Business & Work

It’s a bit of a change from running a PR agency but, when Barbara Stopher sold her business in 2009, she was on the look out for a new interest that combined her passions of buying at auction and the internet, but that did not involve anything that took up too much storage space.

From PR to Marketing Vintage Miniatures

Because of her marketing background, Barbara researched the vintage miniatures market looking for gaps. She found that many people were concentrating on Britain's soldiers, with some ancillary items on the side, but few were making the civilian items their core offering. And so the idea of Lilliput World, the world in miniature, was born. But it took Barbara eighteen months to collect enough quality stock to launch the internet based business (www.lilliputworld.co.uk) in late 2010.

Why Lilliput World?

 “Jonathan Swift’s story of Gulliver’s Travels came to me as I remembered how Gulliver became imprisoned by a race of miniature people in a land called Lilliput. In a similar way, I, and many other modern collectors, have become captive to a whole new world of miniature collectables.

"We can relive our childhoods with lead and diecast figures, animals and gardens from leading manufacturers of the day including Britains, John Hill & Co., Taylor & Barrett, Charbens, Sacul and Timpo.

"One particular favourite is a wonderful boxed Sacul set of the famous Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men and Little Weed children's TV characters from the 1950s."

Never too late to learn new skills

How hard was it for Barbara to get the online business going? “I thought I knew all I needed about running a business but one thing I completely underestimated was the skill and time required to identify, describe and photograph everything,” she says. “I owe a debt of gratitude to the reference works by the likes of Norman Joplin, Philip Dean, Arnold Rolan and Joe Kunzelmann without whom I would have been completely lost!”

Selling all over the World

Early Lilliput World customers have come from as far away as the USA and the Netherlands with the UK obviously being the heart of the business. Barbara has searched extensively to provide the online store with an ever-changing stock, especially of rare and boxed items, for you to indulge your collecting passion. The site also offers the chance to sign up to a monthly email newsletter so that you can be the first to know before rare new items are listed.

Special GiddyLimits Offer

As a special offer to GiddyLimits readers, Lilliput World is offering you a 10% discount on all purchases during June 2011. Please just select the items you wish to purchase and then email gulliver@lilliputworld.co.uk to complete the deal mentioning ‘GiddyLimits’.

More information

Email:  gulliver@lilliputworld.co.uk

Write to: PO Box 1142, Cheltenham, GL50 9QY

www.lilliputworld.co.uk