MAILED CATALOGUES

By the time you read this, new higher postal tarrifs will apply here in the UK and as I write petrol & diesel went up today. What happened to deflation? Could it be that postal costs are still a bargain? You can send a 950 gram package by first class mail from Truro in Cornwall to Troon in Ayrshire for under £4 and an airmail letter to Vladivostok for less than 60p. Mention of names should be avoided at this stage but to some indulgent members of the stamp trade 5am is a late night, but to your postman it's when he starts sorting the day's mail for delivery later on; a pleasant enough task in the Cotswolds at springtime but in February in the sleet on some bleak housing estate a very different matter. Hopefully some of the new money flowing in to Royal Mail will finds its way to the person on the front line without whom there would be no Richard Allan Mail Bid Sale.