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

NBLondon

soolin said:

I went to the PO today and asked if I could buy a few books of the new barcoded stamps. I was told that they were not allowed to sell them before April 4th and they could only sell me normal ones before then. 

That's the individual PO being awkward.  They certainly can sell them (if they have stocks) unless you were after a new £1.85 stamp.   Possibly they are being told by their own management to use up the non-barcoded stocks first.

soolin

NBLondon said:

soolin said:

I went to the PO today and asked if I could buy a few books of the new barcoded stamps. I was told that they were not allowed to sell them before April 4th and they could only sell me normal ones before then. 

That's the individual PO being awkward.  They certainly can sell them (if they have stocks) unless you were after a new £1.85 stamp.   Possibly they are being told by their own management to use up the non-barcoded stocks first.

That particular PO seems to enjoy being difficult. However, after much struggling, websites going offline, servers crashing etc I have managed to order new stamps direct online. I may order another batch next week if my sales are strong enough to give me enough surplus cash. 

DougWeller

My wife found some half price - allegedly the Royal Mail site, but look at the country code.https://newstamp.cc/products/100-pack-self-adhesive-stamp-sheet-4-styles-on-sale-new-years-gift-free-shipping-off-30?fbclid=IwAR0fItakxvS4_4AwHrWkGrdmHMp54vJDH7E39gfe-bDSzeq341yOTo1_Jy8&sku=18053025516970584719563447  I'm not sure where to report this apparent scam. If I'm right, Martin should be warning people. Any suggestions?

soolin

DougWeller said:

My wife found some half price - allegedly the Royal Mail site, but look at the country code.https://newstamp.cc/products/100-pack-self-adhesive-stamp-sheet-4-styles-on-sale-new-years-gift-free-shipping-off-30?fbclid=IwAR0fItakxvS4_4AwHrWkGrdmHMp54vJDH7E39gfe-bDSzeq341yOTo1_Jy8&sku=18053025516970584719563447  I'm not sure where to report this apparent scam. If I'm right, Martin should be warning people. Any suggestions?

That's been doing the rounds , usually via facebook for a while now. It is a complete copy of the RM site- only the web address makes it look like an obvious scam.

soolin

As I  am still faced with hundreds of pounds worth of stamps including several sheet of 1st class letter and large letter that I rarely use I have been looking at how they can be used after the price increase in April. (I am stuck at home waiting for a parcel and a bit bored!)

After the price increase a 2nd class large letter up to 100g will be £1.05 and for that I can use one 1st class letter (95p) plus a 10p stamp.

A 2nd class LL up to 250g stamp will cost £1.65 so for that I can use a 1st class LL stamp (£1.45) plus a 20p stamp.

I am looking forward though to seeing proper details of the sway scheme going forward as realistically unless ebay explodes with new buyers all buying my large letter stuff, I am not going to be able to use this lot by next January.

My mail centre have now asked me to mark clearly on the envelope whether something is 1st or 2nd class as my hordes of stamps are confusing them and they don't know which bags to put them in!

BooJewels

I've been watching this with interest - as I only found out about the new barcoded stamps recently - RM used to send me mailings about such things, like price increases, but haven't had one for a couple of years.

I ordered some of the new ones on the web site, as I was actually short of new stamps (I have a lot of lower value ones stuck onto unused envelopes, but they're not always appropriate to use) and I always try to buy before a price increase.   The new ones have just arrived - they're pretty ugly stamps - not sure what the reason is for the pseudo perforation and the stamp part of it is actually quite a bit larger than normal definitive stamps - maybe that's determined by the minimum size for the QR bit?  1st/2nd class and large are now the same size.

Do RM really lose that much revenue from re-used stamps to be worth the cost of this process?  I can only assume it's some commercial resellers / forgers that affect them to this extent, most of us re-using one or two a year can't surely trouble them that much.  I've thought about this before and wondered why they don't put something on the stamps when franking/sorting them, that renders them invalid for future use - although I wouldn't think that many actually miss regular franking.  I'm obviously missing something.

Money_Grabber13579

BooJewels said:

Do RM really lose that much revenue from re-used stamps to be worth the cost of this process?  I can only assume it's some commercial resellers / forgers that affect them to this extent, most of us re-using one or two a year can't surely trouble them that much.  I've thought about this before and wondered why they don't put something on the stamps when franking/sorting them, that renders them invalid for future use - although I wouldn't think that many actually miss regular franking.  I'm obviously missing something.

The answer is yes, you only have to look at the tonnes of stamps being sold on eBay, which are being sold without any gum and which are clearly going to be reused, to know that it is a huge problem.  The original solution was to post mark all the stamps so they couldn’t be used again and whilst some do get missed, it doesn’t really matter any more because criminals have taken to using chemicals to remove the postmark so there now needs to be a different solution. But the bigger problem is the sheer quantities of forged stamps, some of which don’t even look genuine, but still doesn’t stop people trying their luck.

At the end of the day, reusing stamps and using forged stamps are both fraudulent activities and Royal Mail feel that this is a necessary step to stamp out (pun may have been intended) that practice.

BooJewels

Thank you @Money_Grabber13579 - I must lead a sheltered life as I'd never seen ungummed/previously used stamps for sale. If they're chemically removing franking marks so that they can deliberately be re-sold and used, then that's clearly not on.  I didn't even know that was possible.  I've never knowingly seen forgeries for sale, but only because I've never looked - it would never occur to me to buy stamps on eBay.

I figured it must be a big problem to take these new measures, as with replacing stamps and the new technology etc, it will be a costly solution.

Money_Grabber13579

BooJewels said:

Thank you @Money_Grabber13579 - I must lead a sheltered life as I'd never seen ungummed/previously used stamps for sale. If they're chemically removing franking marks so that they can deliberately be re-sold and used, then that's clearly not on.  I didn't even know that was possible.  I've never knowingly seen forgeries for sale, but only because I've never looked - it would never occur to me to buy stamps on eBay.

I figured it must be a big problem to take these new measures, as with replacing stamps and the new technology etc, it will be a costly solution.

Here are some fakes which I found from a quick search on eBay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275194625328?hash=item4012e0bd30:g:Wm4AAOSwW69iIm9f

How do I know they are fake? There is no text on the backing paper, there doesn’t seem to be any security text in the background of the stamp itself, they are too cheap (despite apparently being new) but the biggest giveaway in this particular case is that the elliptical perforation (the large indent on each side of the stamp) is just wrong - compare it to a real stamp and you’ll see that it is a different shape. But 49 people have still apparently fallen victim to this scammer.

There are loads of listings on eBay like this and also for reused stamps (see link below) so it is huge business for these crooks.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334329532661?hash=item4dd797d0f5:g:bxoAAOSw6ShZOnY7

BooJewels

Good grief - there are dozens of them - and they're all selling in big numbers too.  With the first one you linked, you'd think it would be worth their while to at least buy some genuine stamps to photograph - as they're clearly not for real - as you say, no security printing and without the security cut-outs - they would be visible in a sheet of that many.  And you'd have to know you're buying fakes (or at best stolen items) at those prices - so the buyers have to take some responsibility too.

Will the new measures even stop them though?  Because the person that will fall foul of the scam will be the first recipient with an excess fee and the missing postage to pay for.  It might stop repeat business and get them closed down, but as we know, fraudulent sellers pop back up quicker than weeds in a wet summer.

It might slow them down, but I bet it doesn't eliminate it.  All you do is buy time until they find a new way to circumvent it.