Can stamps be sold for more than what they cost?

jackieb

I didn't know you can print your own!
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump3?catId=400043&mediaId=26800663

Wonder if we can print our own money too!

achtunglady

newsseller12 wrote:

I am a small retailer who sells stamps, Clearly stated in my terms & conditions:-
"The retailer shall not sell the products for any sum higher than their face value."
I have always sold at the r-mail price.
Retailers commission on stamps is a very poor 4% hardly making them worth bothering with in the first place!

Thanks for that newsseller, but what if hes actually buying them at royal mail prices say at the post office and selling them on adding his profit without actually being supplied in the proper fashion with a contract of terms and conditions?

Becles

jackieb wrote:

I didn't know you can print your own!
http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump3?catId=400043&mediaId=26800663

Hubby does that. It prints the postage and his business logo on the envelopes and they look really professional.

achtunglady

Right,I have just got off the phone to Royal Mail and I have had it confirmed that they are NOT allowed to add anything on the value of the stamp. They have asked me to write in to them and an investigation will start and if they officially selling stamps in the correct channels (ie bought through Royal Mail from their retail side of things) then they will have their license revoked. I was also told that I can involve trading standards as well.

Astaroth

magyar wrote:

Sorry to go slightly OT but I was interested to see that Bank of England notes are not legal tender in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

I've never had trouble spending English notes in Scotland, but plenty of times I've had Scottish notes refused in England and I always huffily say "well, they're legal tender, you have to take them!"

They wouldnt have to accept them... they can refuse the sale. Legal tender only comes into play where there is no option about if you have to pay or not so for services already rendered/ goods already received (not many places give you the goods first and then bill you later) and court orders.

In theory in Scotland valid bank of england notes under £5 are still legal tender in scotland so if the BoE was to start printing £1 notes again then they would be tender.

Being at Uni in scotland used to be great for coming back to england... whilst a few people got shirty about taking the "foreign" notes an equal proportion mistook a RBS £1 note (still in use in scotland - or at least when I was there) for a £5 and gave change appropriate to that.

greyteam1959

Becles wrote:

Hubby does that. It prints the postage and his business logo on the envelopes and they look really professional.

Yes but do remember that it costs you £4.99 per month to print your own stamps ( less if you register for a year ).
You can get a lot of stamps for £4.99 moneysavers !!!!
:T

silvercar

if they only make 4% by buying them from royal mail and selling them on, chances are they are buying them from a retailer and then adding their mark up - legal and a bigger profit.

Astaroth

Is it illegal? If it was a normal item (say a TV) then there would be nothing wrong in doing this. If the manufacture set a retail price for the item (as some hifi suppliers do) then it is the intermediary that would be breaching the contract they have with the supplier in Silvercars hypothesis not the retailer that actually sold them to the OP.

What legislation is that governs the sale of stamps then?

newsseller12

It is probably not illegal if he has no contract with royal mail just as I can buy sweets/tobbaco from wholesalers and sell at any mark up I wish. although if I were to charge 99p for a mars bar for example nobody would pay that price and I would be out of business very soon!
Basically what I am saying is why would anyone pay more than 32p for a stamp. None of my customers would!

moonrakerz

magyar wrote:

Sorry to go slightly OT but I was interested to see that Bank of England notes are not legal tender in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

In Scotland there is NO Legal Tender paper money !