Royal Mail Size Guide, why none on ebid?

[johnwash1]

So I finally got tired of going to the workshop to fish out my vernier calipers every time I can't decide if something is within the 0.5cm limit for a letter, or 2.5cms for a large letter.

"I know", I muttered, "I can saw up some plywood and bolt the pieces together to make some slots, a bit like the guide they use at the PO!".

And then I thought about how long that would take me... advice like "time is money", and so on. So I had a look here, and on ebay and Amazon.

Plenty in those other places, and at all sorts of prices.

So why doesn't someone enterprising sell any here on ebid? Isn't it something that many sellers need almost as much as parcel tape?

[lofty100e]

When the sizing system was first introduced you could get a very flimsy one from Royal Mail, made if I remember correctly out of strong paper. I have one somewhere that I bought from someone on eBid that was made of wood.

However since then the system has been tweaked at least once (I remember reading of a "cube" shaped addition to the various shapes and sizes already included, although I haven't seen that mentioned again). It seems that even the RM have given up on producing a template so nothing is available curre

It is only if you go out of your way to find the information that you get to know about the system even existing. It seems that a large proportion of the population do not even know it exists. At work we now have a policy that any mail with a surcharge placed on it is refused and sent back to the sender. But before this was introduced there were lots of large envelopes sent through on a standard stamp.

Even if you take things to a post office to be checked it is no guarantee that you will be given the right information as the staff there are not trained in anything except how to use the till. I have had sometimes when the person has got out the template and worked at getting the item to fit through, (as far as I know these have got through the system okay, but I have heard of instances where the postage was "corrected" later in the journey and a surcharge inflicted.

Yours is a good idea and I would probably buy one myself as I have no idea where the original is.

[johnwash1]

When the sizing system was first introduced you could get a very flimsy one from Royal Mail, made if I remember correctly out of strong paper. I have one somewhere that I bought from someone on eBid that was made of wood.

However since then the system has been tweaked at least once (I remember reading of a "cube" shaped addition to the various shapes and sizes already included, although I haven't seen that mentioned again). It seems that even the RM have given up on producing a template so nothing is available curre

It is only if you go out of your way to find the information that you get to know about the system even existing. It seems that a large proportion of the population do not even know it exists. At work we now have a policy that any mail with a surcharge placed on it is refused and sent back to the sender. But before this was introduced there were lots of large envelopes sent through on a standard stamp.

Even if you take things to a post office to be checked it is no guarantee that you will be given the right information as the staff there are not trained in anything except how to use the till. I have had sometimes when the person has got out the template and worked at getting the item to fit through, (as far as I know these have got through the system okay, but I have heard of instances where the postage was "corrected" later in the journey and a surcharge inflicted.

Yours is a good idea and I would probably buy one myself as I have no idea where the original is.

"from Royal Mail, made if I remember correctly out of strong paper". Those were the days! If you're lucky (?) your local PO has one to give you, made out of such flimsy paper that it makes chocolate teapots look fit for purpose.

"since then the system has been tweaked at least once". Yes, RM keeps moving the deckchairs on the Titanic (oh dear, what a lot of well worn analogies I'm using today!). They could do with some more tweaks. The sudden jump from £4.95 to about £13 if you go over 2kg is insane.

"staff there are not trained in anything except how to use the till". You're unlucky. Round here the small POs are staffed with people with many years experience, helpful, friendly, excellent. The one in the centre of town, about 4 miles from me, is rather impersonal and has long queues, so I'm an infrequent visitor and hence have no good/bad view of the staff. Small is good!

Anyhow, I've now ordered an acrylic 0.5cm / 2.5cm guide for £1.95 including postage, from a seller on that other auction site which this one seems unable in many areas to compete with.

With 8% lower fees here, presumably that seller could be selling them here for £1.77 and still make the same profit.

[astral276]

You missed a bargain. There is a credit card sized (measures thickness only) one made from 3mm MDF on the river reduced to £3.76 from £45.99 - you could have saved 92%.

[johnwash1]

You missed a bargain. There is a credit card sized (measures thickness only) one made from 3mm MDF on the river reduced to £3.76 from £45.99 - you could have saved 92%.

Hmmm, reminds me of that old chestnut about seeing a book for five shillings, reduced to half a crown... I bought it with the half crown I'd saved on the deal and so it cost me nothing!

[Pre-decimal, in preparation for a hard Brexit!]

[JaBek1]

Hmmm, reminds me of that old chestnut about seeing a book for five shillings, reduced to half a crown... I bought it with the half crown I'd saved on the deal and so it cost me nothing!

[Pre-decimal, in preparation for a hard Brexit!]

Alas! This went over my head. Precisely, how much is half a crown vs five shillings?

[johnwash1]

Alas! This went over my head. Precisely, how much is half a crown vs five shillings?

I refer the honourable gentleman to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_...ecimal_coinage which explains it far more succinctly than I could hope to do.

[astral276]

I refer the honourable gentleman to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_...ecimal_coinage which explains it far more succinctly than I could hope to do.

Logically, without needing to know the currency, 'half a crown' must be half of 'five shillings' if the end result of the calculation is zero.

When I was a nipper half a crown was my weekly pocket money. Could get a lot of sweets with that back then. Would get you bugger all nowadays.

[Gill]

Wow, you had wealthy parents Astral. I got sixpence if I was lucky.