diff --git a/scrapy/contrib/linkextractors/sgml.py b/scrapy/contrib/linkextractors/sgml.py
index 9ec664bda..5510396c0 100644
--- a/scrapy/contrib/linkextractors/sgml.py
+++ b/scrapy/contrib/linkextractors/sgml.py
@@ -25,16 +25,16 @@ class BaseSgmlLinkExtractor(FixedSGMLParser):
         self.feed(response_text)
         self.close()
 
-        links = unique_list(self.links, key=lambda link: link.url) if self.unique else self.links
-
         ret = []
         base_url = urljoin_rfc(response_url, self.base_url) if self.base_url else response_url
-        for link in links:
+        for link in self.links:
             link.url = urljoin_rfc(base_url, link.url, response_encoding)
             link.url = safe_url_string(link.url, response_encoding)
             link.text = str_to_unicode(link.text, response_encoding)
             ret.append(link)
 
+        ret = unique_list(ret, key=lambda link: link.url) if self.unique else ret
+
         return ret
 
     def extract_links(self, response):
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/sample_data/link_extractor/sgml_linkextractor.html b/scrapy/tests/sample_data/link_extractor/sgml_linkextractor.html
index 602ea04cd..fecd86563 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/sample_data/link_extractor/sgml_linkextractor.html
+++ b/scrapy/tests/sample_data/link_extractor/sgml_linkextractor.html
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 <area href='sample1.html' />
 <a href='sample2.html'>sample 2<img src='sample2.jpg'/></a>
 </div>
-<a href='sample3.html' title='sample 3'>sample 3 text</a>
+<a href='http://example.com/sample3.html' title='sample 3'>sample 3 text</a>
 <a href='sample3.html'>sample 3 repetition</a>
 <a href='http://www.google.com/something'></a>
 </div>
diff --git a/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_linkextractors.py b/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_linkextractors.py
index 65ffad714..a5e57bde0 100644
--- a/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_linkextractors.py
+++ b/scrapy/tests/test_contrib_linkextractors.py
@@ -110,6 +110,13 @@ class SgmlLinkExtractorTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
               Link(url='http://example.com/sample3.html', text=u'sample 3 text'),
               Link(url='http://example.com/sample3.html', text=u'sample 3 repetition') ])
 
+        lx = SgmlLinkExtractor(allow=('sample', ))
+        self.assertEqual([link for link in lx.extract_links(self.response)],
+            [ Link(url='http://example.com/sample1.html', text=u''),
+              Link(url='http://example.com/sample2.html', text=u'sample 2'),
+              Link(url='http://example.com/sample3.html', text=u'sample 3 text'),
+              ])
+
         lx = SgmlLinkExtractor(allow=('sample', ), deny=('3', ))
         self.assertEqual([link for link in lx.extract_links(self.response)],
             [ Link(url='http://example.com/sample1.html', text=u''),