Stamps (or not)

norseman · 2025-12-14T16:37:28+0000

Here we go again, notices at sub post offices stating 'no second class stamps'

Ok It's my fault for leaving card sending until the last minute again but wouldn't you have thought that with decades of data available to the Royal Mail (they) would produce enough to fulfil demand?
I'll try the main PO when I go into town on Tuesday, probably without success as last year it was the same story !

Interestingly they don't seem to suffer the same shortage of first class.

Stivino · 2025-12-14T17:22:50+0000

I went to the Post Office on Thursday to post some cards. I had a book of Wallace & Gromit 2nd class stamps from way back. I also had a book of 1st class picture stamps from way back.
The clerk informed me that my stamps were out of date because they didn't have the strip on the side, but that I could send them off to Royal Mail and they would send the value back in new stamps.
He then sold me nearly £16 worth of stamps.
On checking the Royal Mail website, I discovered that picture stamps don't go out of date and that I could have used them.

Notch7 · 2025-12-14T17:44:09+0000

norseman said:
Here we go again, notices at sub post offices stating 'no second class stamps'

Ok It's my fault for leaving card sending until the last minute again but wouldn't you have thought that with decades of data available to the Royal Mail (they) would produce enough to fulfil demand?
I'll try the main PO when I go into town on Tuesday, probably without success as last year it was the same story !

Interestingly they don't seem to suffer the same shortage of first class.

The number of letters posted has dropped from 1.4 billion in 2000 to 110 million in 2024

The post office model no longer works sadly.

£1,40 for a 1st class stamp is rather a lot

I just wish their website for tracking parcels was better

mattylad · 2025-12-14T18:54:26+0000

Even if they are out of 2nd class stamps, can a post office not use a ink stamp?

morqthana · 2025-12-14T19:14:15+0000

Do people not know that they can print postage labels at home? Yes, it will cost a tiny bit more than buying stamps, as you have to factor in paper, ink, glue, and wear-and-tear on your scissors. But you might be able to offset those by not having travel costs to the PO.

Also - fun fact - some commemorative stamps which are of little or no interest to collectors are sold on eBay for less than their face value by people who don't know they can still use them.

morqthana · 2025-12-14T19:17:45+0000

mattylad said:
Even if they are out of 2nd class stamps, can a post office not use a ink stamp?

Presumably norseman wanted to buy stamps to take away.

Pretty sure if he'd handed over envelope(s) to go 2nd class they would have printed labels there and then. They do for everything other than letters.

securespark · 2025-12-14T19:21:11+0000

mattylad said:
Even if they are out of 2nd class stamps, can a post office not use a ink stamp?

Or use make-up value stamps...

morqthana · 2025-12-15T00:13:00+0000

securespark said:
Or use make-up value stamps...

That's true.

The advantage of stamps which say 1st Class, 2nd Class etc, is that they keep on working as those when prices go up, make-up value combos don't.

If norseman was going to use all his this Christmas though that wouldn't be a problem.

Koolpc · 2025-12-15T03:15:51+0000

I use paw prints on my mail. Always gets accepted

Mottie · 2025-12-15T07:57:03+0000

Notch7 said:
The number of letters posted has dropped from 1.4 billion in 2000 to 110 million in 2024

We haven’t sent a Christmas card for about 5 years. We hand ours personally to friends and neighbours. One of our neighbours, a proper Christian church goer, hand-makes all her Christmas cards. Some of them are really intricate and Mrs Mottie always enjoys getting them because of the work and the thought and the time she has put into making them.

My mum has had three cards through the post from people who obviously didn’t know she had passed away. I don’t even know them or how to get hold of them. I’ll have to have another look through all her paperwork again, I think she might have an address book somewhere that I can match up with the names.

blup · 2025-12-15T08:17:25+0000

Notch7 said:
£1,40 for a 1st class stamp is rather a lot

£1.70 isn’t it? Maybe you live near the Gallagher brothers and the RM is surge pricing

johnny2007 · 2025-12-15T08:32:53+0000

Notch7 said:
£1,40 for a 1st class stamp is rather a lot

It's £1.70 now.

Ihavenojob · 2025-12-15T11:35:59+0000

I think you can buy stamps in other places other than the Post Office.

norseman · 2025-12-15T11:50:26+0000

Notch7 said:
The number of letters posted has dropped from 1.4 billion in 2000 to 110 million in 2024

The post office model no longer works sadly.

£1,40 for a 1st class stamp is rather a lot

I just wish their website for tracking parcels was better

I won't pay the first-class rate on principle, sooner 'phone/text people on the day & wish them a merry Christmas.

Ihavenojob said:
I think you can buy stamps in other places other than the Post Office.

True, but if they don't have any?
Last year Tesco's customer service desk staff were bemoaning the fact that they had been allocated a pitifully low number of second-class to sell.

Yesterday we bought a box of 20 cards .. to post them all at the first-class rate would cost £34.
'Don't think so !!

Ihavenojob · 2025-12-15T12:31:59+0000

norseman said:
I won't pay the first-class rate on principle, sooner 'phone/text people on the day & wish them a merry Christmas.

True, but if they don't have any?
Last year Tesco's customer service desk staff were bemoaning the fact that they had been allocated a pitifully low number of second-class to sell.

Yesterday we bought a box of 20 cards .. to post them all at the first-class rate would cost £34.
'Don't think so !!

You can go online and buy postage direct from Royal Mail, bit of a faff with that many cards, but once purchased, you can get a QR code, take it to a post office or one of many shops RM uses, and they can print the postage label using the QR code. I do it all the time with my online sales, I may even purchase a label printer, won't save money, but will save me time.

Stamps (or not)

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