Royal Mail barcoding stamps - existing stamps valid only until 31 Jan 2023

Rantband

londoner62 said:

I suspect the only reason there is a closing date for the like for like swap is that the PO must have an idea of how many stamps are in the publics hands and the value of the unswapped stamps will go towards settling the liabilities incurred from the wrongful prosecutions for fraud. 

The Post Office and Royal Mail are two separate companies!!!

custardy

londoner62 said:

I suspect the only reason there is a closing date for the like for like swap is that the PO must have an idea of how many stamps are in the publics hands and the value of the unswapped stamps will go towards settling the liabilities incurred from the wrongful prosecutions for fraud. 

Can we ever get this done with conflating the two?
You mean RM not PO in regards to stamps given RM control them.
The Horizon issue is a PO issue though muddied as it came under RM group for part of the time

srhysh

1) The barcodes will contain no tracking information - at least for the sender and receiver.

2) If you are an eBay or Amazon seller you'd be surprised by how many stamps you will get through. A year is a long time.

soolin

srhysh said:

1) The barcodes will contain no tracking information - at least for the sender and receiver.

2) If you are an eBay or Amazon seller you'd be surprised by how many stamps you will get through. A year is a long time.

I doubt many sellers, apart from those with very low sales, use stamps- that’s been my issue with the amount of stock I am currently trying to use. Firstly , why use stamps on a parcel which costs you 30p more on each 2nd class small parcel , and also lose the delivery confirmation? I know you can use a mix of stamps and labels but you still end up paying 30p more and also my local PO won’t take many parcels at a time unless they are all pre done. 

 I am using stamps just on large letters at the moment as it costs no more and I don’t have delivery confirmation anyway and it adds a fair bit of time to my daily routine. If I was a big seller I couldn’t possibly spend the time working out combinations of stamps to make up 96p £1.53 or £1.99, although I agree it will be easier once I use up all my commemoratives and oddments and can move on to Large letter stamps. 

I’m doing very well using my stamps though mainly because I have targeted listing large letter sized items ! 

petersy

Call me sceptical, but couldn't the QR code be used to update the price of the stamp at each price rise, resulting in additional stamps being required to make up the difference? From Royal Mail's point of view, this would do away with those of us who have taken Martin's advise and hoarded stamps to avoid the next price rise.

molerat

petersy said:

Call me sceptical, but couldn't the QR code be used to update the price of the stamp at each price rise, resulting in additional stamps being required to make up the difference? From Royal Mail's point of view, this would do away with those of us who have taken Martin's advise and hoarded stamps to avoid the next price rise.

No, because of the big 1 or 2 printed on them.

petersy

molerat said:

petersy said:

Call me sceptical, but couldn't the QR code be used to update the price of the stamp at each price rise, resulting in additional stamps being required to make up the difference? From Royal Mail's point of view, this would do away with those of us who have taken Martin's advise and hoarded stamps to avoid the next price rise.

No, because of the big 1 or 2 printed on them.

Yes, they have always had a big 1 and 2 on them, but it has been the price that has changed over the years and not the design or colour.

But now the colours are changing and a QR code has been added (to enable the recipient to watch a Shaun the Sheep video according to Royal Mail).

My sceptical mind is telling me that there is an ulterior motive for the colour changes and QR code addition that Royal Mail is not coming clean on.

One scenario could be that the QR code could be a kind of 'expiry date' after which the stamp could not be used, just like they are doing now with the current stamps.

I guess that only time will tell what Royal Mail have up their sleeve in this changing world.

custardy

petersy said:

molerat said:

petersy said:

Call me sceptical, but couldn't the QR code be used to update the price of the stamp at each price rise, resulting in additional stamps being required to make up the difference? From Royal Mail's point of view, this would do away with those of us who have taken Martin's advise and hoarded stamps to avoid the next price rise.

No, because of the big 1 or 2 printed on them.

Yes, they have always had a big 1 and 2 on them, but it has been the price that has changed over the years and not the design or colour.

But now the colours are changing and a QR code has been added (to enable the recipient to watch a Shaun the Sheep video according to Royal Mail).

My sceptical mind is telling me that there is an ulterior motive for the colour changes and QR code addition that Royal Mail is not coming clean on.

One scenario could be that the QR code could be a kind of 'expiry date' after which the stamp could not be used, just like they are doing now with the current stamps.

I guess that only time will tell what Royal Mail have up their sleeve in this changing world.

How much data do you think that little QR code can contain?

AstonSmith

custardy said:

How much data do you think that little QR code can contain?

Looks like 60 bytes, based on NBLondon's link ( https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78976267/#Comment_78976267 ). What's the relevance?

Each stamp does have a date of manufacture encoded on it, but I think it's more likely that they'd scrap the 1st and 2nd designations in favour of exact prices before they made stamps expire.

martindow

There was a post, possibly earlier in this thread, with a link to someone who had analysed what the barcode included.  As well as the date (as Aston mentioned) there was also the current value in pence.