How to use the Product Search on Cyprus Stamps website.

Now, those of my website visitors who correspond with me on a regular basis will know that the Product Search function is not my most favourite piece of kit when it comes to trying to get results :-(

So I'm going to try to explain using words and images as to why when you perform a search on Cyprus Stamps website, you may not receive the results you were antiicipating - and ways to get around the issue....

Recently we were asked for some specific stamp issues for a collector who joined us just this year. He's looking for only certain years for a particular reason, which I will not go into - and in trying to assist with his quest, I came across an oddity which is what prompted me to write this blog post.

Let's say you're looking for a particular stamp - for example SG 652 (one of the stamps in the set SG 648-662 1985 6th Definitives)

652 Product Search - a simple search option

As you can see in the image above, you get a fairly short and simple list (but unfortunately, we do not have SG 652 single stamp available in our online shop at this time). However, it shows perfectly how the search performs with a straightforward number search.

SG 652 a short phrase search results

Now, if you type SG 652 into the Product Search field you will see something you really wouldn't enjoy! (see above image).
You can see there are 38 pages of search results simply because you entered SG with a space before the number 652.
Not a good look, is it?

Want a longer list but with more results? That's an easy one!
If you know the year the stamp you are looking for was issued - then just type the year into the Product Search field.

Know the year of issue? Simply type it in the Product Search field

You can also use quotation marks around a 2 or 3 word search, but it helps if you know the stamps you are looking for contain those words in the title such as: "intellectual personalities" or "boy scouts" (see example below)

As you can see the Product Search field performs quite differently depending on what you enter there. The easy solution is to type only a single word (or number) search into it and hit the Enter key to get a sensible list of results.

I hope my "How to..." guide will help those collectors who perhaps in the past may have been as frustrated as I have when trying to find either a single stamp or a set.

As a tip, when we list Cyprus stamps in full sets we do not put a space between the hyphen, so SG 648 to SG 662 will be listed as SG 648-62

If you're a Thematics collector - please take a look at the left hand side column (visible on any page of the website) for some of our most popular searches made by visitors to Cyprus Stamps website.