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

soolin

New King Charles stamps - image released today 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64554857

NBLondon

As I read in various sources - POs etc. will be encouraged to use up QEII stocks before re-ordering KCIII.   Which means if you are holding on to old stock in the hope of getting KCIII on SwapOut - it may be a while.  I'll update here if I learn from another source.

HonestJohn

NBLondon said:

As I read in various sources - POs etc. will be encouraged to use up QEII stocks before re-ordering KCIII.   Which means if you are holding on to old stock in the hope of getting KCIII on SwapOut - it may be a while.  I'll update here if I learn from another source.

Stamps on general sale from April 4th but I agree that we shouldn't be expecting them on swapout until current stocks are exhausted.

NBLondon

"On General Sale" might only mean you can order them from RM direct and they will be available in Main Post Offices.   Your local sub-post office may or may not have them depending on whether they bothered to order.  Other retailers who sell booklets will presumably use up what they have on hand before re-ordering unless they get a lot of requests from customers.

The press reports are saying this was at the King's request to not waste existing stocks by recalling or pulping them.

HonestJohn

NBLondon said:

"On General Sale" might only mean you can order them from RM direct and they will be available in Main Post Offices.   Your local sub-post office may or may not have them depending on whether they bothered to order.  Other retailers who sell booklets will presumably use up what they have on hand before re-ordering unless they get a lot of requests from customers.

The press reports are saying this was at the King's request to not waste existing stocks by recalling or pulping them.

Punters will be queueing up outside POs on that date so they better have some.
Funny how the King doesn't want money wasted on old stamps but is quite insistent that we have a full blown coronation instead of a light version. £100m blown an outdated institution.

Codger1947

IftiBashir said:

PO told me you can still use old stamps and the 31st Jan deadline has been extended until the summer?

At last the RM's website states clearly that old stamps can be used until 31st July.

Doc_N

I’m holding back on the rest of mine for a few weeks/months until they start sending out the Charles ones - it’s going to take years to get rid of the ones I’ve already got, and I suspect the Charles ones will get a better price on eBay.

Confident that this extremely helpful thread will be advising us all once they’re run out of the old ones and start on the new. 

Codger1947

Decided to bite the bullet today so sent off my old stamps (£33.68 worth) to be swapped. I took scans of the form and the stamps and obtained a certificate of posting from the nice lady at my friendly local post office.  Fingers crossed! 

gt94sss2

So, I have received the stamps I sent to be swapped out before the end of last month today..

Mixed news

a) the 1st class large stamps and the 2nd class ones (to refund the postage) were in sheets as expected.

b) the normal 1st class stamps were books of 4 - which suits me better than sheets - so that is good news.

c) not so good is I am 16 1st stamps (4 books) short

Money_Grabber13579

gt94sss2 said:

So, I have received the stamps I sent to be swapped out before the end of last month today..

Mixed news

a) the 1st class large stamps and the 2nd class ones (to refund the postage) were in sheets as expected.

b) the normal 1st class stamps were books of 4 - which suits me better than sheets - so that is good news.

c) not so good is I am 16 1st stamps (4 books) short

b) is an interesting development. Might suggest that sheets of first class stamps have now run out and they are now using other remaining stocks so perhaps the KC stamps might need to be issued before April.