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

soolin

cx6 said:

To use up my stamps I will be putting eg £3 on a package, going to the PO and paying them 20p to make a small parcel total.

Gets me out of the house.

If you printed the labels at home you would save 30p a go (another reason that I print my labels online) . maybe for the odd one or two parcels the extra 30p doesn't make a lot of difference, but with several a day it soon mounts up.

allison445

Arghhhh I have thousands of these I wonder if there is a limit to the amount you can swap I also have a ton of presentation packs which may now be worthless was keeping these for future years in case money got tight as the value was increasing yearly 

soolin

allison445 said:

Arghhhh I have thousands of these I wonder if there is a limit to the amount you can swap I also have a ton of presentation packs which may now be worthless was keeping these for future years in case money got tight as the value was increasing yearly 

It's always worth checking presentation packs, whilst most of them are face value or lower there are rare ones that fetch a small premium - it's time consuming but always worth checking. The only stamps that were ever worth buying were those with just '1st' or '2nd' on them as their value did increase every year .

Some of these presentation packs I am opening to use are very old, some still have stamps with a 1/2p on end- I understand that if using the 1/2p should be ignored and just the whole pence amount used.

Just as an example, look at this finished lot on ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Royal-mail-mint-stamps-1980-2000-presentation-year-packs-x10-/363703638415?hash=item54ae6d198f:g:5fYAAOSwLEth8Brv&nma=true&si=DkxDSvT4TOfmn9d6G1l0rdLdO54%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

If I saw a box like that at auction (usually auction lots are much bigger though) a quick check could easily tell if the face value was more than I would pay on hammer. This lot wouldn't be worth buying on ebay though as postage makes it expensive but if I was actually at an auction it would be worth looking at.

jrawle

I'm surprised there isn't a proper article about this on MSE. Perhaps it doesn't affect enough people.

Back in 2011, when huge increases in stamp prices were announced, I bought 100 first and 100 second class stamps, while prices were still 46p and 36p respectively. I still have a number of them; I use them for greetings cards, including airmail ones. Conveniently, this year it's exactly two first class stamps for air mail under 20g, or exactly three stamps for over 20g. In previous years, I've "over-paid" postage as it wasn't a round number of stamps, but in reality the cost to me was less given the low price I bought the stamps.

I'm sure I've already more than broken even, but I was still annoyed at the thought my stamps could be invalid next year. At the time I bought them, I checked the terms and it said stamps have no expiry date, and any metric stamp with the current Queen's head is valid (there are no metric stamps with any other monarch anyway...) I have thought about what might happen in the event of a succession to the crown, but I never thought Royal Mail would move the goalposts like this.

When I first heard the announcement on the radio, it almost sounded like an April Fool, two months early. Anyway, I now see there will be a scheme to swap stamps, so I'll wait for details. Hopefully they won't try and limit it to recent stamps of a certain design/colour.

soolin

also look at this one, face value of stamps £1.50 , winning price 99p plus postage- so although not worth buying- seller has actually made a loss after postage and fees.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Europa-92-Special-Edition-Royal-Mail-Mint-Stamps-/134005001400?hash=item1f33520cb8:g:u64AAOSwNK1h8BOK&nma=true&si=DkxDSvT4TOfmn9d6G1l0rdLdO54%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

EDIT Sky news suggest Christmas stamps will remain valid until January 2023 which suggests that it will apply to all stamps. 

nyermen

Got to wonder what will happen if you use an old stamp when posting after the deadline, will they really charge the recipient some sort of fee to deliver.

custardy

nyermen said:

Got to wonder what will happen if you use an old stamp when posting after the deadline, will they really charge the recipient some sort of fee to deliver.

I expect a honeymoon period and then yes that will be the case.

FatherTireseus

nyermen said:

Got to wonder what will happen if you use an old stamp when posting after the deadline, will they really charge the recipient some sort of fee to deliver.

According to the Royal Mail website, yes, they will:

What happens if I use a non barcoded stamp after 31 January 2023?

If you post an item with a non-barcoded stamp after 31 January 2023 it will be liable to surcharge — as it will be the equivalent of it having no postage. So please either use up any non-barcoded stamps you have — or swap them out.

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/barcoded-stamps?iid=H1_BARCODEDSTAMPS

kalsha

Am I right in thinking that this only applies to definitive and Christmas stamps?   so the commemoratives from the presentation packs can be used normally (even after 2023)

soolin

kalsha said:

Am I right in thinking that this only applies to definitive and Christmas stamps?   so the commemoratives from the presentation packs can be used normally (even after 2023)

Lots of discussion about this on various forums now, some suggest only definitive some say all. However if this is a security /anti fraud measure then it would seem odd to allow pictorials and commemoratives still to be used, some of them have a face value of over £1 so it would seem a massive loophole as any fraudsters would just start faking them instead. On the other hand printing 1p and other low value stamps with the bar code bit extra would seem an expensive option . I’m really not sure and will see if I can search out any official RM details.

I also get updates on forthcoming releases so perhaps even seeing if there are any pics of releases later this year to see if they are barcoded or not might assist. 

EDIT the Royal Mail commemorative calendar shows no pictures unfortunately .

https://shop.royalmail.com/download-stocklist