The Christmas peak is approaching for Royal Mail, and no doubt the number of parcels handled will shoot up year-on-year due to the continuing rise of online shopping. Meanwhile, I'm wondering what impact this year's hike in stamp prices will have on the volumes of Christmas cards sent. Opinions vary. A poll for Royal Mail found that people have realised that they prefer to receive a proper Christmas card (of course they do), and consumers may actually send more cards this year than last. However, a much larger poll of the over-50s by Saga, for the Daily Telegraph, predicted that the big increase in stamp prices would result in millions fewer cards being sent. Even though I bought a big batch of stamps before the prices went up, as it seemed to me the one and only guaranteed copper-bottomed investment I'm ever likely to make, I still found myself wondering if I could perhaps batch up a few family-related cards to save on postage. And a chum who happened to call while I was in the midst of card-writing and envelope-licking said she wasn't sending any cards by post at all this year, bemoaning "it's not the price of the cards, it's the postage". One could, and the Royal Mail does, argue that the price of a stamp still represents excellent value. But any product that goes up in price by 30%-38% is likely to cause people to think twice about whether they need it.