My Mission

Ever since I first discovered philately in 1977, I have wanted to serve collectors and promote this fantastic hobby, as a dealer. This magnificent website is the culmination of a journey that began over 10 years ago, when I first began assisting collectors on E-bay. It is a testament to what an amazing gift it is to have the privilege of professionally assisting stamp collectors, all over the world in building and studying their collections.

In creating my business, and this website, I have set out to try to revolutionize the profession of stamp dealing. I want you to be able to find any Canadian or Nigerian stamp you may be looking for with ease, and to be able to acquire it for a fair price. I also want to show you the wider and wonderful world of stamps from other time periods and countries, arranged in a user friendly and visually appealing manner. I believe that this is the greatest hobby in the world and that anyone has it in them to be a collector and enjoy it. My mission is thus twofold:

  1. I want to bring the hobby of philately back to the mainstream by showing people how it can connect with their humanity and can relate to any interest they may have.
  2. I want to serve the largest number of existing collectors as I can from advanced collectors to collectors who are just starting out on their journey through the world of stamps.

I also want you to have complete flexibility in buying only what you want to buy. Therefore, you will see that I sell stamps primarily on an individual basis, as well as some in sets. As a dealer, it is not my goal to "convert" you, to use a crass internet marketing term, but rather to assist you in any way that I can.

To me, in this business, like any profession, relationships are absolutely key: both for you, the collector and for me. A good professional relationship allows you access to stamps with much less risk and effort, and at the same time it provides you and your heirs with someone you can trust to help you realize as much of your financial investment as possible when the time comes to sell. To me, a good stamp dealer offers you a full range of services through the entire life cycle of your hobby, from acquisition, to sale, and does so with the highest standards of professional integrity. These services can include, but are not limited to:

  1. Locating specific stamps and covers for you, that are on your want list, by leveraging my professional connections, to find the material in a suitable condition, at a price that is within what you can afford.
  2. Providing you with advice related to your collecting. Such advice can include advice about condition; authenticity of specific stamps; known pitfalls to watch for in a collecting area; how much scope to include, in terms of varieties; exhibiting; how to best house the collection and so forth.
  3. Providing professional opinions about specific stamps as to identification, value and grade.
  4. Maintaining a comprehensive stock of a specialized area that is of interest, such that when you wish to add a stamp to your collection at a fair price, you can easily find what you are looking for and receive exactly what you expected.
  5. Providing assistance with estate planning matters and eventual sale of the collection, if this is desired.
  6. Providing access to in-depth information about your collecting area to enhance your collecting experience.

As you can see, there is much more to being a good stamp dealer, than simply amassing a retail stock and hoping collectors will buy from you. Providing each of the above services, and doing it well, requires mastery of several other best practices. For example, in fulfilling #4 above, one must identify all material consistently, grade all material consistently, and price consistently.

So that is what I am confident you will experience in dealing with me: consistency - consistency of price, consistency of grading, consistency of packaging and consistency of description. Whether you spend $1 with me, or $5,000, you will receive the same professional level of service and attention.

I am a member in good standing with both the Ontario and New Brunswick Institutes of Certified Professional Accountants. As such, I am bound to follow a code of ethics that is one of the strictest and most exhaustive of any professional body out there. Thus you can buy from me, or consign to me with the utmost of confidence that I will look after your best interests.

I am currently embarked on the long, arduous task of listing all my inventory here. I have moved all of my listings over from my old e-bay store, but what you see here is only a small fraction of what I have in stock. So, while the selection of stamps at the moment is modest, it will grow every week. By the time all my inventory is listed here, I expect to have one of the largest online selections of Canada and Nigeria in the world.

Finally, I thank you for reading this and coming to visit my site. I hope you enjoy perusing my stamp listings and reading my blog articles as much as I have delighted in preparing them. I applaud you all, and welcome to the revolution!

Christopher A. McFetridge, CPA, CA