Universal Philatelic Auctions

Confidence -  WHAT DIFFERENTIATES UPA FROM OTHER POSTAL AUCTIONS?

The most IMPORTANT advantage is that by keeping the catalogues you will discover exactly what each stamp is really worth.

Transparency - HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS
For reasons best known to themselves (probably to disguise what isn’t selling), most postal auctions don’t print previous sale price realisations in their next catalogues. UPA WILL PRINT ACTUAL PRICES REALISED FOR SALE, #1 IN #2, ETC. In this way you discover NOT ONLY what individual sets and singles really sell for (regardless of catalogue value) BUT ALSO... 

Enhanced value - UPA REDUCING ESTIMATES SYSTEM
IF AN ITEM DOES NOT SELL IN SALE #1 WE WILL RE-OFFER IT IN SALE #2 AND REDUCE THE ESTIMATE BY 10% – ad infinitum! – so that after 5 sales a less than HALF PRICE BID may succeed, and because reserves are 80% of estimates you could buy at just 46% of estimate and a mere fraction of catalogue price.

Unique Bargains - HERE IS HOW IT WORKS

·         EXAMPLE: £100 lot (reserve £80), unsold once new estimate £90 (reserve £72) twice unsold new estimate £80 (reserve £64); three times unsold estimate £72 (reserve £58), four times unsold estimate £65 (reserve £52); five times unsold estimate £58 (reserve £46). a Bid of £46 at 80% reserve – if no other bids – SUCCEEDS ! (N.B. estimates may be reduced by larger than 10% increments after several times unsold.)

·         After some 8 to 10 times unsold you could probably BID ZERO AND HAVE A VERY GOOD CHANCE OF BUYING IT FOR NOTHING! Of course the risk is that the longer you hold out for an item you want some other collector may step in and buy it before you! After all we do want to stay in business.

Easy Tracking System - BUT HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF AN UNSOLD?

·         That’s EASY – because we will IDENTIFY an unsold for you in the description from the second time it’s offered – the description will say US for UNSOLD, US2 for twice unsold, etc... The estimate will be automatically reduced each time.

·         YOUR CATALOGUE WILL BUILD INTO AN ESSENTIAL REAL PRICE GUIDE – keep it and build a small expandable database of what stamps are REALLY WORTH. Information is king!ur auction online, bid by e-mail

Fair bid steps policy = more buying power - FANCY PAYING 10% TOO MUCH?
NO, nor do we. Have you seen what other auctions bid steps are? 10% IN MANY CASES. No problem when you bid £10, the next step is £1 more – but fancy being made to increase your bid from £250 to £275, particularly when the stamp is only worth £260 to you – or worse still £1000, next bid £1100. And what happens if somebody else has bid £1100 – you have to pay £1200 ! LUDICROUS! UPA’s fair bid policy gives you a maximum £10 bidding increment on any lot over £300 and £5 bid steps from £85 to £300. So that at the high end you aren’t penalised – even at £1000 the next bid is £1010, not £1100.
Result: INCREASED BUYING POWER WITH UPA.

Fixed delivery cost and FREE* insurance - POSTAGE, PACKING AND INSURANCE. A jungle at some auctions, a lottery at others. This is the ONLY additional charge when bidding at UPA – which we have fixed and standardised so you know EXACTLY what the delivery cost is EVEN BEFORE PLACING A BID, WHEREVER YOU LIVE (please see below for details).