Godanubis
Member of DD Central
Anubis is known as the god of death and is the oldest and most popular of ancient Egyptian deities.
Posts: 2,011 
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Post by Godanubis on Feb 21, 2020 12:34:27 GMT
First class stamps are going up 7.8% . Buy them now and you can use them after they rise. They can still be used to purchase some things.  |
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benaj
Member of DD Central
Posts: 4,855
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Post by benaj on Feb 21, 2020 12:57:14 GMT
If you don't mind uploaded a letter in the cloud, you can do payg with Digi-Mail starting from 43p digi-mail.co.uk/ |
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Post by moonraker on Feb 21, 2020 18:42:00 GMT
I've got quite a few 1st and 2nd class stamps I bought several years ago. I suspect that they remain a good investment for postal purposes.
Unlike all the GB stamps with specific values going back to the 1970s that I and many others have collected. Next-to-no demand for them, and on collectors' forums some sell at a discount for postal use. I've got a couple of hundred of them, including 4½p ones. Until a few years ago the Post Office would allow you to use two of these to make a value of 9p, but now each only counts as 4p. Penny Pinchers or should that be Halfpenny Pinchers?
One compensation is that if you use such stamps for a second-class letter Royal Mail sorting equipment will often give you the benefit of the doubt and treat it as if it were first-class.
(As for all those pretty First Day Covers of the last 20 or 30 years, dealers won't be interested in them. The other day, one asked me to guess what was his usual offer and I said 10p a cover - and he agreed with me.)
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Post by dan1 on Feb 21, 2020 20:38:09 GMT
First class stamps are going up 7.8% . Buy them now and you can use them after they rise. They can still be used to purchase some things. I can't remember the last time I sent a letter 1st class - does anyone on here actually use 1st in preference to 2nd? I've never noticed delays in posting something 2nd class, not even in the run up to Christmas. I always assumed it was a marketing trick, another tax on the middle class! Btw, there are companies who sell end of line stamps at discounted prices. Great if you don't mind lick 'n stick 
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Greenwood2
Member of DD Central
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Post by Greenwood2 on Feb 21, 2020 20:54:40 GMT
On ebay you can always buy, old unused decimal stamps at less than face value (that you can still use), if you are into buying collectable stamps sellers often use old stamps still valid as postage.
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Post by moonraker on Feb 21, 2020 22:01:52 GMT
There's also an illegal market in used stamps being sold for re-use.
Warning in 2018
I haven't researched the practice, but it's a bit of a faff removing modern self-adhesive stamps from envelopes (collectors mutter about the difficulty when they want to put them in albums). I think there may be a chemical that makes it easy and another that removes the postmarks. No doubt how-to-do info is there on the Web.
About the only time I send letters and packets through the Royal Mail is when dispatching eBay purchases. I seldom send birthday cards and only a few Christmas ones, following the example of a cousin who invites his contacts to do the same and donate saved postage costs to charity.
There are days when the postwoman delivers three times as much junk mail as real mail, and most of the latter is bumf from financial organisations I have invested with. I find it easier to glance at anything relevant - mostly the latest value - on paper than logging in, downloading pdfs, opening them and so on.
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Post by df on Feb 21, 2020 22:38:46 GMT
There's also an illegal market in used stamps being sold for re-use.
Warning in 2018
I haven't researched the practice, but it's a bit of a faff removing modern self-adhesive stamps from envelopes (collectors mutter about the difficulty when they want to put them in albums). I think there may be a chemical that makes it easy and another that removes the postmarks. No doubt how-to-do info is there on the Web.
About the only time I send letters and packets through the Royal Mail is when dispatching eBay purchases. I seldom send birthday cards and only a few Christmas ones, following the example of a cousin who invites his contacts to do the same and donate saved postage costs to charity.
There are days when the postwoman delivers three times as much junk mail as real mail, and most of the latter is bumf from financial organisations I have invested with. I find it easier to glance at anything relevant - mostly the latest value - on paper than logging in, downloading pdfs, opening them and so on.
I bought 12 second class stamps about 10 years ago - still have one more left
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Post by moonraker on Feb 22, 2020 15:28:14 GMT
Just had the auction results from a sale held by the local philatelic society. Unsold was a lot of 42 GB 1st-class stamps with a "face value" of £29.40 (at present) that had a reserve of £6.00. Now on offer as an unsold lot for £5.60. I suppose that being stamp collectors the members already have plenty of 1st- and 2nd-class stamps stashed away.
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scc
Member of DD Central
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Post by scc on Feb 23, 2020 8:48:26 GMT
Years ago, a Chinese student friend of mine figured out a fantastic wheeze with reusing stamps when exchanging letters with his brother at another UK university. They would smear prit stick over the top of the stamp prior to posting - and some careful dabbing with a wet warm sponge would remove it and postmark off once it had reached its destination.
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Godanubis
Member of DD Central
Anubis is known as the god of death and is the oldest and most popular of ancient Egyptian deities.
Posts: 2,011
Likes: 1,013
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Post by Godanubis on Feb 23, 2020 21:34:25 GMT
Years ago, a Chinese student friend of mine figured out a fantastic wheeze with reusing stamps when exchanging letters with his brother at another UK university. They would smear prit stick over the top of the stamp prior to posting - and some careful dabbing with a wet warm sponge would remove it and postmark off once it had reached its destination. You can just put a label over reply paid envelopes as long as the are not freepost .
It works all the time and is a good way to get back at junk mail senders
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