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70 Comments
- triforcer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23you know a glue stick would solve that problem.
- DisposableRob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18I'm glad I'm not on your Christmas card list. :)
- td4guy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16ever tried to snail mail an omelette? O_o
- cypher35, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14wait... people still use the postal service?
- celeronxl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I don't get the point of them--why not just change the stamp policy so all stamps are like this? If they're really going to be sold at the same price as the ordinary stamps, they might as well.
Everyone will just buy the forever stamps instead, and it'll work out that way in the end anyway. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Stamps.. She'll pretty much have to.
- raygan, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Postage stamps become a better investment option than ever before!
- DisposableRob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7About time they started doing this. When you buy a booklet, the PO gets your money whether you use the stamps or not. Every time there is an increase inprices, I either end up buying too many 2 cent stamps I never use or end up just doubling the older full price stamps. In effect the PO makes even more money off of me.
- brandizzle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4That'd be great except I can't buy more than 2 or 3 at a time because I lose whatever I don't use in a week.
At least email's still stamp-free! - BrunoTheGreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is great!
I hate those 2 cent stamps. I'm still having to mail letters with a 37 cent stamp and a 2 cent stamp... I'm still not out of either.
I would buy 5,000 of these... at least.
Also... I wonder if it would be legal to trade stamps.... not as in stamp collecting, but as in investing in forever stamps at 39 cents, and selling them in 20 years to turn a profit.
I mail things so often that I'm really psyched about this.
Also it would be neat if they offer prepaid envelopes with the forever stamp. That would avoid any problems from arising with the adhesive.... although I guess you'd have to worry about the envelope adhesive then. - MrCodeDude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I used a $.37 stamp earlier this week to send my sister a birthday card and it got to her fine. I'd just go to Costco and get a roll of 100 and I'd probably be set for a good 5 years or so.
- ggko, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8I usually buy the breast cancer stamps, they cost a little more, with the excess paid going to cancer research. Convenient thing is if the postage goes up, you can still use the same stamp, no need to go buy 2 cent ones
- monsieurgrand02, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Unless. For some crazy reason stamps are cheaper than .39 cents in the future. Then you won't be making any sort of a profit.
- unknown.root, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4And I thought sending mail only costed 30 copper?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5See, emo bands are good for something after all.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3lol i thought that was incitfully funny but eh.. maybe they will turn black after a year..
they think hoarding wont be a problem.. i bet businesses will disagree.
I have always complained though. i am buying the service of mailing a first class letter not some sort of postal money.. but mainly just to hear my self complain,.,still i welcome this... i mail things so infrequently that when i do i find all my stamps are old. - CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"especially as the price of stamps seems to go up every few months."
What are you talking about? The price of stamps here is very closely regulated and was stuck at 27p for years, before slowing going up to 30p now. Much as I dislike the Royal Mail and their thieving postmen, that is very cheap compared with the rest of Europe. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This new "forever stamp" is just a campaign by the evil South African stamp cartels to ensure that a secondary market for stamps never happens. Pretty soon you'll start seeing ads saying you should buy her "two months' salary worth" of stamps. Don't buy these so-called "conflict stamps!"
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I still use it to send especially large attachments.
- Enitime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Because you can't use them for packages. These are letter stamps. If you have a larger envelope with say a $2 postage, you need different stamps with the dollar value on them.
- EdShroomhead, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4> why not just change the stamp policy so all stamps are like this?
One reason could be because the Post Office isn't ready to lose a significant source of its income ... people who collect stamps and other "special editions" that the Post Office puts out. Think how boring it would be for collectors if only "forever" stamps were available. - nailbunny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3damnit, i find out about this right on the day i broke down and bought a book of em
- 4answer2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The USPS is hoping a lot of people buy these stamps then fail to use them.
- Onyx26, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, here in the UK we went down this route a while back. The stamps now just say '1st' and '2nd'. I don't know of anyone that stocks up on them though - it's just not worth it.
- thirdman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6The Royal Mail in the UK started doing this a few years ago - it does make a lot of sense, especially as the price of stamps seems to go up every few months.
- JohntB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's not that great of an investment, at the current rate of price increase of less than 3% per year. Although, you might try to invest in stamps right before they raise the prices, and sell them off right afterwards, if you could find some sort of market for them.
- monsieurgrand02, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Good point. They're totally contradicting themselves. What's the point of having both? Should be one or the other.
- monsieurgrand02, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Yeah. He/she totally missed the point...
- nunbot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This will just make it easier for them to raise the cost without much complaint right away.
don't drink the "punch" - ContactRose, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't think you have to worry that much... since stamp prices JUST went up a couple months ago, your book of stamps will probably be good for at LEAST another year. Probably longer.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i think they got tired of me using 20 2cents stamp to mail a letter..
so you can all thank me. - TJMeier, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1By now I would expect stamps to cost 75c considering 90% or more of your bills can be paid online or through automatic payments. If I would ever need to take time and actually hand write a letter to say a family member then i would pay more then what they are asking no questions asked. Do that many people still use snail mail now-a-days?
- philipkd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sound business move on the postal service's part. They've increased the attractiveness of their stamps in the eyes of the consumer without doing much. If the amount you mail in your lifetime is constant, then they're just getting your money earlier, which they can invest. Also, people are likely to lose stamps that they were hoarding and have to re-purchase
- jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I hate stamps... can't they just have serials on envelopes? Then we could pay for the postage on the USPS website and just mail the damn thing out..... ohhh but that would take what? 50 years of planning in and out of government agencies before it could be implemented...
- mailman-zero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was wondering how a music group could do anything about stamps and postage.
- analogAI, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not if you buy her the ones that have sticker back sides... which will take the licking out of the fun.
- growingstupid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The USPS really forced the issue on this. They made stamps that just said "First Class" without a price on them. People complained when they got their mail returned after the price increase when using these stamps.
Seems like a good idea to me to guarantee any previously purchased first class stamps will work in the future. - nailbunny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1because stamps are a girl's best friend.
- brhad56, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1hm.
- ggko, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10ever tried to email an omelette?
- ggko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2http://www.usps.com/onlinepostage/welcome.htm
"Print either postage or shipping labels with postage from your computer with the U.S. Postal Service or one of our approved vendors." - EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm not sure why you're being modded down--you're absolutely right. Over the past 15 years stamp prices have increased at 2% per year. Inflation has averaged about 2.25%. That means the Post Office is MAKING MONEY when people stock up. Some will stock up before a price increase for resale but there's not much profit when your margin is only a few percent BEFORE expenses.
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah... And? The cost of everything goes up, it's called inflation. Honestly it amazes me I can get a letter hand delivered anywhere in the country for pocket change. This is good news not because it will save anyone money--I doubt postage will go up faster than inflation--but because it makes life easier. No running to the post office to buy 2 cent stamps; no need to keep track of whether you have the right stamp. Stick it on and send it.
Sounds good to me. - nlatimer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I got excited seeing Postal Service and thinking about the group. I guess this is alright
- jarvelated, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"each penny increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline costs the post office $8 million"
Now that's just insane when you look at it that way, That means they use 800 million gallons of gas a year. - dyoung9090, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hoarding isn't going to be a problem because stamps don't beat inflation. Stamps hit 29 cents in 1991. They only hit 39 cents in 2006. That means it took 15 years to increase 10 cents or less than one penny a year. Now, that one penny was, about a three percent increase in 1991. Now, a one cent increase is around a 2 percent increase. A bank CD should give you a return of ~5% depending on where and how long. Hell, a checking account with savings should give you more than 2% return.
At WORST, this bolsters the secondary market for the valued stamps (39 cents as opposed to forever) because more people will be flocking ot the forever stamps and the numbered stamps will only be purchased by collectors who have no interest in using them.
At BEST people start buying forever stamps like crazy because they think they're beating rate increases (which are the only times I think you'll actually see true forever stamp rushes as everyone is trying to beat the next two-cent increase. It'll be like learning that as of tomorrow, pennies will cost two cents and so everyone runs to the bank to buy as many pennies as they can while they're still cheap) and the postal department gets tons of immediate capital that they will be able to invest in their own infrastructure and other assorted long-term plans so that they fewer tax dollars need to be diverted to them.
So the point of this message is (a) don't be stupid with your "oh, postage keeps going up and it's so expensive" because the rate increases have been very sporadic, roughly once every several years until recently, (b) the recent trend of ANNUAL increases STILL doesn't compete with things like inflation or even the cost of oil, (c) don't invest in any company that considers hoarding stamps to be an investment because that's a sign they don't know squat about money management. - CorruptRay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe the Post Office knows that the end (or something close to it) of "snail mail" is just around the corner and they're trying to get people to dump a good amount of money into stamps before they become worthless...?
- MrC539, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm really tempted to try this: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=390255
- listentothis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would liken this tactic to retail stores that offer a pay-per-year reward program (ie. BestBuy program). With electronic payment becoming so popular, it is the Post Service's way to have people continue using their services. Plus they got the money upfront.
- jdog1016, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Well thank God for scotch tape and/or glue then, huh?
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