The mighty PhileasFox, amid Roman Ruins in North Africa

PhileasFox, in disguise, heavily influenced by Nubian Tribesmen in Egypt

Living on top of a mountain in Mid Wales with a small glove puppet, we don't get out much. There really isn't anywhere to go.

SO. We decided that if we were going to go out, that we needed to go somewhere where there was somewhere to go. Following this so far? Good, stick with it, I'll be asking questions at the end.

We decided that we needed to travel to far away countries (but only warm ones) and that we needed to find a way to fund this travel.

Then we discovered E Bay. The answer to our problems. We knew that we could find nice stuff in other countries. We knew that people would want to buy this stuff. But putting the stuff and the buyers together would obviously be a problem for people living on a mountain with a passing footfall of about 4 people a year. Suddenly we had a worldwide market for our stuff. It was time to go travelling, buying and writing stupid descriptions for our goods.

Its a tough life, but someone has to do it, and entering airline tickets on your tax return as a legitimate business expense every year just puts the icing on the cake........

The Fox? Oh yes, hijacked many years ago with the promise that we would give him a better life. We liked him so much that we named the company after him....

Our goods are all sourced personally on our travels. We use only small family run concerns where we can assess the working conditions and the age of the people working there. This is important to us.

By using only small companies, we can have items made to our own design, using the best of local skills and craftsmanship and some of our better ideas (or at least we thought they were better until we actually saw the Rhinocerous Perfume Bottle) to come up with something original.

To date we have partner companies in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and hope to add Algeria to the list in the next few months. Our grateful thanks go out to all who have made this possible, including Yasser in Egypt for all his time and efforts in finding the right craftsmen for our glassware, Youssef in Tunisia for assistance with the Leatherwork and various Government departments, Mansour in Morocco and Karim in Algeria - who is working hard to sort things out.

We also sell occasional bits of tat (sorry, highly sought after rare items), nice stuff that we either can't bear to throw away or other interesting things that the local second hand shop is on the point of chucking out...........

We pride ourselves on our honest trading practices and our willingness to try to put things right if they go wrong. Our feedback is vitally important to us as this is how we make our living.

We are proud to say that in over 3000 transactions on e bay, we have had only two negative feedbacks - both from people who were, er, difficult. We will always try to make sure that you are happy with your purchase and will do our best to resolve problems when they occur (as they will, from time to time....) All we ask is that you contact us first - if we don't know that there is a problem, we can't put it right, now can we?

Our Business Address is

Phileasfox Co Ltd

Pen yr Erw

Builth Wells

LD2 3SL.