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

soolin

martindow said:

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.

The value being what it is worth at that point, not what was paid for it I hope, so as long as it says 1st or 2nd on it then it can be used even when the prices go up. The alternative would be that we would all need either a scanner or a ready reckoned to remember when we bought stamps to ascertain the value of them. 

martindow

soolin said:

martindow said:

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.

The value being what it is worth at that point, not what was paid for it I hope, so as long as it says 1st or 2nd on it then it can be used even when the prices go up. The alternative would be that we would all need either a scanner or a ready reckoned to remember when we bought stamps to ascertain the value of them. 

I also would hope that is the situation, but the post I referred to mentioned the price in pence being in the barcode.  Maybe they have in mind phasing out stamps marked as 1st and 2nd?  The code including the price paid would allow this to easily happen in the future ...

soolin

martindow said:

soolin said:

martindow said:

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.

The value being what it is worth at that point, not what was paid for it I hope, so as long as it says 1st or 2nd on it then it can be used even when the prices go up. The alternative would be that we would all need either a scanner or a ready reckoned to remember when we bought stamps to ascertain the value of them. 

I also would hope that is the situation, but the post I referred to mentioned the price in pence being in the barcode.  Maybe they have in mind phasing out stamps marked as 1st and 2nd?  The code including the price paid would allow this to easily happen in the future ...

I think that woudl cause chaos though. OK I suspect many of us here know exactly how much a 1st or 2nd class stamp is as we deal with them all the time- but go ask someone who rarely posts and relies on a few books bought at Christmas to get them through the year - I suspect very few could tell you exactly how much a letter would cost to post. Stamps tend to go up in price in Spring, so those last few stamps in the book from Christmas will end up being used for Birthdays during the year and cost the recipient excess charges - brilliant for money making, but disastorus for public relations.

I go to various post offices a lot and it is not uncommon to hear people express surprise that their book of 6 1st class stamps cost £5.10, they have no idea how much a stamp costs.

Spoonie_Turtle

While I do use a fair amount of stamps, I really couldn't tell you the price off the top of my head.  I can't remember whether it's in the 60s or 70s for 2nd class, no clue for 1st class.  I need them regardless of the price, so don't take too much notice to be honest (apart from when a price change is imminent, simply for whether it's worth stocking up or not).

cx6

They could still sell books of 1st and 2nd class stamps as not, but instead of having eg '1' on them they could have eg '85p'

Money_Grabber13579

cx6 said:

They could still sell books of 1st and 2nd class stamps as not, but instead of having eg '1' on them they could have eg '85p'

I suspect the move to 1st and 2nd from fixed prices was more about operational efficiency from RM’s perspective than a deliberate attempt to slow stamps to be stock piled in advance of a rate rise. By having them 1st and 2nd, it eliminates the issue of having to destroy (potentially) large amounts of stock which related to pre-rise prices and so saves RM loads of money by just being able to use the same stamps. That comes at a cost though, with it being much more open to fraud and that is what RM are trying to defeat now. 

 They tried it a couple of years ago by introducing stamps that can’t be soaked off paper, and that have slits that tear away if you try, along with micro printed test but clearly that hasn’t worked.  It does make the fake eBay listing generally easy to spot but most people don’t know what they are looking for and I’ve given up reporting them to eBay because they always refused to take the listing down.

cx6

Yes it is relatively easy to use other things than water to soak unfranked stamps off - so as you say it hasn't stopped the flow on ebay.

soolin

cx6 said:

They could still sell books of 1st and 2nd class stamps as not, but instead of having eg '1' on them they could have eg '85p'

That still doesn’t help though if you have no idea how much a letter costs to post. 

cx6

True but I was thinking if it said eg 'For use with 1st class letters' on the front and had 85p stamps inside then they would be valid until the next price rise.

That would prevent people bulk buying just before a price rise.

Side effect is that a lot more people would know the price of a 1st letter !

martindow

Here's a  page from a blog where someone has analysed the bar code on a 2nd class stamp

https://blog.norphil.co.uk/2021/03/barcode-added-to-2nd-class-business.html

Amongst other things the current price for a stamp is included.