‘My eBay package came with six rare royal stamps – I was stunned’ | Royal | News

With the cost of first and second class postage stamps increasing all the time, one eBay seller clearly decided to delve into their archives to save money this week.

Taking to Reddit, a woman expressed her surprise at receiving a parcel adorned with six vintage royal stamps with a value of 26p each when they were released – a far cry from the £1.35 cost of a first stamp today.

“My copper wire off eBay arrived with SIX different collectable Princess Diana memorial stamps from 1998,” the woman said while sharing an image of her package. The snap of the stamps showed the People’s Princess in a variety of headshots.

Bizarrely, a second person was quick to respond, claiming she recently received post from the same sender – albeit with alternative historical stamps.

“Hey you ordered off the same seller as me,” she said. “I also got copper wire and a parcel covered in train stamps from the 70s and 80s.”

Scores of other Reddit users were impressed by the seller’s nice touch, whatever their reasoning. So much so that one person asked if they could be sent to a new home. “If you don’t collect stamps is there any chance you can send them to me?” they asked. “My mum collects stamps and I’m sure she’d love them!” The original poster duly obliged.

Explaining why someone may have chosen to part with the stamps, meanwhile, another Redditor explained the Princess Diana stamps may have been used simply due to the stamp collecting hobby dying out. “Stamp collecting is a good example of scarcity without demand,” they began.

“Right now, people are not collecting stamps. The older generation that did are dead or dying off. When you take these fairly rare stamps for resale, there just isn’t anyone buying them, at least not for a price that would be seen as reasonable.

“My grandfather died about 10 years ago and his stamp collection had stuff from the turn of the century. We still had a hard time finding someone who would pay anything for it.”

Today, Royal Mail insists all stamps must be barcoded – described as “part of the Company’s extensive and ongoing modernisation drive and will allow the unique barcodes to facilitate operational efficiencies, enable the introduction of added security features”.

However, there are a few exceptions to the rule, as Royal Mail says: “Special Issue stamps that are produced as one offs to commemorate an event as we are not adding barcodes to these types of stamps so non-barcoded versions remain valid for postage after 31 January 2023.”

It adds: “Christmas Stamps: although we are adding barcodes to Christmas Stamps — non-barcoded Christmas Stamps will remain valid as postage after 31 January 2023 — so there is no need to swap them out.”