THERE is a shop in Didcot which hundreds of people drive past every day but never go inside.

The front door is always locked and the proprietor makes 100 per cent of his sales at Benson Village Hall.

Even the name painted over the front door – Provincial Philatelics – might not help most to guess the nature of the business inside: stamp collecting.

This is the home of Oxfordshire's premiere (and only) stamp auctioneer, Arthur O'Hanlon.

For the past 26 years, the former RAF serviceman has made a living by holding rare stamps auctions every two months at Benson Village Hall.

And if it slightly surprising that a man can make his entire living by selling a few stamps every couple of months, it gets better: business is so good that he is having to build an extension to store all of his stock.

Mr O'Hanlon, who lives in a bungalow at the back of the shop, cheerfully admits his business is an old man's game, and something of a dying art in this country.

So how is it that he is managing to sustain a business out of the hobby of philately?

In a word – eBay.

The 66-year-old enthuses: "eBay has made a massive and wonderful difference to this business.

"There are guys who start messing around on eBay selling antiques, and when they want stock they come to people like me because I am a wholesaler.

"It is a declining trade overall, but a guy at my level can make a business because I have people coming to me who want stock to sell on eBay."

Perhaps the best thing about all this is that Mr O'Hanlon himself refuses to sell or buy on the auction website: he still makes 100 per cent of his profits from his auctions at Benson Village Hall, albeit some of the bidders then sell what they have bought online.

Those buyers, virtually non-existent ten years ago, now account for about 30 per cent of his income.

And now Mr O'Hanlon's son Mark, having recently quit his job with Thames Valley Police, is planning to start up a subsidiary of his dad's business selling Provincial Philatelics stock through online auctions.

Mr O'Hanlon and his late business partner Rosemary Morrison bought Provincial Philatelics from its previous owner Mike Perry in 1990.

Two years later they bought a former corner shop at 90 Park Road, Didcot, for £10,000 to run the business from.

The most expensive stamp Mr O'Hanlon has ever sold fetched £12,000.

If that seems surprising, the most expensive stamp ever sold fetched £6 million at auction in New York: the ultra-rare black British Guiana 1856.

Mr O'Hanlon says it is the tantalising possibility of finding gold like that in a dusty old album that keeps all collectors going: "It can be very monotonous at times, but there is still a thrill when someone walks through the door with a collection and you see something really nice in there."

Provincial Philatelics' next auction at Benson Village Hall will be on Sunday, December 4.