Thanks all for the flurry of replies, I have just secured an XA and shall be trying it as soon as it arrives, i will be using it for colour reversal and slide too just mainly B&W, not so bothered about the use of filters as I have a film SLR (or two) for that, (retro to modern) and filters to suit, the main reason is as good as the submini's are you can only go so far with the enlargements andoccasionally i get a nice shot i'd like A4+. but still want something that'll sit in my pocket and be unobtrusive and there when needed.

Re the alternatives, i'll certianly take a look and see what they have to offer, I know the Rollei is much admired and revered but 'i don't know how to explain this' i've never so much as touched one but I don't like the look of them? Odd I know but there you go, ideally i'd love a good working Minox 35 as having seen some sample images from working examples they really are stunning, some say the XA's lens is not much worse but i'll know soon enough, the seller seems like a thoroughly nice guy and is an enthusiast like myself who likes to try different beasties and has guaranteed it fully working or refundable so can't say fairer than that, better than the usual, 'well the shutter clicks when I press the button here' responses you'd normally get from auctions sites.
I do like the look of the Ricoh's so will study those some more, thanks for the link post.
My only criteria with a compact is that it's pocketable and has user defined apertures as I like to be in control of the DOF over everything else in the shot, hence the reason for looking at the 'older' models before the days when camera makers decided we were all too thick to know what to do with fstops and shutter speed and let the cameras do it all for you.
Hopefully will have some samples to post soon.
Mike