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Monday 11 July 2011

10% Above Face

It has been suggested that the reason Royal Mail now charge 10% above face value for Prestige Stamp Books could be due to the complexity of the cylinders used for to apply security features.

I personally think that it is much simpler than this, and put it down to just plain old fashioned greed.

Royal Mail know that these booklets are only purchased by collectors , they know exactly how many are purchased and exactly how much extra with these sales they will bung into their coffers.

If it was anything to do with security features, all custom booklets would have a premium attached to the price. I also tend to think it is a disgrace that they have been allowed to get away with this price hike.



Ian Billings ON HIS BLOG has now made some more information available regarding the next Prestige booklet to be issued. It seems the thoughts are that the Machin pane will be pane 1 and it WILL be printed in gravure. Ian also has an image which I have reproduced here.

Whilst you are visiting Ians site you can also read up (and see an image) on his thoughts about the Arnold Machin Centenary issue! I tend agree with him what a boring way to commemorate such a important anniversary. I wander if the advisers who decide what issues to release actually collect stamps. I doubt it very much!

1 comment:

Brian Morris said...

I'm surprised Royal Mail have not charged over face value for PSB before now. After all a lot of work goes into producing these books. Leaving the stamps to one side there is still all the pages of text that all have to be printed plus all the finishing work. Having said this I'm sure Royal Mail could have absorbed this extra cost by the fact that the stamps are only brought by collectors and never seem to get used on mail. They have managed to keep the books at face value since 1969.
Another question on a similar theme. Why have stamp 'Presentation Packs' always had a premium added to them but no one seems to mind this?