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

soolin

NBLondon said:

kalsha said:

Can someone clarify 2 things for me please.
I have a few of these presentation packs with regional stamps (see photo).

1)    Will I be able to use these if posting in England?   If they are not worth much, I am thinking of breaking up the presentation packs and use up the stamps - at least I will be able to recoup the face value.  Do I have to use them before January 2023?

2)     Can they  be swapped for the new stamps?

1) Yes.  May be better to have a look at whether those packs are selling on eBay at the moment and judge the price you might get.  If you do break them, the problem is that you will be putting 2 or 3 of them together to make up the current values and you will end up overpaying or with a stamp or two leftover.  Plus everything will probably be treated as second class even if you make the values up to 95p.   They will be invalidated in Jan 23 as with the others.

2) Yes.  The total value will be totalled up and you'll get it back in 2nd class.

Up until this weekend there was no news on whether the current versions of these were going to get a barcoded version but the website changed to suggest that they will.  No news on whether there will be new designs; or will they use the current ones (https://shop.royalmail.com/special-stamp-issues/definitives/country-definitives) and what values.  (Presumably the £1.70 will be replaced by a £1.85)

They won't be worth selling, there's a set here that sold for £2.40 with free postage, so seller would have got about £1.92 after fees from which postage would need to be paid- and the stamps are worth £3.27. (this is what I alluded to in a previous thread about being able to buy valid stamps for less than face value).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scotland-Wales-Northern-Ireland-Definitive-Presentation-Pack-26-/255355425448?hash=item3b745e92a8:g:cLUAAOSwWnth8wss&nma=true&si=DkxDSvT4TOfmn9d6G1l0rdLdO54%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

They would be easy to use up with the addition of a few extra 1 or 2p stamps which can easily be purchased. No need to waste any value.

NBLondon

I know that....  I get half of my postage by buying presentation packs at under face value.  And I have sometimes bought older low values when they neatly added up to the current price by pairing them.  39p + 28p = 1p to make second class works, or 2x39p + 18p to overpay 2nd class.  But you can't use all those values neatly.   Maybe if you are sending parcels or large letter on an A4 envelope.  If I wanted a lot of second class postage - I'd look for a sheet of 34p going cheap.

Or indeed -  look at this seller as an example:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165412450499?hash=item268359b0c3:g:leoAAOSwIV9iRs-J

Win any of these at starting price of £4 (there are several) and you have 10 usable first class at under half price.  Non-expiring ones as well.  You can throw away the rest of the sheet if it's not interesting.

soolin

NBLondon said:

I know that....  I get half of my postage by buying presentation packs at under face value.  And I have sometimes bought older low values when they neatly added up to the current price by pairing them.  39p + 28p = 1p to make second class works, or 2x39p + 18p to overpay 2nd class.  But you can't use all those values neatly.   Maybe if you are sending parcels or large letter on an A4 envelope.  If I wanted a lot of second class postage - I'd look for a sheet of 34p going cheap.

Or indeed -  look at this seller as an example:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165412450499?hash=item268359b0c3:g:leoAAOSwIV9iRs-J

Win any of these at starting price of £4 (there are several) and you have 10 usable first class at under half price.  Non-expiring ones as well.  You can throw away the rest of the sheet if it's not interesting.

I don’t worry about making the value neatly, if it takes 7 stamps to make my value up then I’ll use 7 stamps. Also, and perhaps it’s just certain areas, I’ve been using a lot of 1st class stamps plus smaller denominations to make up 2nd class postage and quite a few are arriving next day! I had a number of £1.99 large letters going out in the past few weeks and using a couple of 1st class stamps before starting with the smaller denominations made it easier. 

A lot of the presentation packs I have are very old, so I have a lot of very low denomination stamps like 3p 7p and 11p and I have several sheets of 1p and 2p stamps to make up the shortfall to save any waste. 

NBLondon

Yes - if you've got plenty to dip into... Most stamp dealers do this all the time.  If kalsha only has 3 or 4 of that pack then is it worth their while working out combinations and buying the necessary make-up stamps?

soolin said:

 I’ve been using a lot of 1st class stamps plus smaller denominations to make up 2nd class postage and quite a few are arriving next day! 

Depending on the age of the stamp - there are phosphor bands printed across them which allow the machinery to detect 1st or 2nd.  So if you use two or three stamps that were 2nd at the time of issue to make up a current 1st class value - then it won't necessarily go as 1st class because the machinery doesn't recognise it as such.  You're doing it the other way and possibly getting a bonus.

philatio

As others have said.... Predictably, this is already a farce.

Went to the supermarket to buy some stamps Friday before the price rise. They only had the old non-barcode ones. Lady on the kiosk knew nothing about the new ones. Showed me her drawer.. they had piles and piles of 'old' ones to sell.

So I went to the Post Office. Actual Post Office.
Bought some 1st Class and some 1p stamps.
All old ones. They knew about the barcode stamps but didn't have any. "they just keep sending us the old ones out"

If this end date of Feb next year doesn't get put back or cancelled, I'll show my arce in the Post Office window.

Money_Grabber13579

philatio said:

As others have said.... Predictably, this is already a farce.

Went to the supermarket to buy some stamps Friday before the price rise. They only had the old non-barcode ones. Lady on the kiosk knew nothing about the new ones. Showed me her drawer.. they had piles and piles of 'old' ones to sell.

So I went to the Post Office. Actual Post Office.
Bought some 1st Class and some 1p stamps.
All old ones. They knew about the barcode stamps but didn't have any. "they just keep sending us the old ones out"

If this end date of Feb next year doesn't get put back or cancelled, I'll show my arce in the Post Office window.

I suspect at this stage, the majority of people buying stamps at the post office now will have them all used before 31 January 2023 and so it makes sense to continue selling the old ones, rather than them being returned and destroyed.  After all, no point in wasting something which has already been printed and will most likely be used before it has been invalidated. The people on this thread are likely to be the exception, having many more stamps than could ever be used in one year, but most won’t be like that.

rhcp

At what point will they stop selling the old one's?  Wouldn't surprise me if they were still selling them at Christmas!!

BooJewels

The barcoded stamps have been available to buy from the Royal Mail web site for some time and myself and others here have already bought stocks at the old prices - so it has been possible to do that.  I don't know what sort of volume of stamps the Post Office sell over the counter and how much stock they hold, but as there are something like 10 months to go that the old ones are useable (including the Christmas period) - and RM are offering their free 'swapout' - there's not really any penalty to users in having the old ones. 

I just don't think the general public at large are even aware of the new barcoded stamps yet - none of my family members had heard about it when I told them.  I suspect that RM will have a big publicity push later in the year.

Money_Grabber13579

rhcp said:

At what point will they stop selling the old one's?  Wouldn't surprise me if they were still selling them at Christmas!!

When each of the post offices run out of stock of the old ones? I’d be surprised if most post offices held more than 6 months supply of stamps (if even that), but that’s very much a guess on my part, informed only by the view that they probably wouldn’t want significant amounts of cash tied up in stamps which aren’t going to be sold for a long period of time.

custardy

Money_Grabber13579 said:

rhcp said:

At what point will they stop selling the old one's?  Wouldn't surprise me if they were still selling them at Christmas!!

When each of the post offices run out of stock of the old ones? I’d be surprised if most post offices held more than 6 months supply of stamps (if even that), but that’s very much a guess on my part, informed only by the view that they probably wouldn’t want significant amounts of cash tied up in stamps which aren’t going to be sold for a long period of time.

Given the cash value I would expect they hold far less in stock.
Easily replenished