Comments on: Today’s Postage Rate Increase

By: Oy vey

Oy vey — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:59:54 +0000

BTW: In theory, the USPS could honor all stamps forever - not just the “forever” stamps - with pretty-much the same financial results (it’s not like any stamps really have different printing costs). But the USPS is counting on people wanting to buy prettier stamps despite the static value and built-in obsolescence, so they intentionally make the forever stamps dull/ugly. Plus most of USPS’ income comes from bulk mail anyway - which should be bearing the brunt of any increase - so I try to mail as little first-class mail as possible, in protest.

By the way… did anyone else see last week’s SNL? On Weekend Update, the story went something like this (I’m paraphrasing): “The Postal Service announced it’s raising the price of First Class postage by one cent. ‘Aw, that’s cute,’ said oil.”

By: Oy vey

Oy vey — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:41:37 +0000

To those who laugh at people who use forever stamps right away: if I were to buy stamps tomorrow, I would buy forever stamps so they’d “never” be obsolete (I still doubt the “forever” claim will be honored forever), but I wouldn’t buy more than a few stamps more more than I needed. I don’t see the value of giving the USPS more of my money now for services to be rendered at some unspecified time in the future, just so I can save a penny or 2 per letter. I don’t feel like safely and dryly storing the stamps and remembering where they are - and if the stamps are damaged, lost, or stolen, you’re out of the money anyway.

This reminds me of EZ-Pass. Even though I used bridges and turnpikes very often when I moved to NJ, I didn’t get EZ-Pass for a long time because I didn’t like to hand them my money in advance. Then when I started using the NJ Tpk every day for work, I finally got EZ-Pass because it was just easier, I didn’t have to save receipts, and I got an immediate discount for using it (especially in off-peak hours). I just set my debit amount and minimum balance for the lowest possible amounts, since the fee was just a dollar a month whether they had to debit your checking account once a day or once a month. Oops, they’ll probably change that now…

By: Todd

Todd — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:43:02 +0000

I’ve always wondered how much it costs to print each stamp. Probably more than two cents. So when the post office would increase the price of mailing, it would take them half a year to pay off printing all those extra stamps.

An alternative to the forever stamps would have been to start selling the higher cost stamps a month before the new effective date, but allow old stamps to be used for two months after the date without additional postage.

When I first saw the forever stamps, I thought, it’s about time. Now that I know that the post office gets to raise the price of stamps every year without informing us, I’m quite a bit ticked.

If I had known of the price increase, I definitely would have bought at least one extra book.

By: Hunt

Hunt — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:24:55 +0000

It seems to me that once you’ve used up all your old stamps, you should only buy and use Forever stamps. With them, there is never the risk that they will become inadequate for first class mail.

By: Alia

Alia — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:46:46 +0000

Since Forever stamps cost exactly as much as a first-class stamp, what does it matter if someone used it before this week? They either spent 41 cents for a Forever stamp or 41 cents for a first-class stamp; either way, they used a 41-cent stamp. It seems like mocking someone for using four quarters to buy something instead of a one-dollar bill.

By: Master Flare

Master Flare — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:21:42 +0000

Rasheed: Ugh, I totally agree with you there. Unfortunately, I am living with someone who does that. Said significant other only buys stamp books from automated stamp vending machines, and seems to only have the option of buying books of Forever Stamps. While I have tried to explain the concept of a Forever Stamp to him, I don’t think he gets it. Not that I can fathom how the concept is hard to understand…

By: Kevin Andresen

Kevin Andresen — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:16:46 +0000

This reminds me of when TV Guide went from 15 cents to 25 cents (or maybe it was to 20) back in the 1970s.
The editor wrote a full page (as it was) letter explaining, in detail, why after so many years, it needed to be done.
I’m still moved just thinking about it.

So every subsequent time I looked for an acknowledgement; they never mentioned an increase again.

By: Robyn

Robyn — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:26:24 +0000

Jan 2005 I bought 150 I Love You stamps for my daughter’s ‘Save the Date” cards, and promptly misplaced them. Re-bought 150 more, sent the cards and wrote off the original batch.
Fast forward, July 2006, moving, find the original 150 37 cents stamps. Promptly went out and bought 150 2 cent stamps, since first class was now 39 cents.
Today I am the proud owner of 100 37 cents stamps and God knows how many 2 cent stamps, because I had to put TWO 2 cent stamps on for the last year, and now I need one cent stamps! As you can see, I use an average of 2 stamps a month, I am set with first class stamps until the year 2016. These have turned into MY forever stamps, because it will take forever for me to use them all up!

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:47:16 +0000

My next door neighbor worked for the post office. He was a head honcho of some sort. He stayed here (Michigan) only two years and I noticed that he sold his house for 50k less than what he paid for it. I’m sure the post office paid all his expenses, so that has to be about 6 million letters sent at the 1 cent increase. Probably a drop in the bucket, but still irritating

By: Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:49:31 +0000

(When my son went off to college last September, I offered to buy him a bunch of envelopes and stamps. He said “That’ll be helpful if I ever want to contact somebody really, really slowly”)

I actually mailed a few things off in the fall semester - though I didn’t need stamps I’d never use, since the campus post office had everything.

Of course, it was a total waste, as I went to school 30 minutes away.

I did need a mailbox, however, if I wanted to get a city library card.

And my mom still mails off some bills - the ones in town she physically takes to the offices.