Tokens and Store Gift Cards, for sending through the post.  [Two available.]

D4. - Telephone Stamp Card issued by Post Office Telecommunications in 1979, before British Telecom - and I thought Busby was a BT mascot.  Inside there's room for up to 20 Telephone stamps and this too could be used as a gift card to a friend or relative. Telephone Stamps could only be used to pay for telephone charges which, at the time, you could pay in cash at the PO counter.  [2 available]

D5. Lastly a proper postal item - a parcel tag for the Royal Mail Parcels Direct Bag Service for mailings to Charities.  When this was used mailbags would be delivered to the charity intact, which made handling easier for Royal Mail and for the charity.  This may have been for the children's TV programme Blue Peter in 1994.  Just one of these available.

Royal Mail Parcels Direct Bag Service for Charity Parcels

Pick and Choose: if you are interested in any or all of these, leave a comment which I shall publish as soon as I can, and say which ones you would like.  Then send me an email with your name and address and blog follower ID.

I'll mark the blog as soon as I can as individual items cease to be available.  

E. It's what's inside that counts - Kent Air display 1935 - £10 including postage

When you buy mixed lots of covers you get some good, some ordinary, and some in quite poor condition.  Certainly this isn't a cover that would make it into a collection or display.

1935 cover posted locally at Margate with 1½d Jubilee stamp.

There isn't even anything on the even grubbier reverse to indicate where it cam from: without the contents it is nothing.  The letter, however, reveals that the addressee is a lucky prize-winner in the Isle of Thanet Gazette contest to win a free flight in an air display by Sir Alan Cobham.  

After service in WWI in the Royal Flying Corps and then the RAF he joined De Haviland as a test pilot. He flew around Europe, to Cape Town, and then to Australia leaving from the River Medway in Kent.

In 1932 he started the National Aviation Day displays – a combination of barnstorming and joyriding. This consisted of a team of up to fourteen aircraft, ranging from single-seaters to modern airliners, and many skilled pilots. It toured the country, calling at hundreds of sites, some of them regular airfields and some just fields cleared for the occasion. Generally known as "Cobham's Flying Circus", it was hugely popular, giving thousands of people their first experience of flying, and bringing "air-mindedness" to the population.  

Letter from Gazette to lucky winner (divided scan - letter complete)

National Aviation Displays Ltd Display Flight Ticket.

Just one available, so if you would like this leave a comment which I shall publish as soon as I can. 

Week 48. 

G. - Personalised Smilers mint and used - £10 incl UK postage - sold 
H. Epsom Strike Postal Service 1971 - one cover £2.50 incl UK postage - sold 
J. Vending Machine Booklet Wrapper selection - free of charge -- sold
K. Royal Mail 1983 Desk Calendar - £4.00 including UK large letter postage - sold
L. Unofficial Year of the Child non-postal miniature sheet - SOLD

M.  Lundy Island Postcards 1986/93 with 18p meter marks & Puffin stamps - £4.50 incl UK postage.

Lundy Island is a small island located in the Bristol Channel between England and Wales, twelve miles from the coast of Devon. In the late 1960s, Lundy was given to the National Trust. The British Post in operation on the island from 1887 was closed in 1927. Mail had to be privately ferried the 10 miles to the mainland. In 1929, the island's owner issued his own postage stamps for the collection and transport of mail to and from Lundy and the British Post Office. 

Two different picture postcards of the Old Lighthouse with 18p meters, one with 21p one with 29p Lundy stamps.

 

New listings Week 3/26 - random order

N 1 -  GB Christmas 1991 39p flaw - £1 plus postage

Nothing startling here, but a nice little flaw, a bit like a Doctor blade, but starting mid-stamp.  Unmounted mint.  

N 2 - Private Smiler: Virtual Stamp Club souvenir cover 2008 - £5 each post free (6 available)

The Virtual Stamp Club was an on-line philatelic forum on the Delphi platform from 1996 until 2013 when the founder left for pastures new.  The sheet and covers were advertised to members; special covers were sent free to 'staff' members or moderators.  To get a special handstamp I combined it with the 1st class Red Arrows from the air displays set.

N 3 - National Savings Stamps saver card - £1.50 plus postage

A bit grubby and probably with older 1960 Princess Anne 6d and coin 1967 2/- stamps added to the three x 2/- flag (1968) stamps that might have been original.  I feel I ought to know who the artist is.

N 4 - Stamp 97 Souvenir with Frankenstein Cinderellas - £1.50 plus postage

A souvenir from the Stamp '97 International Stamp Exhibition at Wembley.  The cover was on offer from the Walsall Security Printers' stand at the show and two Walsall sample stamps are affixed and 'cancelled', the 1st class flower stamp was then added to get the Royal Mail special handstamp.  Great for the horror thematic.

N 5 - London 1960 souvenir cover, card and sheet - £2.50 +postage

Standard souvenir cover from the London International Stamp Exhibition 1960 with 3d stamp and special slogan postmark.  Filler card by showing the Evolution of Maltese Cross cancellations.  Souvenir sheet showing 'Stamps worth £10,000' printed by Harrison & Sons.

N 6 - British Stamps Current in 1865 Gibbons Exhibition Souvenir - £1.50 +postage

N 7 - 45th Philatelic Congress 1963 souvenir cover+ - £1.50 +postage 

Souvenir cover in red (I believe there were four colours) with insert showing postmarks of some of the Yorkshire locations where stamp clubs are based. (I think there were four different cards).

N 8 - First UK Aerial Post souvenirs £4 +postage

a. National Postal Museum postcard (SS5) which is a reproduction of the 1911 postcard used on the Coronation Aerial Post, with flown cachet in violet.  Special (Bedford) postmark of 31 August 1981.

b. Royal Air Force Series cover with Hendon 11 September 1918 special postmark, and 50p souvenir miniature sheet cancelled Hendon 12 September.

a.

   b.

N 9 - Five Postal History Series covers and inserts - £4.25 + postage

115th Anniversary of London's First Pillar Box (National Postal Museum 1970), 40th Anniv of Air Mail Pillar Boxes (Croydon 1970), Centenary of the Post Card (London 1970), Rowland Hill 175th anniversary of birth (Kidderminster 1970), 60th Anniversary of the First United Kingdom Aerial Post (Hendon 1971).

N 10 - Channel Islands wartime issues mint

a. Guernsey Arms definitives x 6 - 2 of each ½d, 1d, 2½d shades or perforation types  plus the ½d on blued paper.  All with hinge marks on reverse, crinkled gum as is often the case), and small thins not visible from the front.  (Please ask if you wish to see a better image.)  Minimum catalogue value for perfect is over £75 - price £15 +postage

b. Guernsey Arms modern facsimiles on white paper. I don't know who printed these or when, they were in a collection with those above  £2.00 +postage

c. Jersey Views set of 6 mounted mint. Good condition from the front, except for the slightly grubby 2d. Some marks on the gum, and the 2d seems to be without most original gum and may be unpostmarked used removed from paper.  Catalogue value for fine is £30 - £7.50 +post.

That's all for this week.  Thank you for looking.

Please read the instructions for ordering from the top of the page.

 

---