Making profit out of Royal Mail postage?

[on_and_on]

Hi, I was just wondering, can anyone tell me if it's illegal to make a profit out of RM postage and or stamps? I'm sure there was legislation a few years back?

thanks,

[DGP1]

What do you mean profit? Retailers who buy the stamps off RM usually make around 5%.

[on_and_on]

Hi, what I mean is that 1) can current issue postage stamps be sold at a profit or higher than face value, and 2) can RM's postal services be sold on at a higher cost? I'm not talking about handling fees, just blatant profit on services?

[DGP1]

Those retailers that sell stamps are under contract to sell at the price set by RM but I believe anyone can sell stamps at whatever price they want.

[rickyxx]

Retailers who purchase stamps in bulk from royal mail or through the post office get around a 5% discount. When supermarkets started selling stamps at less than cost price the solicitors dept. looked at it and decided that a retailer is free to sell at whatever price they wish. Therefore a shop can sell at a higher price if people are silly enough to pay the extra!
If you think about it retailers have always been able to fix their own price for any product, if they couldn't we would never have sales!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

AFAIK you cant sell normal stamps at higher than their face value, unless they are out of circulation and can't be used, or they are collectors editions. The reason why is that they are legal tender and you can't sell a £5 note for £5.50.

[rickyxx]

I can recall many corner shops selling stamps at a premium, don't know if they still do cos I never have to buy any with the free ones we get at xmas! I believe that since a retailer has purchased the product from royal mail/post office legally at the face value, or with a discount, they would be able to charge whatever price they wish. Royal Mail would not suffer any loss of income if this happens?

[bigjames]

Years ago we had a shop round the corner selling single stamps at almost double the face value. We contacted Royal Mail and they sent someone round to 'have a word'. They didn't stop selling them at the higer price, and we found out that we could do nothing because they didn't buy them through official channels. Years later we queried Safeways selling stamps at discount, and we were told that because they were purchased officially for resale with the requisite discounts they could sell them for whatever they like as long as it was not more than face value. it worked to our advantage as they ran out and had to keep coming to us to get more, which boosted our figures!

[Lounge Lizard]

Superdrug sell Christmas stamps each year below face value, though limited to a dozen or two for each customer.
It must be worth their while to make less than 5% profit if those coming in to buy them make other purchases too.

[BELIAL]

Hi, what I mean is that 1) can current issue postage stamps be sold at a profit or higher than face value, and 2) can RM's postal services be sold on at a higher cost? I'm not talking about handling fees, just blatant profit on services?

Course it's not illegal ,just set up a DSA operation ,then you can charge what you like and get RM to deliver it for below cost price,why not .there's lots of freeloading parasites doing it already