A First Class stamp in the UK costs 85p so 12 cost £10.20
However, on Amazon they can be bought for the bargain price of:
One excuse they have given is that they post them to you. The Post Office will do that too faster and more cheaply.
Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Profiteering
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Robbing devils or is it the Highlands surcharge? By the by you have left your address for all to see.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Adrian. Well spotted. Remedied.
DeleteMy good deed for this month. To quote Stanislav the Polish plumber.
Delete" Many people say that I know F..k nothing but I tell them I know F..k All."
We get a pensioners discount at the Post office. We pay $3 for 5 stamps. I think that is about 7sterling pounds for 12.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good price, Diane.
DeleteI wonder how many they sell?
ReplyDeleteJayCee, given that the company had 1188 positive ratings in the last 12 months presumably they not only have sold a lot (I would have thought many would not bothered to have given a rating at all) but people have no idea that they are being fleeced.
DeleteI think a first class stamp is 85p. Strange why anyone would buy from this company, especially when you can easily print off a postage label. X
ReplyDeleteI'm not doing very well in my accuracy department at the moment. Thank you Jules for your updated price. They usually go up on 1st April if I recall correctly and the European 20g stamps went up considerably from £1.45 to £1.70 (the 'rest of the world' price) on Brexit day instead. What I completely missed was that UK 1st class stamps went up by 9p on the same day. I buy my stamps in bulk when the various special editions come out and as my bills are usually around £50-£90 the price of individual stamps alludes me unless I've had a warning notice (which I expect around March). So, as they don't have a price on them, I've been merrily assuming that each First Class letter I sent was 76p.
DeleteThat's not profiteering. I wrote a book (not as TD) published by lulu.com, which is a self-publishing print-on-demand service, and priced it at cost price of £7. When ordered through lulu or amazon, lulu print them and send direct to the customer. They are printed only when ordered. So the clever b---'s put them for sale on ebay for £20, sometimes claiming to have 25 brand new copies in stock, which they don't because I would have seen them buy them. If someone buys one from them, only then do they they order from lulu to be sent direct to *their* customer. That's profiteering.
ReplyDeleteThat, Tasker, really is the horrible face of commerce and really grabbing a profit from no work at all.
DeleteSome also claim to have 30,000 different books in stock, i.e. they do it with large numbers of print on demand books. With that number they must catch people out regularly.
DeleteWhat I can never understand is Royal Mail complaining that not enough people use their service for letters any more, just parcels, yet never offering any kind of bulk buy discount on stamps except at Christmas, when I believe they do some sort of deal for people on benefits.
ReplyDeleteTracy, it has always seemed to me as though their demise in the letter front is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Apparently a great deal of mail in heavily urbanised areas (including it would seem some government mail) is sent by cheaper private mail companies. As the Royal Mail is obligated to send mail everywhere in the UK at universal charges they are undercut in high profit area and left with the high cost areas. I would dearly love to see the modelling that they use to determine their prices.
DeleteWe in the U.S. are complaining because first-class stamps are about to rise from 55 cents to 58 cents. We older folks complain most, I’m sure, because we easily remember a time when first-class was 3 cents and a postcard was a penny.
ReplyDeleteWe stopped sending Christmas cards several years ago because mailing them all became cost-prohibitive.
Bob, your postage is really inexpensive in comparison to ours. My mail bill is considerable because I write a lot of letters (particularly to some older friends who do not have email etc) but I regard it as one of the more important items of expenditure and would do without some other things before cutting out my mail costs.
DeleteI know this is about the price of stamps but may I say how much I love the British stamps? I've been admiring them since 1974! 😊 That was first year Richard and I wrote to each other!
ReplyDeleteWe are fortunate, Kay, in having some splendid examples to adorn our envelopes.
DeleteI wonder if they sold any? I suppose if I was to go into my nearby town to buy stamps (which I occasionally do) it might cost me £5 in petrol.
ReplyDeleteCro, given that the company had 1188 positive ratings in the last 12 months presumably they not only have sold a lot (I would have thought many would not bothered to have given a rating at all) but people have no idea that they are being fleeced. The Post Office will send you stamps at a fraction of the cost or you can print your own label.
DeleteI think ours are about $1 nzd being the lowest amount and you just about need 3 of them to post a letter, stamps have definitely gone up in price over the years. We use to have stamps of the queen but now it's NZ scenery.
ReplyDeleteAmy, New Zealand does have a very scattered population outside a few urban areas and the Rural Delivery service costs must be pretty high. I know that when the RD was cut back when I lived there there was a big fuss because of it's lifeline service in some very rural areas.
DeleteGood grief . . . interesting I have just been on that same site for a replacement bottle of Gorilla glue. I could pay £14.95 to have it delivered (Prime) tomorrow, or £5.25 to have the identical item shipped (free) from another seller using Amazon as a portal.
ReplyDeleteGosh, Jayne, even by their standards that's a pretty high differential charge. One has to shop very carefully on the site these days. I have actually started using a few other sites for certain things.
DeleteI have not used Amazon, and based on information like this never will! I suppose it is a bit confounding that so many people probably get deluded into thinking that they are getting a fine deal when in reality they are paying a huge premium. Vigilance is the key word - always check! And, when I do buy stamps, which is not frequently these days, it's always pleasant to visit the post office and have a chat with the friendly people behind the counter. I did exactly that today to mail a card to a dear friend in Australia.
ReplyDeleteDavid, Mail order is almost a necessity on the Islands because so many of the things we now take for granted are not readily available. Amazon itself can be very cost effective and exceptionally quick to deliver so long as one is careful and aware.
DeleteI only ever buy stamps at the post office and was unaware that Amazon was selling them as well. That said, it would not entice me to buy them online but maybe one day if there is a discount incentive to do so as I still handwrite letters and cards.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice, I only buy stamps at the PO too. I write a lot of letters too.
DeleteA "regular" postage stamp costs $1.10 here...I know because I bought four of them last week! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure of the current rate of exchange, Lee, but it sounds pretty much on a par with ours.
DeletePostage goes up and up every year here, and now that the UK is not part of the EU anymore, mail has become much more expensive and takes much longer between our countries. It does not stop me and my friends and family from exchanging parcels and letters, but we have to think about sending stuff much earlier than we used to.
ReplyDeleteYes, Meike, postage is very much slower to Europe and the rest of the world now.
DeleteEach to their own. If people want them this way for ease of shopping then so be it.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Rachel.
DeleteOne can save a lot of money by using second class stamps.
ReplyDeleteYP, I'm not a Yorkshireman.
Delete