Many societies welcome new members to their Circuit. However, for a variety of reasons the society will usually only permit sale of material from its Circuit books to its own members. Hence, anyone wishing to belong to a Circuit must usually become a member of the society.

Many members of such societies belong primarily to receive Circuit material as they may not be able to attend meetings or obtain the type of material on offer any other way.

Circuit material

A Circuit comprises philatelic material made up into booklets by members who wish to sell surplus material they hold. Each society which runs a circuit will have guidelines on the type of material that may be included and may run several different circuits based on the general value or type of material on offer. However, a basic principle of any successful circuit is that the prices are very competitive.

Buying from the Circuit

A number of booklets are assembled by the Circuit Manager. These are forwarded to a circuit member who has a specified period of a few days at their leisure and in their own home to consider the material on offer. The member takes the material wanted, records their transactions as required on each booklet, posts (or delivers) the material to the next member on the circulation list, and returns a notification sheet to the society indicating how much they have taken and the person to whom they have forwarded the book. The value of their purchases may be deducted from their society account or is paid with the return of the notification sheet.

Selling on the Circuit

New and interesting material for a circuit is always welcome from members of a society. Material is submitted mounted in the format used by the society.

The society may deduct an insurance levy on the total value of the material sent out on circuits.

The material will go out on a number of different circuits and, after each one, any sales will be credited to the vendor’s account minus any commission the society deducts from sales to cover the cost of running the Circuit. After completing all circuits, any unsold material is returned to the vendor.