'I beat the stamp price hike - by buying £2,500 worth' - MSE News

Former_MSE_Naomi

A MoneySaver who bought £2,500 worth of postage stamps seven years ago says he's delivered on his plan to save £100s - as the costs have increased by up to 69% since 2012...

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''I beat the stamp price hike - by buying £2,500 worth''

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sc2018

I did the exact same thing when I was running a business using a lot of Royal Mail postage, but now I'm in a position when I won't use the stamps.

Is there a way to sell stamps for their face value or close to?

Caddyman

Fair play to him, but I can honestly say, I cannot remember the last time I even bought a stamp.

ben501

MSE_Naomi wrote: »

- as the costs have increased by up to 69% since 2012...

But unless I'm mistaken, they rose by 100% in the previous 7 years. Now that would have been a good time to buy.


https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/mar/27/60p-price-stamp-royal-mail

NBLondon

sc2018 wrote: »

Is there a way to sell stamps for their face value or close to?

Depends on your definition of close... You can sell them on eBay but I'd reckon on getting 2/3 face at best (assuming you have standard red/blue 1st/2nd). Maybe more if you have sheets of a commemorative issue. If you just have a lot of booklets; the cost of postage and packing will eat in to the margin too.

Stamp Dealers sell excess stock below face value - so they are not likely to give you a good deal if you wanted to offload.

macloud

By the same token, one can BUY perfectly useable mint UK stamps on eBay for a big discount. There are always several Buy It Now offers of quantities of stamps, definitives or more interesting commemorative stamps, for around 75% of face value, often 'postage paid'. Where open bidding is required then I usually manage to get similar stamps for 50-75% of face value. In fact, I have never paid more than 75% face value for any stamps destined for my outgoing letters in the past 20 years .. particularly useful at Christmas !

SimonHolland1

I'm an eBay 'Top Seller' and use this to save money - I use cheap couriers for most UK deliveries but by buying approximately £1000-£2000 of None Value Indicated stamps each march saves me around 5% on my overseas postage if I buy the stamps that go up the most % (despite what a few Post Offices say you CAN use NVI stamps for overseas postage) - you can't get that from a bank! Also allows me to manage my accounts to 'iron out' fluctuations and take advantage of tax brackets. Purchase them via the RM website for free secure delivery and cash-back on my credit card! Only downside is I have to now learn my 83p (new 2nd large) times table!!

SimonHolland1

I might be interested (eBay business seller).

SimonHolland1

Beware - I'm an eBay business seller and many of the stamps sold on eBay are USED with the franking ink removed. However, they will likely have UV franking still on them and it is a CRIMINAL OFFENCE to attempt to use stamps more than once. RM takes this crime (often well organised) very seriously.

NBLondon

SimonHolland1 wrote: »

I might be interested (eBay business seller).

But not at a price sc2018 wants.... If buyers can bid at around 75% of face - then for you as a seller to make a profit you're going to offer no more than 40-50% for a job lot.

SimonHolland1 wrote: »

Beware - I'm an eBay business seller and many of the stamps sold on eBay are USED with the franking ink removed.

Yes. Advertised as "unfranked" and "off-paper" almost certainly means they have been used once but not properly franked or the franking marks removed. The seller may claim in tiny print that they are for philatelic use only. There are also fakes of the Business Sheets (50 or 100 stamps) around. Like many things - if the price looks too good to be true; it's probably dodgy.

Like macloud, I buy old commemoratives for personal postage (presentation packs, booklets, part sheets) and my max bid is usually (60% of face minus P&P) unless I specifically want a given design in which case I might go up to 90%.

redux

Surely a business can set up a self-franking account, and I imagine the price is discounted.

In the same vein, I remember someone years ago setting up to have the post collected from the office in the afternoon, as she thought it was surprisingly good value compared to having to leave work earlier, find somewhere to park, and stand in a queue.

Personally, this doesn't apply to me, as like the person in post 3 I barely buy any stamps.