OT - Post Office pricing - driving me up the wall!

You get a Large first class stamp. Lterally. Same colour, bigger, it costs more, and it has "Large" printed on it.

A firts class stamp is worth whatever the base (up to 100g) postage currently costs. Similar for second class stamps. Other than that, they all have the value printed on them. Royal Mail website tells you the costs for any given weight.

Yes.

So if I bought 'class' stamps years ago they're now worth more?

NT

Of course. Every time they put the 1st or 2nd class price up, you can still use the ones you already have.

Yes.

Yes. And very shortly they will be even more valuable - above inflation.

You can use a "Large Letter" stamp which is worth exactly the right amount.

You can use a combination of smaller stamps - such as the 1p ones here

You can use two 2nd class letter stamps and overpay by 15p.

You can pay at the post office, and they'll print a "stamp" of exactly the right amount for whatever you're posting. These are gold coloured and about double the height and width of normal stamps. You can even use a self checkout machine to print one yourself at some post offices.

Yes, it's the amount of postage that counts. A 2nd class stamp is exactly the same as a 58p stamp - except that if the 2nd class postage went up, they would change value. Some people stock up on stamps just before a price rise, as you make an instant profit.

The old system was that the stamps had the current postage rate (in pence) on them, and when the rate went up they issued new stamps for 1p or 2p more - and everyone with old stamps left had to stick extra 1p or

Mike

Yes. Every time they are about to go up I buy in a stock. Usually beats inflation, for certain if you use a 0% credit card...

Its going up next month though I gather. Brian

I bought shedloads just before the big price hike, what, 10yrs ago, mainly 1st Class, and am still using them without problem.

I also occasionally send an Xmas card to Australia end end up with a couple of the 1st (treating them as current value) without problem.

In fact I ought to sell a couple of books - tidy profit, otherwise I'll leave them to someone in my Will.

Yes, you can.

For convemience I save one of these and keep it on my desktop:

But the post office has had your money for all that time and not had to do anything for it.

Probably a better rate of return than many other schemes right now.

Chris

Just returned to this very useful information.

One thing that strikes me is that it is counter intuitive that a letter (large or otherwise) with two 2nd Class stamps should be treated as a 1st Class item.

Not that it seems to make much difference these days.

Thanks for all the information.

Cheers

Dave R

I'm not up to speed with RM automation but they used to put a machine detectable phosphor line on 2nd class stamps and two lines on the rest, so two second class stamps on an envelope or packet will be detected as a first class item. (Some of the first class stamps that I have here have two lines on them but they are several years old.)

Never looked at stamp under UV light...

You can see them in daylight if you hold them at the right angle.