Royal Mail prices are changing from Tuesday 2 April 2013

Key prices

Letter and Large Letter prices

1st Class and 2nd Class Letters and Large Letters stamp prices
• 1st Class stamp prices for Letters remain unchanged at 60p
• 1st Class stamp prices for Large Letters (up to 100g) remain unchanged at 90p
• 2nd Class stamp prices for Letters remain unchanged at 50p
• 2nd Class stamp prices for Large Letters (up to 100g) remain unchanged at 69p

Royal Mail Signed For™ Letters and Large Letters prices
• Royal Mail Signed For™ 1st Class Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.70
• Royal Mail Signed For™ 1st Class Large Letters (up to 100g) will be £2.00
• Royal Mail Signed For™ 2nd Class Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.60
• Royal Mail Signed For™ 2nd Class Large Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.79

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed™
• Our Guaranteed by 1pm service offers great value features, generous compensation and market-leading quality of service. Prices start from £6.22.

1st Class and 2nd Class parcel prices
• 1st Class Small Parcels prices start from £3.00
• 2nd Class Small Parcels prices start from £2.60
• 1st Class Medium Parcels prices start from £5.65
• 2nd Class Medium Parcels prices start from £5.20

Royal Mail Signed For™ parcel prices
• 1st Class Small Parcels prices start from £4.10
• 2nd Class Small Parcels prices start form £3.70
• 1st Class Medium Parcels prices start from £6.75
• 2nd Class Medium Parcels prices start from £6.30

International prices
• Postcards to anywhere in the world will cost 88p
• Airmail letters weighing up to 40g will cost £1.28 to Europe
• Airmail letters weighing up to 40g will cost £1.88 to rest of the world – Zones 1 & 2
• International Signed For costs £5.30 per item (in addition to postage)

Wow, that's a hefty charge for the International Signed For service.

Ed

Another heavy blow to online sellers and dealers.

First eBay increases their fees by introducing a new fee structure and now Royal Mail increases their prices too.

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:
Wow, that's a hefty charge for the International Signed For service.

Ed

And that's only part of the story. The basic fee only provides insurance cover up to £50, above that you have to pay an additional fee. So that £5.30 jumps to £7.90

Also, if you decide to use Airsure instead of International Signed For, they add on 20% VAT if you are sending it to another EU country. At least that part doesn't apply if you're sending it to the rest of the World.

The Royal Mail Service might as well put an Advert into all the papers stating "please do not use our service as we will rip you off for as much as we possibly can".

R.I.P. Royal Mail.

Surprsingly, the latest set of Royal Mail price increases have resulted in something positive ebay have significantly increased the maximum amount you can charge for posting quite a lot of items with immediate effect. Not necessarily helpful to card sellers but very useful for DVD Boxsets, books and other things.

Unfortunately, there is also another downside to the latest changes. Compensation for standard First and Second Class post is being reduced from £46 to just £20, though the cover for Signed For is being increased from £46 to £50. So from Tuesday 2nd April, I think a lot of eBay sellers in the UK will be switching to Signed For delivery only for most things.

I can't find the changes to international compensation but if it drops to £20 as well for regular Airmail, then life is going to get very expensive very quickly to ship overseas

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:
Wow, that's a hefty charge for the International Signed For service.

Ed

Within Canada it costs an additional $15.25 (in addition to postage) for registered mail overseas. All it provides is a tracking number and the receiver has to sign for it. Pstage is just getting to be way too expensive.

Just paid for a VAT charge for package from U.S., it included a fee of £13.50 for paying the VAT (Tax).

This fee has been £8 for some time, yet another increase in the purchase price of International purchases.

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
Just paid for a VAT charge for package from U.S., it included a fee of £13.50 for paying the VAT (Tax).

This fee has been £8 for some time, yet another increase in the purchase price of International purchases.

The fee can be either £8.00 or £13.50. It depends on how the package is treated and also its value. To quote from the Parcelforce site:

"We have two levels of clearance fee for import parcels. There is a charge of £13.50 for express parcels imported through the EMS (i.e. International Datapost equivalent) and GLS (i.e. Euro 48 equivalent) networks and also for high value standard parcels (valued at over €1000). For all other import parcels, an £8 charge will apply."

This has been the case for a long time. I have been charged both rates myself

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin F:

quote:

Originally posted by treksearcher:
Just paid for a VAT charge for package from U.S., it included a fee of £13.50 for paying the VAT (Tax).

This fee has been £8 for some time, yet another increase in the purchase price of International purchases.

The fee can be either £8.00 or £13.50. It depends on how the package is treated and also its value. To quote from the Parcelforce site:

"We have two levels of clearance fee for import parcels. There is a charge of £13.50 for express parcels imported through the EMS (i.e. International Datapost equivalent) and GLS (i.e. Euro 48 equivalent) networks and also for high value standard parcels (valued at over €1000). For all other import parcels, an £8 charge will apply."

This has been the case for a long time. I have been charged both rates myself

That's a laugh that they charge £13.50 for express delivery items, the package was shipped on March 2nd in the States and I still don't have in my hand. They should give me a refund for taking so long to process the package.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin F:

"We have two levels of clearance fee for import parcels. There is a charge of £13.50 for express parcels imported through the EMS (i.e. International Datapost equivalent) and GLS (i.e. Euro 48 equivalent) networks and also for high value standard parcels (valued at over €1000). For all other import parcels, an £8 charge will apply."

This has been the case for a long time. I have been charged both rates myself

Doesn't matter which one they charge, it is ROBBERY/THEFT This fee riles me so much. There is no way they can justify this charge other than Ransom for us to get our item

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:
Doesn't matter which one they charge, it is ROBBERY/THEFT This fee riles me so much. There is no way they can justify this charge other than Ransom for us to get our item

Every other courier company charges a similar fee, it's not just Parcelforce. The worst offender at the moment is the new scheme eBay have set up where you pay the import and handling fees upfront. That route makes the Parcelforce charges seem quite 'generous' by comparison

I don't like the fees either but they are a fact of life and they won't be going away anytime soon

I don't see your point! Yes I know we HAVE to pay them and it is a fact of life, but it is still robbery, just because everybody charges it or others charge more doesn't make it better and the vast majority of items I get are through Parcelforce.

The fact is that these costs and the general postage costs are making this an expensive hobby where a lot of us will have to be a bit more choosy with what we collect. Single card purchases are becoming madness as a $4 card can cost $6 postage and a $20 card can cost £10 in Customs/handling charges.

Sorry Hammer, I just thought you were singling out Parcelforce when all the others do the same thing which didn't seem fair.

Increasing postage costs on both sides of the Atlantic are definitely making this hobby harder to pursue

Just checked the Royal Mail site again to investigate compensation rates for shipping overseas. The bad news is they have dropped the standard compensation rate for Regular Airmail to just £20

So anything more expensive than that will need to go via Airsure or International Signed For which adds more than £5 to the price

This will certainly kill international business/trade.

Anything over £20 will need to be send via International Signed For Delivery which will cost a further £5.30.

However this will only increase the compensation to a maximum of £50.

Anything over £50 ... guess what ... you need to pay a further £2.30 to increase the compensation level to a maximum of £500.

If overseas buyers thought shipping charges were expensive, these new prices make it even worse.

I could sell a £46 (Approx $70) card to a buyer in the USA and charge £3.25 ($5) to cover P&P. Same card will now cost £7.90 ($12).

Now thats a rip off Royal Mail!!

The private sector complained to the Government that they couldn't compete with the Royal Mail on prices, so the Royal Mail was instructed to modernise and put private sector profits ahead of their customer's needs. The end result is the new price increases

Had chat with a fellow MSU member today and he told he has just had to pay a VAT (Tax) payment for a card he received from the U.S.

Nothing strange there you may think but he purchased with the new ebay/Paypal system of pre-paying the charges with the U.S. seller. So, he has had to pay the customs charge twice for the same item.

Has anyone else come across this situation? This new system should be scrapped now.

Do not talk to me about overcharging on VAT, customs and postage costs. I must have lost out a lot over the years, especially recently.

If a US seller has the prepaid VAT/customs charges system in place I refuse to buy from them period.

I'm actually thinking of going down the route of hooking up with friendly fellow US collectors to receive the items for me in the US and mail them onto me, slower but I will save quite a lot.

I actually think the new system will add costs to an already extortionate mail system in the long run and only people to win will be the delivery companies.

quote:

I'm actually thinking of going down the route of hooking up with friendly fellow US collectors to receive the items for me in the US and mail them onto me, slower but I will save quite a lot.

I have just done this

$35 card - they seller wanted $31 tracking customs etc

I got a friend to purchase in the US - $3.95 US shipping - Then they shipped it to me for $6.55

saved $20

they things we collector have to do

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wuher,