If a shell has no price stated then it is not for sale. Most of them are shells that I have sold previously. A few are shells that I’ve photographed at the request of a collector, a scientist or an institution. If you are interested in buying that species, email me and I will keep a note of what you are seeking.

I want my website to be a permanent resource. I want high-resolution images of high-quality shells, correctly identified, to be available to all.

The complete catalogue is huge. If it is too slow and cumbersome for your device, I strongly recommend that you use one of the other options from the “Browse by” menu. Many collectors like to browse within their favourite family, so the place to start is the Browse by family menu. Your device will be accessing a much smaller database. The following browse options are liable to seem slow for some users:

Browse by habitat: Marine

Browse by class: Gastropoda

Browse by Marine province: Indo-Pacific

In the “Sort by” drop-down menu, select the option “Date Added”. If you’re viewing the complete catalogue, this is the best way to see all of the newest additions, of all families. You can also use "Sort by" in a particular family, for instance.

There may be a short delay between the database appearing to be loaded and it actually being loaded. During this delay, you won’t be able to change the “Sort by” option.

The text you enter in the search box can be part of a genus, species or family name. It also searches localities and ‘features’. For instance, if you search for “CYPR” you will find Cypraeidae, but you’ll also find all the shells from Cyprus. Your text needn’t start at the beginning of a word. For instance, if you search for “YPRAE” you will find all the Cypraeidae.

Please note that if your main intention is to search for one particular family, it is more efficient to Browse by family, rather than use the complete catalogue.

You can. However, it is more efficient for you to Browse by family.

Grading shells is 90% subjective. No two dealers will ever agree on gradings. You should try to get used to how a certain dealer grades shells. Be aware that shells sold in certain countries are grossly over-graded. I use the terms F+++, F++, F+/F++, F+, F/F+, F, Gd/F, Gd, and Fair, which denote decreasing quality. I run a legitimate long-established business and I know that collectors judge me by the quality of my shells. I try hard not to ‘over-grade’ – I want you to be pleasantly surprised when you receive your shells, not disappointed.

I examine all but the biggest shells under a stereomicroscope when grading them. I haven’t yet seen a perfect shell. Therefore I never use the term "gem" or even “gem for the species”. I believe "gem" is used far too frequently, especially by dealers in certain countries where the proportion of supposed "gems" defies credulity.

With a very small number of specialist shells, a quality grading just isn’t relevant. Often I don’t give a grading to freak specimens, which are of course not representative of their species. And I do not attempt to grade fossils.

The word ‘rare’ is difficult to define when applied to shells. I think it is grossly overused by shell dealers, and so I avoid it completely. Species of certain families are often described as ‘rare’ despite a single dealer holding 100s of specimens in stock at once. On the other hand, some species in other families are known from a single specimen only, and yet they receive little attention. Generally, the rarest shells I offer are those species which are not yet described.

The stated measurement is the largest possible measurement. Most often this is apex-to-canal on a gastropod, but not always. For Xenophoridae, the measurement includes attachments. For Spondylus, the measurement includes the spines.

A size range (e.g. “20–22mm”) gives the measurements of the smallest shell and the largest shell at the time that I added that item to my stock. There’s no guarantee that both sizes are still available, and there’s no guarantee that more than one specimen is still available. Where I sell slightly different sized shells at the same price it is because in my opinion each shell represents the same value for money. The largest one is not necessarily ‘better’.

Although the website allows you to order multiples, you cannot know how many I have available just by looking at the website. Very often I have only a single specimen. You are welcome to enquire about quantities of course. Note: if the exact size of a shell is given to the nearest 0.1mm (e.g.“14.1mm”) then there is only a single specimen. (Very occasionally there is an exception to this, but only with the very smallest shells.) When the size is given to the nearest millimetre without a decimal point (e.g. “14mm”), there were multiple specimens available at the time the item was listed, and all were the same size to the nearest millimetre (e.g. they were between 14.0 and 14.9mm).

I have an extensive shell library, and access to electronic sources. Importantly, I consult with a network of experts on certain families and certain geographical regions. I recognise that sometimes the ID is “a matter of opinion”. The nature of my business means that I cannot be an expert on a single family – I have to have a very broad knowledge of Mollusca.

By all means tell me, and I will try to check the ID again. Please remember that there can be differences of opinion, though.

It can denote one of two things. It may relate to a species that’s undescribed, or which I suspect is undescribed (often called “sp. nov.”). It can also mean that I cannot identify it to the species level. Sometimes this is a reflection of poor literature and poor type specimens – there are certain families (e.g. Pyramidellidae) in which some shells can never be correlated precisely with those species that have been described, and yet they cannot be termed “undescribed”.

A 'feature' or characteristic means that the specimen is of unusual size, or has typical morphology or colour, or is a fossil, or has some special status such as being a designated paratype. Some collectors are particularly interested in specimens with one of more of these characteristics. The filter and the browse-by function make it easy for you to find such shells in my database.

Some individual shells in the Plates gallery will be available, but only if they are shown as available in my catalogue. Many of the Plates are composites of images taken over a 15+ year period, and it would never be possible to see so many specimens together in one place.

Email me with a list of species that you are seeking, and I will do my best! Often I can give you an indication of the likelihood of success.

A small number of mollusc shells are controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Ironically, most of these controlled species are readily available for sale on the internet, including on eBay. I urge you not to participate in such trade. I do not sell CITES species. You still have about 100,000 mollusc species to collect – you don’t need to seek out the mere handful which are protected under CITES. Images of some CITES species appear on my website, but they are not for sale and I can never obtain those species for you.

I follow the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) to a large extent, but not absolutely. If a trusted expert tells me that they disagree with a WoRMS entry, I will often follow that trusted expert. Sometimes I ignore generic placement because it would confuse many collectors. For instance, I list all Conasprella species as simply Conus.

I am very aware that many shells coming from the Philippines are ‘doctored’ to improve the apparent quality, to create freaks, or even to convert one species into another. Any Philippine shell that passes through my hands is examined microscopically, and often treated with acetone to detect resin and paintwork. I would like to see this doctoring practice outlawed; I believe it is detrimental to shell collecting and to scientific study.

I sometimes sell a white/cream specimen of a species that would normally be coloured. I hesitate to use the term ‘albino’ though. Albinism refers to a specific genetic mutation, and few all-white shells are actually albinos. Most shells marketed as ‘albino’ are merely dead-collected shells that have lost their colour, or specimens that have been deliberately left in the sun for a long time so that the colour is bleached out. They may still be collectable shells, but in my opinion their price should be significantly lower, not higher.

No. Transporting living snails from one country to another can have devastating ecological effects, even when done with good intentions. It is illegal in most countries. The same applies to viable snail eggs.