Cheap Royal Mail Stamps

[Rako92]

Hi,

I am selling things on eBay and Amazon and send large letters daily. I am now looking for a more effective (read: cheaper) postage fees. Currently the stamps for First Class Large Letter are 95p per stamp. I am below the requirements for a Business Client of Royal Mail to use any discounts directly from them.

I found a couple of online stores which sell stamps, validated by Royal Mail. One seller offers these for 50p per stamps, which is nearly 50% off face value. But to be honest, does this sound too good to be true?

Do you think I can really get stamps for this price and where would you recommend to buy cheaper stamps?

Thanks

 

[silvermusic]

These will be the stamps on eBay that have no sticky on, I wonder where they came from. Don't bother, Royal mail aren't daft, it's fraud, and you're customers will be pi**ed off when they have to pay excess because stamps have been reused. Charge your customers what the postage costs you.

 

[Mr A P Davies]

These will be the stamps on eBay that have no sticky on, I wonder where they came from. Don't bother, Royal mail aren't daft, it's fraud, and you're customers will be pi**ed off when they have to pay excess because stamps have been reused. Charge your customers what the postage costs you.

Ahhhh, so that's what is going on. I was getting so many cheques in the post, that were not delivered because of stamps, and I had to go and pick them up, that I now send out SAEs with the bill.
That explains a lot.

 

[Rako92]

Thanks for this. I knew it may be too good to be true. I put free delivery on ebay and wanted to make the price more attractive to buyers (low priced items), so wanted to cut the shipping costs somehow, if possible.

All best.

 

[Andrew Chambers]

You can save about 5% if you buy them from a cash & carry such as Booker.

 

[Low Cost Sourcing]

Depending on your volume you could look into a franking machine. I think you can get one for about £20 a month and you can save up to 30% on stamp prices.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

I noticed a shop in Brighton offering 'cut price stamps' iirc 45p for 1st class - I didn't have time to go in.

 

[silvermusic]

There's no such thing as free postage, trust me, if there was I'd have found it by now, been doing this a long time.
Charge cost price for P&P and give a small discount if the sale value come over a certain price. If you can combine P&P so much the better. Just don't try what is impossible, it'll get you in the end.

 

[IanG]

Free postage all the way - the more buyers know about your postage arrangements, the more they're going to complain about them.

 

[BigTree]

I used to buy my stamps from Costco which are slightly cheaper but now use PPI (Pre-postage paid) via RM website.

I can't remember what the minimum postage per year was but it's not huge. Give them a call to discuss.

 

[silvermusic]

Free postage all the way - the more buyers know about your postage arrangements, the more they're going to complain about them.

Why do so many businesses assume the buying public are stupid, they're far more savvy than many business people think, times have changed. Postage cost is included in the price, it's really not rocket science. The vast majority of people look at the total price. Fixed and/or combined P&P will invariably make it cheaper when people buy multiple items.

By all means do so called Free P&P if a sale goes over a certain value, or a discount if the sales goes over a value, that's using it to your advantage in increasing the spend. Everyone likes a deal if they're spending more, these methods have worked well for me in the last few years, "Free" P&P is something people have become punch drunk so what about, much like "half price" and other meaningless terms.

 

[IanG]

Yeah they're so savvy they'll argue that they paid £3.50 for postage when it says £3.30 on the stamp.

No idea who is buying the bubble wrap and the box mind!

I had a world of pain for the 6 months I itemised it all. Nowadays I prefer to stand the losses and benefit from the over-estimations and combinations unless someone haggles, which is also fine.

But for the bulk of the "savvy" public, they can stick to knowing their stuff got there for the price they paid.

 

[bharris]

Depending on your volume you could look into a franking machine. I think you can get one for about £20 a month and you can save up to 30% on stamp prices.

Stay away from franking machines, with all the hidden add-ons they cost a small fortune. Ink, labels, price update chips, credit charge etc.. etc.

Get a Royal Mail account and and use PPI if you can.

 

[silentjay]

Stay away from franking machines, with all the hidden add-ons they cost a small fortune. Ink, labels, price update chips, credit charge etc.. etc.

Get a Royal Mail account and and use PPI if you can.

Agreed. Stay away from franking machines and the scammy monopolistic companies which flog them.

If you don't meet the lower volume limit for a RM OBA account find something to flog at cost to get your volumes up.