SITE OVERVIEW
Welcome to philbansner.com! My web site features an extensive inventory of Postal History, Stamps and Philatelic Literature for you to browse. The button tabs at the top of the page take you to my online catalogs, and the buttons to your left help you navigate through the site and use my shopping cart system. Postal History contains an enormous variety and selection of covers. Philatelic Literature contains everything from worldwide handbooks to catalogs, monographs, and auction catalogs. Both catalogs have extensive search capabilities to help you find your collecting or reading interests. More information on using the search engines is available by going to either catalog's help page.

You can automatically load one of my catalogs when you visit by entering either www.philbansner.com/covers or www.philbansner.com/literature as the web address. Be sure to check my home page from time to time, however, as I often have special messages posted there.

USING MY SHOPPING CART SYSTEM
After performing a search in one of my catalogs, the site generates a search results page displaying all matching items. All covers can be viewed by clicking the "view photo" link next to each item. After viewing the photo, you may add it to your shopping cart, or return to where you left off browsing. To add any item to your shopping cart, click the "add to cart" link next to each item. The total number of items in your shopping cart, and the total price, are talleyed in the upper left hand corner of the page. You can view your shopping cart items in more detail, or remove items if you have changed your mind, by clicking the "shopping cart" button to your left. You can perform a new search by clicking the button tab at the top of the page, or by clicking the "new search" link next to each item. You can perform as many searches as you like, and may combine postal history and literature items in the same order.

CHECKOUT & YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNT
When you are finished browsing, click the "checkout" button to your left to enter my secure checkout system. The first time you purchase from this site, you will need to set up a new account. Just follow the instructions at the top of each page. You may save your account with a password so that the next time you visit, your information will already be available. If you forget your password, you can have the site automatically e-mail it to you. During the checkout process, you will also have the opportunity to make changes to your account. You may store up to three different credit card numbers, and select which one to use each time you make a purchase. For security reasons, all credit card numbers are appended to the last four digits after they are used for the first time. The full number is stored offline so you don't need to re-enter the number. Before the transaction is completed, the site displays an invoice page which you can review and print out for your records.