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

NBLondon

davidian84 said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374363487922
says stamps cannot be used
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/354394708318
this listing makes no mention, yet no negative feedback yet

Im sure both fake but what is deal here? why make fakes if cant be scanned and used?

The faker doesn't care if they can be used or not - they only care if some mug pays for them.

The disclaimer about "for philatelic purposes" is an attempt to get out of any accusation of creating fakes to defraud RM.  In theory, someone could want them to make an artwork with.

The second one has a phrase "Barcodes are scanned on Royal Mail app" which is meaningless.  It could mean the stamps have been previously used and then stuck back to a backing sheet so should not be usable for postage.  The real warning is, of course, that the asking price is a third of face value for a supposedly brand-new product.

NBLondon

Meanwhile....  bill888 and geffers88 (and others) may have been caught up in this:  https://blog.norphil.co.uk/2022/11/swap-out-error.html  So chase it up if you aren't already sorted.

darkh0rse

molerat said

A 1st stamp was swapped for a 1st stamp, you have not lost anything and will still be able to post a 1st  letter whatever the cost of a stamp rises to without adding extra postage.

I thought the point of the Barcodes stamps were that they now were assigned a value to prevent us holding on to "old" stamps. Ie using a barcoded 1st stamp years from now would lead to an underpaid postage notice to the recipient. Is this not the case? 

Spoonie_Turtle

darkh0rse said:

molerat said

A 1st stamp was swapped for a 1st stamp, you have not lost anything and will still be able to post a 1st  letter whatever the cost of a stamp rises to without adding extra postage.

I thought the point of the Barcodes stamps were that they now were assigned a value to prevent us holding on to "old" stamps. Ie using a barcoded 1st stamp years from now would lead to an underpaid postage notice to the recipient. Is this not the case? 

No, otherwise the stamps would have to have an expiry date actually written on them so people don't get caught out.  My understanding of it was so that each one has a unique barcode to be scanned, and any fake stamps using that same barcode would be rejected because it's already been used.  I don't know if it also allows internal tracking or any metrics they can analyse.

soolin

Also if stamps expired or changed value at each price increase then there would need to be a huge infrastructure making sure that either all ‘new’ stamps were a different colour or that the stamps were marked with a value. Either would involve the PO ensuring their stock was changed overnight on price increase day which would cost an absolute fortune. Otherwise ordinary customers like us would have a book of say green stamps and have no idea whether they were pre or post price increase.

Money_Grabber13579

darkh0rse said:

molerat said

A 1st stamp was swapped for a 1st stamp, you have not lost anything and will still be able to post a 1st  letter whatever the cost of a stamp rises to without adding extra postage.

I thought the point of the Barcodes stamps were that they now were assigned a value to prevent us holding on to "old" stamps. Ie using a barcoded 1st stamp years from now would lead to an underpaid postage notice to the recipient. Is this not the case? 

No, the sole purpose of the new stamps is an attempt to prevent fraud, which, if it works, should hopefully help limit the astronomical rate of increases in the price of stamps. A 1st class stamp will always be a 1st class stamp, irrespective of what the prevailing price of that stamp is. It has to be remembered that stamps used to have a specific price printed on them and Royal Mail changed as it saved them from having to print new stamps every time the rate changed (and scrap the old ones). So, it really wouldn’t be in Royal Mail’s interest to revert back to a system where a 1st class stamp no longer provided a 1st class service (although the service is far from 1st class at the moment…)

darkh0rse

Oh! Well thanks for the insight. I misunderstood the reason for the barcode. 

So we can still stockpile? 😂

soolin

darkh0rse said:

Oh! Well thanks for the insight. I misunderstood the reason for the barcode. 

So we can still stockpile? 😂

I’ve got probably just shy of £800 of stamps here , I changed up a whole load from the swap out scheme and still have hundreds of pictorial ones left that I haven’t needed to swap. 

NBLondon

darkh0rse said:

So we can still stockpile? 😂

If you think the price will go up again - then yes stockpile now.

Or buy swappable stuff under face value (with a bit of eBay hunting); swap those and stockpile the barcoded ones.  (This is my current approach)

HonestJohn

NBLondon said:

darkh0rse said:

So we can still stockpile? 😂

If you think the price will go up again - then yes stockpile now.

Or buy swappable stuff under face value (with a bit of eBay hunting); swap those and stockpile the barcoded ones.  (This is my current approach)

I do this too. When the swapout scheme started I picked up a lot on ebay at up to half price. I think RM will be looking for a large increase next year to cope with inflation and their increasing losses.