Kantar - Royal Mail Monitoring and Posting Panel

NBLondon

On another thread....

molerat said:

There should be.  RM survey participants have been told their April stamps allocation, which will be going out around now, will be barcoded so I suspect all new PO allocations will be the same. More likely in a large PO than a village PO for a while.

Out of interest - I  looked at the (non barcoded) stamp on the test item I posted today and it was coded M13L - so a 2013 printing.  Wonder how much stock Kantar have of these to use up before putting barcoded ones on test envelopes?

gt94sss2

NBLondon said:

On another thread....

molerat said:

There should be.  RM survey participants have been told their April stamps allocation, which will be going out around now, will be barcoded so I suspect all new PO allocations will be the same. More likely in a large PO than a village PO for a while.

Out of interest - I  looked at the (non barcoded) stamp on the test item I posted today and it was coded M13L - so a 2013 printing.  Wonder how much stock Kantar have of these to use up before putting barcoded ones on test envelopes?

Great minds... I was thinking this the other day. Kantar have been using 2013 stock for years.

If they are not already attached to envelopes, I assume Kantar can just swap them like everyone else..

Money_Grabber13579

NBLondon said:

On another thread....

molerat said:

There should be.  RM survey participants have been told their April stamps allocation, which will be going out around now, will be barcoded so I suspect all new PO allocations will be the same. More likely in a large PO than a village PO for a while.

Out of interest - I  looked at the (non barcoded) stamp on the test item I posted today and it was coded M13L - so a 2013 printing.  Wonder how much stock Kantar have of these to use up before putting barcoded ones on test envelopes?

I had just noticed this last week too and meant to post but then I forgot! 😳

molerat

Just checked two I've got to post and the 1st is 13 and the 2nd class is 20.

Primrose

Talking about old stock many of the envelopes I had for posting in my most recent survey were so old that the glue to stick them down had all dried up 

kerri_gt

Primrose said:

Talking about old stock many of the envelopes I had for posting in my most recent survey were so old that the glue to stick them down had all dried up 

I've got envelopes like that at home 🙈

MDMD

NBLondon said:

On another thread....

molerat said:

There should be.  RM survey participants have been told their April stamps allocation, which will be going out around now, will be barcoded so I suspect all new PO allocations will be the same. More likely in a large PO than a village PO for a while.

Out of interest - I  looked at the (non barcoded) stamp on the test item I posted today and it was coded M13L - so a 2013 printing.  Wonder how much stock Kantar have of these to use up before putting barcoded ones on test envelopes?

Mine is M13L too - although the large I have on my next posting seems to be M21L so they must have been sent thousands that they are still working through

edit: reading this page, it appears to suggest the year is when they set up the “cylinder” used to print the stamps, not necessarily when it was actually printed. 

https://blog.norphil.co.uk/2013/04/two-more-new-machin-definitive-stamps.html

MDMD

On the subject of swapping it says on this page the scheme opens on 31 March, not sure if it gave a date when I looked before:

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/barcoded-stamps

According to Companies House Royal Mail Group Limited has a financial year end of the end of March so it’s probably chosen to coincide with that.

NBLondon

MDMD said:

edit: reading this page, it appears to suggest the year is when they set up the “cylinder” used to print the stamps, not necessarily when it was actually printed. 

https://blog.norphil.co.uk/2013/04/two-more-new-machin-definitive-stamps.html

Ian at Norphil is my favourite source...  but in that article it's actually talking about whether the different stamp printers (DLR - De La Rue and Walsall)  were using the same settings.     The code does change to the current year when there is a new printing, and some collectors like to have one of each type (counter sheet, booklet etc) of each year of that value.  Here's a blog talking about M21L appearing http://31ppurple.blogspot.com/2021/01/new-values-odd-wales-1st-and-first-21.html and go back one post to see some M20L red 1st class.

I just looked at the stamp books I have ready to be swapped (all sent by Kantar).  I have 5 books of Large 1st; 3 are M19L and 2 are M21L.  I have 3 books of regular 1st; all are M21L.   

My current plan goes:
* Wait for the end of my current cycle and get all the booklets.
* Send the Large 1st booklets to RM and swap for new barcoded versions.
* Sell these new ones on eBay
* Use up the regular 1st class throughout this year and on 2022 Christmas cards

molerat

molerat said:

Had an underpaid postage card this morning.  Can't think of anything I am expecting so will wait and see.

Some people shouldn't be on the survey.

One of the large envelopes we get in the packs, not a provided large white, with a clearly reused stamp - just cut off the envelope with the paper still attached - sellotaped on.