'Can you buy stamps now, then sell them for 30% profit?' blog discussion

hermante

misterthrifty wrote: »

I don't agree at all. The Govt will find it much more difficult to sell RM with 100s of millions £ of liabilities on the books, the likelehood is that a new company will issue their own labels and then cancel previous issues after a period of grace. Note that they have sliced off the pension fund already.

Previous changes in the Monarch have previously resulted in a change of stamps and probably it will happen again.

OK, unlikely we would join the Euro, but Germany is an example where pre EU stamps were de-monetarised and are now worth peanuts, even their NVI lost their value. Same with decimilisation here.

Good point about Independence.

Just my opinions but worth bearing in mind if you are planning to hold stamps for a while. There is a secondary market in stamps that is much cheaper than the face price and this has been falling for a while now.

Mr T

Has Germany ever had NVI stamps? Don't think so. The UK only had them since 1989, so decimalisation is irrelevant. When QE2 passes, we can learn what may happen from Hong Kong, where QE2 stamps were still valid for a few years after the handover. However there are still loads of coins with her portrait in circulation, as well as notes until maybe 2007.

As for Scotland, stamps will still be usable in England, so you can still sell them on ebay, or pop over the border to post things if you live near enough. And since universal service to rural Scotland is part of the reason why the price is going up, maybe the price will come down for the rest of us (and also for the Scots).

misterthrifty

jrawle wrote: »

£100millions? How many stamps do you think people are going to stock up on? The proportion of people playing this game is tiny, and the average number of stamps each one holds is small too.

Probably a few million this time but RM have been selling huge volumes of stamps to collectors for 40+ years. These people all become creditors, if the Govt asks the buyer of RM to honour them then it's going to cost a big chunk of the sale price, or they can draw a line under it. I know which one my money is on.

misterthrifty

hermante wrote: »

Has Germany ever had NVI stamps? Don't think so. The UK only had them since 1989, so decimalisation is irrelevant. When QE2 passes, we can learn what may happen from Hong Kong, where QE2 stamps were still valid for a few years after the handover. However there are still loads of coins with her portrait in circulation, as well as notes until maybe 2007.

As for Scotland, stamps will still be usable in England, so you can still sell them on ebay, or pop over the border to post things if you live near enough. And since universal service to rural Scotland is part of the reason why the price is going up, maybe the price will come down for the rest of us (and also for the Scots).

As far as I recall every Europe country has demonetarised their stamps since the War, it means they write of existing liabilities and they can sell a load more stamps, I see no reason why the Govt won't do it again. I think NVI only increases the argument for writing them off.

If England & Scotland both have a privatised mail, why would they allow them to be used across the border? It doesn't happen in other european countries and particularly if they are run by different companies. These are profit making machines. When the PO is sold we will be paying a lot more for a reduced service.

IMHO

ronangel

So everybody is going to make a big profit…. I remember years ago where a company sold people franchises in laundrettes just when they first started out, told them how good a profit they would make figures were all correct, But what the persons buying did not get written into their contracts was that the company could not sell another laundrette for say at least one mile away from the location.
There was this sad looking guy on the program shaking his head saying “shouldn’t be allowed” when the company sold loads of them to people a few streets apart at the same time Everybody only found out too late to make a profit. Nothing illegal was done selling company closed down after building of all laundrettes completed, it became a buyers market to get clothes washed! ( no cheap washing machines for home use at that time) most people buying ran at a loss for years or went out of business. Money can ONLY be made on these things when you get in at beginning of market AND have a virtual monopoly to start with. But still good investment if you use loads of stamps should plans go wrong… where else can you get 30% investment on your money with no risk even if you have to wait 5-10 years or use yourself maybe leave to your children. Oh- and you think the small corner shop keepers will not be buying large amounts hanging onto them ( they don’t go off like food) and then selling at maybe 1-2 pence less than post office when you buy a card from them….

stoneman

Superdrug pulled there 5% discount a day early

N1AK

I bought £130 in 2nd class stamps from Staples. I got £9 back in cashback and bought it on a cashback credit card for another £2. So in total I paid £119 for what will be £180 worth of stamps next month.

Obviously fees, postage etc will account for a fair bit but getting 10-20% ROI in less than 6 months isn't bad was tempted to buy a LOT more.

[Deleted User]

sham63 wrote: »

Just did a quick example calculation for selling on Ebay;

Buy 1000 x 2nd class for £360

Sell on Ebay for, say, £480 (as face value is £500 after rise)

Ebay fees = £40
Paypal fees = £16.52

Total fees = £56.52

£480 - £56.52 = £423.48 which gives a profit of £63.48

which is approx 18% profit (not 30% but still not bad!)


Assumes free listing & free postage (although you would need to send by special delivery for items of this value - this would eat futher into your profit)

Thanks for the calculations - but seems like a lot of work to make £60 (and assumes that the stamps would be sold as a single lot) I suspect that a lot of people who want to buy 1000 stamps in one go may rather pay the extra £20 and go to the Post Office, or buy 100 stamps as and when they need them ...

custardy

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

What is the price rise for 1st class 'large' stamps... I can't find the information anywhere...

its on the RM site

postal prices
2012


http://www.royalmail.com/prices2012

custardy

Sleazy wrote: »

Thanks for the calculations - but seems like a lot of work to make £60 (and assumes that the stamps would be sold as a single lot) I suspect that a lot of people who want to buy 1000 stamps in one go may rather pay the extra £20 and go to the Post Office, or buy 100 stamps as and when they need them ...

no mention of P&P either
so knock £6-£10 off that

koru

Just a reminder that Royal Mail also sells prepaid envelopes (blank envelopes with the stamp preprinted on the envelope) and you can buy these direct from their website in boxes of 100 or from Post Office counters. They currently cost £53.23, which is £46 for the stamps and £7.23 for 100 envelopes which is not a bad price, although you can of course buy low quality envelopes for less than this. These will also go up in price at the end of the month, presumably by £14.