Buying at 5-15% and selling at 30-40% of CV is easier than it sounds, and who doesn't want that kind of margin? It doesn't mean buying large collections and ending up with remaindered dross you can't get rid of either. Here's an image from an online seller that I've purchased from, and who I trust. He regularly creates bundles of stamps that fall outside his sales criteria. In this case Gibraltar QV, one of my favourite areas, and a constant seller. (A quick look shows one space-filler (25c ultramarine with a tear), which he doesn't include in his stated CV) Then: SG1 overprint on Bermuda mint (CV £23) SG 8 ½d Dull Green x 2 (CV £20x2 = £40) SG29 75c Olive-green mint (CV £35) and used (CV £32) SG30 1p Bistre used (CV £23) SG32 2p Black and Carmine mint (CV £15) and used (CV £35) That's 8 stamps out of 17, ignoring the space-filler, and not counting the others, with a CV of £203. His asking price is £25 including postage! That's easy money for quality, in-demand classics. There's no returns on these items for obvious reasons, but he hasn't let me down yet! If you want his link, you're going to need to comment on this post and I'll message you

It's been a challenging time at my house, so I've been missing in action. Anything to chat about? @Steve Kennedy and @Jerry Cook are you guys still with us? Love to hear from you

I was sorting KGV heads yesterday. The shade variations on the 1d Violet intrigue me, and I found a dozen stamps that appear to my eye to be different shades. SG, unhelpfully, states "shades", with red-violet as the only shade mentioned separately. BW lists eight shades. I entered this image into chatgpt with the following prompt: "this image shows 12 copies of the same stamp, all with different shade nuances. Using british philatelic descriptions of colour and shade from resources such as stanley gibbons, identify the shade of each stamp (row 1 is numbers 1 to 6, row 2 is numbers 7 to 12)" This is the reply: Fun problem — but I need to start with an important caveat: exact shade attribution from a photographed image is inherently unreliable. Lighting, white balance, camera sensor, screen calibration, and compression all shift colour. Even professional dealers avoid calling precise Gibbons shades from photos unless the image is colour-controlled and compared against a reference chart. So what I can do is: 👉 describe the closest Stanley Gibbons–style shade terminology based on relative comparison within your image, not absolute catalog certainty. These appear to be 1d violet KGV issues (Australia), where Gibbons uses terms like rosine, mauve, aniline rose, dull purple, reddish purple, bright violet, etc. I’m judging by hue temperature (red vs blue bias), saturation, and ink density. 1 - Dull mauve-purple 2 - Rosine-purple 3 - Bright violet 4 - Violet-purple 5 - Rosine 6 - Deep-violet 7 - Pale Dull mauve 8 - Reddish-purple 9 - Dull purple 10 - Bright violet-purple 11 - Aniline rosine 12 - Deep purple It's going to take a lot more research to clarify if chatgpt's answer reconciles with known shade variations, but I think that it's a positive outcome for a first attempt

We all know about eBay, but here's a list of some of the other online auction sites (not dealer-operated) where I look for bargains: ebid.net delcampe.net hipstamp.com oldthing.de stampden.com tradera.com webstore.com I used to use Bobshop in South Africa, but since the SA post office went into disarray it's not possible. Trademe in New Zealand is too small and has too many sellers that won't ship. Have I missed any?