Is Royal Mail Getting Too Greedy?

I have been following posts in the on-line Stamp Magazine Forums. One recurring theme is that new issues from the Royal Mail are becoming excessive with respect to quantity, price and all of the "must have! add ons.

The latest issue features a classic BBC TV science fiction show - Dr Who. There have been 11 (or 12) different actors who have played the lead character. The set of stamps illustrates 11 "cannon" Dr Whos missing out Peter Cushing who played the Doctor in 2 films in the 1960s. He will be appearing in a "Great Britons" set later in the year giving a link to the TV series. In addition, there is a miniature sheet and a prestige booklet with about a £3 premium. 

Looking over the last few years if releases, three things stand out - the increasing number of issues, the increasing number of stamps per issue and the increasing number of miniature sheets each year. Add to this the increase in postal rates, the cost of each new issue starts to get extortionate. How many of you remember the gold medal stamps from last year where only a limited number of offices had the stamps initially and it wasn't too clear whether they could sell individual stamps from the mini-sheets of 6 or not. Most went for the buy the six option.

Now dealers, RM and others always tell collectors to buy what one can afford and that is excellent advice but when it comes to selling, dealers always come up with excuses that one should have bought x instead of  what one did buy as there is no market for that. However, if one is buying a similar item, then the market is strong hence the premium price.

The Forum has had many collectors complaining about the excessive issue policy and the ever rising costs. Royal Mail claim that they have reduced the number of issues in 2013 but they seem intent in making up for the fewer issues by increasing the number of stamps per issue.

How about limiting issues to 10 per year including the Faststamp/Post and Go stamps? Stop the "special overprints" that can only be purchased at the show/fair or via chancers selling a extortionate prices? How about limiting set size to 4 stamps per issue OR a miniature sheet? How about doing what many other countries do and issue just second or first class rates?

Why not encourage people to post more by making the "specials" more available at the post office? On the first day of an issue, my closest post office runs out of the new issue by mid afternoon. If he received more, then more people would see the stamps and maybe there would be more collectors to buy issues! 

Surely it would be better to sell lots of basic rate stamps that attract people to buy than to issue lots of expensive issues than just upset people to the extent that they decide NOT to buy and collect your stamps?

Or maybe that is too "simples" for these highly paid marketing executives to grasp!

ATM Informer

The  fourth issue of my Newsletter on the UK Wincor-Nixdorf and Hytech machines has just been uploaded to my ATM Informer Newsletter site and pmechuk site. Copies may be downloaded from either site or e-mailing me at pmechuk@gmail.com.

Included in this issue:

Salisbury Overprint

Forthcoming stamp shows, fairs, expos

Manchester Wincor Offices

Wincor-Nixdorf receipts part 1

Over 20 pages of information for free.

All contributions of data welcome!

Salisbury Overprints on Second Class Machins

Some of you may be aware of the existence of overprints on second class Hytech Machins from the Salisbury Stamp Fair. No official overprint was sanctioned and this fact was well publicised.

However, Rushstamps decided to produce a souvenir for their customers and purchased 6000 of these stamps and overprinted using a 100 year old printing press. These were then used on mailings to customers. Apparently there are no remaining mint examples and Rushstamps do not intend selling examples.

This sort of activity is to be frowned upon. It sets a precedence which could result in other organisations believing that they, too, could purchase bulk examples of these stamps and print adverts or other messages. Some dealer then might come up with the idea that these were rarities and start to sell them at premium prices. Instead they should be looked on as common stamps defaced by a biro - worthless and only fit for the bin.

I should also point out that by defacing the stamps in this manner, one is essentially invalidating the stamp (cf biro cancels) making it worthless for the prepayment of postage. Therefore, knowingly using such an item to pre-pay postage may be seen by Royal Mail Revenue Protection as a fraud and therefore liable to recovery of postage and even prosecution.

Spring Stampex 2013 - Aftermath

Well, Stampex is over  for another six months. I've had a bit of time to sort out my purchases - two "collections" of Poland covering up to about 1970 and my usual material from the Hytech machines.

There were the usual amount of dealers there with the expected stock. However, there seemed to be so little for the junior collector - at least on the two days that I visited. I suppose that this is to be expected since most of the people visiting were over 40. 

How do we encourage the younger collector to come to these events? Stampex does have a "junior" stall at the weekends but is that enough. There were many stands which had significant material for the more "mature" collector. Penny blacks galore were available from £95. Covers of all descriptions from around the world were there by the box load. But what about packets and equipment for the junior collector?

I have been to philatelic societies around the country and found that I was frequently the youngest person present.So what can we do? We cannot send collectors into schools because they would require a CRB check which costs at least £36 a time but can remain valid for up to 3 years. But who would organise the CRB? Schools won't because you are not permanent staff and supply agencies wouldn't be interested. I think that the Philatelic Trust organises visits and school clubs.

What sort of school should be targeted - primary or secondary? Primary would give the best feedback and give a positive boost to collecting but as soon as the pupils hit secondary school the stamp collection would find its way to the back of the cupboard at best. 

Using stamps and postal history material in association with class work would be beneficial. The BPMA has some material which is downloadable for key stage 2 on the Victorians, WW1 and even on aspects of design covering the Festival of Britain.

Year 5 and 6 do work on ancient Egypt, why can't something be put together using the wide variety of stamps illustrating pharaohs, gods and artifacts.

 

All those Shakespeare stamps could be used to illustrate stage and costume design associated with the plays that secondary pupils have to study. Art is so richly covered but why do so few teachers illustrate the works of the great masters through stamps. Look at the quality of artwork associated in producing some of the stamps - there have been some great engravers.

It would just take a bit of time and research to associate the appropriate stamps and material with the course of study.

Back to Stampex... I did spot a talk on Jane Austen and the new stamps on the Friday close to the Royal Mail Stand but surely it could be an advantage to all to have such talks throughout each day with the Saturday talks targeted at junior and new collectors.

And the "Aftermath" for me... Well I filled in some large gaps in my Polish collection (around 700 covering 1919 to 1965). I also found a single 1919 bogus stamp and a charity "stamp" for a Warsaw based charity for the blind. All this gives me some areas to research and learn about.

I was tempted to buy a bundle of 100 covers for £15 because of the top cover showing the 1970 Declaration of Arbroath stamp. There were a number of other covers of interest for cancels.

I have also scanned the Hytech material and have produced the third issue of the ATM Informer. so  just look at the earlier entries for the links.

Stampex 20 February 2013

Spring Stampex 2013 was held between the 20-23 February at the Design Centre in Islington, London, NW10.

Royal Mail, once more, had a presence. They had two stands – a main stand allowing collectors to catch up on issues at the back of the hall and another at the front for the Hytech kiosks.

There were three Hytech kiosks - A3, A4 an A2 from left to right. In addition there was a stand alone colour printer for Smiler’s sheets.  As in the last three shows, kiosks B1 and B2 were reportedly round the back to fill dealers’ orders.

The initial menu has three columns. The first column refers to the services available for stamps on reel A, the middle column for reel B and the third column for Collector Strips. The fifth button down in the third column allows the purchase of Smiler Sheets. These are NOT printed by the Hytech but by a separate process. One pays for the service on these kiosks then a staff member takes your photograph on a special App on an i-pad which is then transmitted to the printer. The process takes about a minute to complete.

 

Receipts produced were in the same format as the previous Stampex shows. Each Collector’s strip received its own receipt. In addition, a card receipt was also produced for the purchase.

Two values – second class up to 100g and second class large up to 100g. Background print is in blue with one phosphor bar. First day was 20 February 2013 at the Spring Stampex Exhibition at The Business Design Centre, London on 20 February 2013.

It is expected that the second class stamps will appear at offices with more than one Wincor-Nixdorf machine but not immediately. The suggestion is that this will occur over the summer of 2013. Both stamps are 56mm x 25mm in size and printed by Walsall Security Printer. The background print is a turquoise colour. This means that the only examples of these stamps, initially, will be from Tallent’s House or the kiosks at Stampex (and other stamp fairs). Presentation packs were available from the first day. They contained both of the new values.

The datastring used on these was A2GB13 C2-051840-10 or 11. This coding suggests that C2 is now located in Britain. The cattle packs from 2012 used the code A2NL12 and kiosk ident C2 suggesting that the printer was located in the Netherlands. Transaction number for the second class stamp is 10 and for the second large this number is 11. Stock from C1 was used to produce stock for the stamps used on first day covers from Tallents House. C1 prints stock from a roll while C2 prints sheets for presentation packs.

If one takes the time to compare the presentation pack stamps with the kiosk Hytechs at Stampex one can see that there are slight differences in the font size. In addition the second line of text is indented by 1-2mm.

Therefore all of the earliest second class stamps will be Hytech versions. I would welcome reports of Wincor versions appearing throughout the country.

ATM Informer

The third issue of my Newsletter should be available shortly after Spring Stampex. Featured offices will be Aldwych and Cambridge along with Stampex News, more on the 000000 ident and a lot more. 

Copies may be obtained by e-mailing me, going on to the Newsletter page of the PMECHUK website, or by going on to the ATM Informer Newsletter site.

 

Spring Stampex 2013

Spring Stampex will run between 20-23 February 2013 at the Business Design Centre in Islington. I hope to attend this fair and upload details on to my pmechuk website: sites.google.com/site/pmechuk/

Royal Mail will have their usual stand which is expected to have 2 backroom Hytech kiosks and at least 2 publicly accessible kiosks. On the first day, the new second class Machins are expected and will consist of two values - second class up to 100g and second class large. These two will only be available from presentation packs, Tallents House FDCs and from the Hytech kiosks at this shoe - at least initially. Roll out of these is expected over the summer and will probably occur at offices with more than one Wincor-Nixdorf Kiosk. I would welcome reports of introduction dates.

On the Friday, the new freshwater life - Ponds will be introduced. There will be the usual six stamps which on this occasion depicts: the Three-spined Stickleback, Emperor Dragonfly, Smooth Newt, Lesser Silver Water Beetle, Fairy Shrimp and Glutinous Snail. These should be available as Hytech versions from these kiosks while normal Wincor-Nixdorf versions should be found in the Wincor equipped post offices.

There should be an overprint available for the 60th anniversary of the coronation at Westminster.

I would also welcome reports of session numbers, dates and times from all four days of Stampex and any irregularities which may appear.