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I had an interesting book delivered today bought it off ebay of course. The Booth Catalogue Collect GB First Day Covers. (29th edition 2007) I had always wondered how you know what is what with FDC's.
Well this book is awesome! All the information you need as a beginner to FDC's, A list of commemorative's by year and day of issue, plus the expected dated handstamp with each issue. There are selected cover illustrations throughout the book. In 2007 the cost was £10.80 and today it cost me £3.89 including postage.

I had noticed that SG do a Collecting GB FDC catalogue. Any one got one and will comment.

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There is a way that seems right...

My First Day Covers online (I have updated these if your interested)
http://picasaweb.google.com/TechnicianUK/FirstDayCovers03#

I don't think SG still do a FDC catalogue; if they do it will be wildly inaccurate in both pricing and the way that people here collect FDCs. While they insist on pricing addressed FDCs with Bureau and Alternative Official cancellations as if they were highly sought after (per the Concise listings) instead of 20p/50p fodder, they have no credence.

Whilst the Booth is good for some things, the Bradbury is better for others. Although Brad no longer illustrates all postmarks (to keep pages and cost down) they are all on the website. Drawbacks to Bradbury are the way definitives, regionals, booklets, etc are listed, with variations on a separate page to the original issue - I would prefer to see all in chronological order. Someday I'll make such a list!

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

hi Techuk,
I think I have an old Bradury which you can have for the cost of pp.I think it is 1997 from memory and it has lots of useful info as Norvic said.Prices have barely altered and your Booth covers the more recent issues.you can send me an email through the site or on the thread .David

I still find it amazing that private FDC producers exist and thrive in the UK at astronomical prices. I don't totally object to very limited print runs but Bradbury / Benham / Buckingham huge print runs just stun me.

Yes, I have always been surprised that on the one hand GB collectors are saying that there are too many stamp issues each with too many stamps with face values too high, but despite that the 3Bs still manage to sell in sufficient quantity and at such high prices to make it worthwhile. There are obviously several different sets of collectors out there.

I don't think the print runs are as long as they used to be, and I am more and more convinced that they make more money on their Business Smilers Sheets for Steam Trains, Kings and Queens, etc. Now they are what really surprise me!

But there are still some cover producers doing small runs of 100 or less. Phil Stamp has stopped. I stopped when I found I didn't have time because of the number of issues: it took the fun out of it if you (a) struggled to find a design that fitted round the copyright problems but still complimented the stamps, and (b) then had to rush everything through before the next set came out.

Phil Sheridan solved that problem by not doing every issue. I think Adrian Bradbury stopped doing PSBs. Cotswold/York still do all issues, generally cheaper than B/B/B I think, and they also do RM covers. One of the B's asked me to take on his RM cover and PHQ card clients a few years ago and I declined then because it was too much work, even though Royal Mail covers with any other postmark are easy because we can buy the covers with stamps already affixed.

I'm not even doing normal sets/MS on RM covers now, though; the only FDCs I'm producing for stock are retail booklets, Machin security singles which can't always be obtained easily - try buying the Thunderbird book at your PO? - and maybe some PSB panes.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

'But there are still some cover producers doing small runs of 100 or less'

And these are the only lot I'd be (slightly) interested in...

(Mind you I should do my own single ones )

There are a few here that were done in runs of less than 30 in most cases. (Bigger runs were for blockbusters which were often sold out before issue!)

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

So this is the current version for GB FDC's?

Any word on the Whitney?

http://cgi.ebay.com/2011-British-First- ... 20b8dcd171

As posted on the relevant thread:


* Concise is now on sale.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter