No you’re right, and I hadn’t thought of it that way!
Although we probably wouldn’t all shop at Philatelink if RM didn’t keep driving their prices up so much and so frequently! Vicious circle perhaps!!
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Except that Royal Mail did receive payment when they first sold those stamps. Hopefully, that income will have been invested so that they can still provide a service for us today.
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I did say they received the income in the past (but in some cases at a much lower rate when it comes to first & second class stamps) apologies if I wasn’t clear.
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No, sorry. It’s me being daft. I shouldn’t join in conversations when I’m too tired.
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I’m exactly the same x
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I’ve just started my crusade against Royal Mail and have sent four cards, each with a different message but all are relevant and carry the same message about the increases. I know some have said that they don’t know what to write so please use my examples if you wish.
Regards Andi
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Fair point I admit I had on one of the cards added a short version of my own personal address for that I apologise.
If anyone wants to see my examples of what to write please send me a DM/PM.
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Not necessarily, I’m no economist, but it is all relative,
For example, I have a Black 1st Class Machin Stamp that was issued in 1989 when the 1st Class rate was 19p, up until July 2023, that stamp could still have used for a service that then cost £1.10
Similar situation, my parents purchased their first home in 1989 for £85,000, the same property is now worth £650,000, so it is all relative to inflation and so called ‘cost of living’
Again, I am a member of a Railway Group, where the membership fee has remained the same for the last 7 to 10 years, however the cost of rent, insurance has increased, and therefore the group has started to lose money as membership subscriptions fees do not cover the cost anymore, because the money coming in is not relevant to costs being spent.
Going to back to stamps, Royal Mail have already started to process of ending stamps from 50, 40, 30 years ago with the definitives, I would think in the next 5 to 10 years all picture stamps featuring the Silhouette of late Queen will not be valid for postage, but then again who knows how much stamp prices will be, if there will be stamps at all?
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I will send a postcard to the Freepost address to, I will then follow up with an letter to enquire about, a re-introduction of potentially cheaper postcard/10g letter rate and/or wether Royal Mail would ever consider a NVI airmail/surface stamp?
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I struggle with knowing how to word things - could anyone advise the types of messages you’re writing on postcards?
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Definitely think a 10g postcard rate would be a great thing for us all to ask for!
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In one of the postcards, your address (the short version of it) was visible. That’s why the post was flagged and the image removed.
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Be great if us all, every active Postcrosser sent a card a day or wrote at least to Royal Mail and said, “all be it we few, still that’s nearly 4,000 customers to potentially lose!”
If only it were 4 million, but still…
Thank you all…
Just put “No more stamp price rises!”
Sometime keeping it simple is fine…
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…making notes for my letter that I will send around Easter’s price rise,
the other thing, I am going to mention, is the younger generation may never get to experience letter and postcard writing if it is unaffordable, what made me smile and indeed made me quite happy was I sent my work colleague a postcard from Japan, she has two children who were aged 7 & 4 at the time and were fascinated with the postcard I sent their mum, they are now 15 & 12 and have sent me more postcards back than their mum from trips away from far flung places such as Barcelona and Isle of Wight, they jokingly call me ‘Uncle Maddy!’
They both have never written and posted a letter/postcard before, not even in school or for Christmas!
I feel like I have inspired them to pick up the pen to postcard & paper instead of the phone for whatsapp & instagram, but with prices of stamps being £1.35 let alone TWO POUND FLOGGING FIFTY (£2.50) that will simply be unaffordable for many!
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I’m tempted to mention the dire service I’ve had this week.
I took part in two RRs from the BI forum - and I know people have posted their cards but I’ve only had one.
No mail at all in the last four days. 
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I would…
I keep seeing arrivals about either losing Saturday service or deliveries three times a week…
On one hand, ok if it means NO more stamp price increase, sure then Royal Mail should do that…
On the other hand this means longer travelling time…
A three day week, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday to meet seems better than no weekend delivery…
What do others think?
I’m lucky if I get one delivery a week; three would be luxurious! 
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Hi all (@Yorkshire_Lad @MartynHst43277 @FairyFoot @RyanR @mwntimperial @JustJo @rvalkass @jobloggs @xxxxyyyyzzzz @EmmaG @Florallle @Maddymail @Potatosium @Norway_girl @sandhurst)
Got up early and have written my letter to Royal Mail about this, if anyone would like a copy please PM me your e-mail and I will send it to you.
All the best and thank you once more…
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Well done, I’m just sending them a postcard whenever I can!
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I was just wondering how many more postcards UK postcrossers would potentially send if the UK postage prices were the same as Germany (for the sake of the example given they have lots of users who send lots of cards and the postage prices are lower) and what potential impact/benefit this would have on Royal Mail. Analysis incoming… 
For comparison:
Postcard postage prices as of Apr 24
Domestic: £0.85 / £1.35
International rate for all destinations: £2.50
Domestic: €0.70 = £0.60
International: €0.95 = £0.82
Basic stats from the Postcrossing website at the time of writing:
Population
66,488,991
82,927,922
Active postcrossers
17,915
59,470
All time official postcrossing cards sent
1,602,586 registered (1.7m if you use postcard IDs)
13,231,021 registered (14m if you use postcard IDs)
Calculated stats using the above figures:
Average cards sent per year on Postcrossing, rounded (calculated by dividing the total number of sent cards by 18 - the number of years postcrossing has been running)
89,033
735,057
Average number of cards sent per active member, rounded (calculated by dividing the number of total cards sent by the number of active members - I know this isn’t an exact way of calculating the average number of cards UK postcrossers have sent, as inactive postcrossers cards are included in the total so just take the numbers as a guide).
89.5
222.5
Based on the above, there are 3.3x the number of active postcrossers in Germany to the UK and active postcrossers in Germany send roughly 2.4x the number of cards per user - this is 149% more than the UK. Combined, 8.3x more cards are sent from Germany than the UK - which is 726% more cards overall.
The potential
If you base it on the current UK postcrossing population, the potential opportunity is sending 149% more cards which would be an additional 221,692 cards per year, taking the total to over 310,725 cards per year.
Potential number of cards sent at Germany’s stamp rates
310,725 cards at £0.82 each (the international stamp price in Germany converted to GBP) would generate £254,794.50 in stamp sales. This would not include any inactive postcrossers who may start postcrossing again, or new members who may now find it affordable to join at £0.82 per card, so the potential gain is likely higher.
Current number of cards sent at £2.50 per card
89,033 cards at £2.50 (the international stamp price in the UK for all destinations as of Apr 24) would generate £222,582.50 in stamp sales. Although some people will send using the £2.20 international economy rate and many people have said they will not continue after the price rise so this figures would be lower in reality.
Unfortunately, the £32,212 increase would still be a drop in the water for Royal Mail and with the additional costs associated with sending a higher volume of postcards across the world, I’m not expecting any changes as extreme as matching the stamp prices in Germany 
- but it would make UK postcrossers much happier 
.
Numbers have been rounded for ease of reading. This is just an estimated outcome, many other factors would actually be at play including cost of living and operational set-up in different countries.
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