Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

[matgb]

There's a perfect community to post this to, but, well. In a discussion on price rises on stamps, a few of us Brits explain the superiority of selling stamps as "1st" and "2nd" insttead of by value for letters. In contrast to other countries which sell them only by value, so you need to buy more when the prices go up. A few random comments down the line, and a response I get is:

here, the first class stamps have the amount on the stamp, it doesn't just say first class.

Why, yes, we know, that is indeed the whole topic of the conversation.

I would put this comment on mock_the_stupid but, well, it was on mock_the_stupid. So I share it here, just because.

Comments

[paulatpingu.livejournal.com]

I've always found the idea of first class stamps as being a bit confusing. The fact that it only applies up to a certain weight means that on more than one occasion I've put something in the post only to have it returned (or get harrassed because someone had to pay the difference) because it was over the allowed weight.

I mean, I like the idea of having set level stamps so you don't have to worry when prices go up - it's like card shops with codes for cards so they don't have to keep repricing all the time - but where's the sense in a system which starts off one way and ends up another? Especially considering most people don't have the capacity to wiegh a letter to find out how heavy it is and so have to get it weighed in a post office anyway.

And, as someone commented on the post you linked to, first class stamps do have a cost value, and on a more expensive letter, you can use first class stamps to make up a higher amount. That's kind of weird too.

[fearmeforiampink]

The problem is differences in costs make it impractical.

For something the size and weight that can be sent with just a normal stamp, the vast proportion of the cost for sending it is not the transportation but the sorting. But as they get larger and heavier, the transportation costs go up, up, up, and they are much more dependent on the particular weight of the thing.

I'm guessing the Post Office's monopoly on all 'letter' posting also is an issue here.

Lastly, if you've got a set of scales in your kitchen (which is not unreasonably unlikely, though it's by no means a given), you can always weigh them there.