Postage
 

It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a
1oz first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US
first class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.
--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

Postage
 

On 2/28/2014 9:55 AM, James Silverton wrote:
It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a
1oz first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US
first class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.

Royal Mail was recently privatised...

Postage
 

Royal Mail was recently privatised...
and Dutch mail was privatised some years ago. The result is an utter
disaster.

Poste Italiane weren't privatised, raised the price of postage stamps
and continue to be a disaster.

Postage
 

On 28.02.2014 15:55, James Silverton wrote:
It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a
1oz first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US
first class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.

Standard size letter in Germany now costs 70 Euro cents since beginning
of the year.

Postage
 

"Martin" wrote in message
...

On Fri, 28 Feb 2014 09:58:42 -0500, S Viemeister
wrote:

On 2/28/2014 9:55 AM, James Silverton wrote:
It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a
1oz first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US
first class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.

Royal Mail was recently privatised...

and Dutch mail was privatised some years ago. The result is an utter
disaster.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As was Swedish mail - and the prices shot up - 6SEK for a 20g latter which
is pretty much the same price as in the UK

But closing down "crown" post offices and moving the counter services into
supermarkets improved that considerably

IMHO the UK unions are onto a looser trying to argue that this move worsens
the service for the majority of punters

tim

Postage
 

On 28/02/2014 14:55, James Silverton wrote:
It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a
1oz first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US
first class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.

Does that guarantee next-day delivery?

Postage
 

On 2/28/2014 12:25 PM, tim..... wrote:


"Martin" wrote in message
...

On Fri, 28 Feb 2014 09:58:42 -0500, S Viemeister
wrote:

On 2/28/2014 9:55 AM, James Silverton wrote:
It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a
1oz first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US
first class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.

Royal Mail was recently privatised...

and Dutch mail was privatised some years ago. The result is an utter
disaster.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As was Swedish mail - and the prices shot up - 6SEK for a 20g latter
which is pretty much the same price as in the UK

But closing down "crown" post offices and moving the counter services
into supermarkets improved that considerably

IMHO the UK unions are onto a looser trying to argue that this move
worsens the service for the majority of punters

tim

Europeans might be interested that most US first class stamps are
"Forever Stamps". That is, they can still be used even if the postal
rate is changed ( i.e. increased :-) )

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

Postage
 

"Mike O'Sullivan" wrote in message
...

On 28/02/2014 14:55, James Silverton wrote:
It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a
1oz first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US
first class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.

Does that guarantee next-day delivery?

--------------------------------------------------------

It doesn't even guarantee delivery (so I've heard)

tim

Postage
 

"James Silverton" wrote in message
...
It's perhaps OT but the British Royal mail is to raise the price of a 1oz
first class stamp to GBP 0.62. That's USD 1.03 and makes the US first
class stamp at USD 0.49 sound like a bargain.

The price increase takes effect 31st March.
62 pence covers the cost of a standard size letter up to a maximum weight of
100 grams, which is about 3.5 ounces.
A 100 gram US First Class letter would cost US $1.12 in postage.
--
JohnT

Postage
 

James Silverton:
Europeans might be interested that most US first class stamps are
"Forever Stamps". That is, they can still be used even if the postal
rate is changed ( i.e. increased :-) )

This was also true for domestic mail in Canada (the term here is
"permanent" stamps) from 2006 until late 2013. It was convenient,
because the rate usually went up early in the new year, so you
could buy a bunch of P stamps for your Christmas cards and the
leftover ones would still be usable afterwards.

However, in December 2013, Canada Post announced that

(1) The next rate increase will be on March 31
(2) Permanent stamps will be no longer be sold until then
(3) The rate will increase from 0.63 CAD to 1.00 CAD if you buy one stamp
or 0.85 each if you buy 10. Plus tax.

The last time we had something like this was when they converted the post
office from a government department to a crown corporation (i.e. it was
still publicly owned, but supposed to operate like a business) and the
rate jumped from 0.17 CAD to 0.30 CAD; that was around 30 years ago.

Oh, and for good measure there was one more thing in the announcement:

(4) Within 5 years will be no longer deliver your mail to where you live.
--
Mark Brader | "And I won't like [this usage] any better if you
Toronto | produce examples from Shakespeare, Milton, Johnson ...
| Or, indeed, myself." --Mike Lyle

My text in this article is in the public domain.