Update: Here we go again… Yet another stamp price increase.
It’s that time of year again… Stamp prices are on the rise. This time, stamps will climb from $0.39 to $0.41 on May 14th. Along with the price hike, they’re also going to be introducing the so-called ‘forever’ stamp, which I first wrote about nearly a year ago. The forever stamps are good forever, no matter what happens to prices in the future. In other words, you’ll no longer need those annoying two or three cent stamps to round up your postage to the going rate.
In the short term, don’t stock up on stamps that you won’t use up before mid-May… There’s nothing more annoying than having a giant roll of stamps that are a few cents short. Another option would be to hop on over to Stamps.com for a bunch of free postage.
Thanks! Would you happen to know if the price of postcard stamps is gonna go up? I just bought 20 of those… =(
The forever stamp is purely a convenience move since the post office will now likely be raising prices yearly under the new law passed. By a supply for about 6 months when they come out, but there is no reason to buy huge quantities (in fact, it’s a bad investment move).
Seriously, many countries in the world have so-called “forever stamps”. It is only right. Think about it: by buying a stamp now you are essentially paying for your service immediately. By not using your stamp immediately all you are doing is giving the PO a credit line. If you do this in a savings account, you get interest. BUT if you give credit to the PO they punish you by effectively charging you more when you actually want to use the service which you already paid for.
It does not make sense from the PO point of view either. If anything they should encourage people to buy now and use stamps later. They not only profit from the “credit line” but also from attrition – i.e. people losing or for some other reason not using stamps.
By subjecting people to a price increase after they have already purchased stamps, they are encouraging people to only buy the stamps that they will use immediately, thereby limiting both attrition and free financing.
What amazes me is that people consider the “forever stamp” a strange move. For me it’s the other optino that does not make sense…
Thank god for bill pay. We rarely ever use the post office anymore
About time they had stamps which lasted.. Imagine if you had the Forever Beer.. buy 1 beer.. never have to buy another again 🙂
Ah, dang! I just bought the nice roll of fancy stamps that will be ugly when I put the 2 cents stamp next to it. 🙁
thanks! i wasn’t aware of the forever stamp and price hike. 🙂
I don’t know what I’ll do with this forever stamp thing. The thing that gets me is if ppl buy a ton of them, the PO makes a ton of money THIS year….
but then in subsequent years when ppl aren’t buying stamps b/c they are using their stash, then the PO will not have enough income, making them raise rates for those without the forever stamps. So I almost want to stock up and not get stuck paying EXTRA later.
We all know the PO won’t be smart enough to invest their windfall from the forever stamp now to help pay expenses later.
As it is I don’t get $0.39 worth of service per letter (I always get the wrong mail in my box, and who knows who is getting MY mail!)
Thanks for the info on the “forever stamp”. I think it’s a great idea. It’s a pretty radical move. Good advice to hold off on large stamp purchases until this new forever stamp is available.