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Robert
Murray
Stamp
Shop
5
& 6 Inverleith Gardens, Ferry Road,
Edinburgh, EH3 5PU
Tel.
0131 552 1220 :: 0131
478 7021
0845
0500 886
www.stamp-shop.com :: murray@stamp-shop.com
15 October 2009
I’ve been running a traditional
stamp shop
since 1977, always maintaining a stock of current UK stamps. For the
past ten
years we’ve run a special service, at minimal profit margin, trying to
fill the
gap felt by collectors when Royal Mail’s Philatelic Counters have
either closed,
or downgraded their quality of service. Over these years I have
sometimes
defended the Post Office’s new issue policy, at other times I have
criticised
it. I hope I have been fair and open-minded.
These last few years have seen
the number and
cost of new British stamps rise and rise. The number and range of extra
products has increased. The “inauthenticity” of products such as “press
sheets”
has been raised. In May 2009, during a Trade Forum hosted by Royal Mail
at
Tallents House, I expressed my concerns on various matters. I also at
that time
made proposals for a new scheme to allow stamp shops to offer Royal
Mail
products more productively. Tallents House and their London bosses have
been
unable to make use of any part of these proposals.
Recent advertising publications
from Royal
Mail fill me with dismay for the future. Their wording has changed. It
seems
that we have now lost the style that came with a department of Royal
Mail that served
the collecting public. In its place we have an approach much more like
the
wording used by companies trying to talk people into buying collectors’
medallions, pewter spitfires and other “valued heirlooms”. I believe
what will
follow will most likely be a continuing decline in numbers of customers
for UK
new issues, further decreases in the market rates for modern mint
stamps for
postage (which reduces the value of my existing stock), and the
increasing risk
of adverse publicity. Adverse publicity, come the day that somebody in
the
mainstream media catches on to the story that most modern British
stamps and
first day covers lose much of their value as soon as you buy them, will
severely effect Royal Mail, and have a knock-on effect on the stamp
trade and
the hobby in general.
I’m getting off the sinking
ship. To those
still aboard; good luck. Like many others, I think I’ll stop trying to
throw
lifelines to Royal Mail. They just don’t seem to understand their own
peril.
The time and capital we save we
will try to
spend on traditional stocks, traditional business methods, and
traditional
service.
Robert Murray
[We will
continue to service standing orders until the
end of 2009. With immediate effect we are no longer keeping stocks of
the new
UK issues, but will handle them on the secondary market (i.e.
we will
buy, sell, and auction them second-hand).]
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