I’ve started writing to some new pen pals, but annoyingly the stamps that I currently have at home are the wrong amounts to send letters abroad, because the postage rates have gone up. I have 56p and 81p stamps, but I need 60p or 88p stamps for sending to Europe.
Wow I’ve just looked at the prices for the “rest of world” (i.e. outside Europe) and it’s expensive. 67p for 10g (so 1-2 sheets of airmail-super thin-paper!), 97p for 20g (2xA4 sheets) or £1.46 for 40g! Wow I’m going to have to think about which paper I use to write to people in the states!
Our main post office in town has set up a new ticket system at the moment, to try to make it easier than there being a large queue for the counters, but for those just wanting some stamps it’s more complicated. It used to be possible to just buy stamps from the till where they sold the stationary, but that’s all changed. I popped in there today to see how busy it was, took one look at the queue and walked straight back out! I don’t have an hour to wait for a few stamps! It’s sad that there are so few post offices in the UK now, we used to have one just down the road from me, which was really nice, but it was decided to close that one and keep the smelly one near to the primary school. I don’t know why it smells in there, but it does! It’s not a direction I normally walk, so I have to make an effort to go there.
To solve my postage problem (well for the time being), I bought my postage online. The Royal Mail allows you to put credit onto an account and print out postage which you stick on the letter/parcel/package. It doesn’t look as nice (esp since I couldn’t figure out how to get my printer to print directly onto the envelope (it wanted a sheet of paper too) because you don’t get the fun pictures on the stamps!
I have that issue with stamps all the time too! You can just buy the extra from the post office, but as you say the new ones are horrible for buying stamps from – I really hate the deisgn of them. I always try to go the one in Fishponds because it’s “old school” with the normal queue, but even that is now in the back of a Co-op (so not a proper post office if you ask me).
The new post offices do have machines where you can weigh airmail letters and buy stamps, which tend to be much quicker to use – but obviously no use if you only want “part” of a stamps amount. They also dispense boring frank-type stickers, so you still don’t get the pretty pictures you do on real stamps! There are often machines for selling stamps too though…
Sorry, you picked a subject close to my heart. I might link through to your post on my blog – it’s about time I made a post myself (just looked and it’s been something like a month and a half)!