The Cheaper Stamps

[ArcticChicken]

As many of you know, a few months ago, the US Postal Service changed their shipping rates. Something I was not informed of was that the new rates are optional for a select few.

About a week after the rate hike a woman came through my line.
The conversation went something like this:

ME: Hi, welcome to <insert grocery store here> how are you today?
C: Fine thanks, and you?
ME: I'm fine, thank you.

I proceed to ring up the items she has, and, as I reach the end of the order:

C: And I'd like a book of stamps.
ME: Sure thing.

I proceed to enter the code for stamps (we keep them in the till).

C: (Looking at the display screen) No not those stamps, I want the cheaper stamps!
ME: The....cheaper stamps?
C: Yes, the cheaper stamps!
ME: (Assuming she wants the 1 cent stamps the post office sells after every rate hike) I'm afraid we don't sell any cheaper stamps, but there's a post office--
C:It's fine! I guess the government will just have to keep my two cents!!

[Nayeli_Sabia]

C:It's fine! I guess the government will just have to keep my two cents!!

But see, how many people try to give the government their "two cents"? She should consider herself lucky!

[Gurndigarn]

C: (Looking at the display screen) No not those stamps, I want the cheaper stamps!
ME: The....cheaper stamps?
C: Yes, the cheaper stamps!
ME: (Assuming she wants the 1 cent stamps the post office sells after every rate hike) I'm afraid we don't sell any cheaper stamps, but there's a post office--
C:It's fine! I guess the government will just have to keep my two cents!!

She wanted 39 cent stamps? When it costs 41 cents to send a normal envelope now? (I'm assuming US here... and why can't the post office just go to even multiples of 5? DEATH TO THE PENNY!)

[FenigDurak]

(I'm assuming US here... and why can't the post office just go to even multiples of 5? DEATH TO THE PENNY!)

As many of you know, a few months ago, the US Postal Service

Hehe, I just found that funny. It's early for me. I was up late. Sorry.

[Banrion]

I was actually fairly pleased with the new rate hike, not because I will pay more to send mail, but because with it came the introduction of the Forever Stamp. No more fiddling with the 1 and 2 cent stamps every time the USPS changes rates. We bought 1000 and that will probably last us a good 10 years or so.

[Raieth]

Yeah they're called permanent stamps in canada. Always worth the going rate. Very nice idea.

[yomiko]

I was actually fairly pleased with the new rate hike, not because I will pay more to send mail, but because with it came the introduction of the Forever Stamp. No more fiddling with the 1 and 2 cent stamps every time the USPS changes rates. We bought 1000 and that will probably last us a good 10 years or so.

Not sure about the States, but here in Canada, they reserve the right to yank them at any time. I'm sure they will eventually based on the deign (which changes every year so they can gauge age of the stamp). I'm not banking on them lasting 10 years, though 2-3 per design should be fine.

[Banrion]

They have not reserved that right in any documentation that I can find publically available.

In 2007, the U.S. Postal Service will issue the Forever stamp, which will always be valid as First-Class postage on standard envelopes weighing one ounce or less, regardless of any subsequent increases in the First-Class rate.

No asterisk to indicate that this is not the full story,

[Nayeli_Sabia]

Slightly Random:

I like stamps. I like that, for a mere 41 cents, less than half a dollar, some guy will come to my door, every day, and take my letters, and then some other guy will hand deliver it to their door/box.


As for the price hikes.... I blame congress. The SUPS had a surplus untill they stuck their fingers in the cookie jar. I swear I'm not bitter.

[matty]

I know, it's not stamps, but this is still to do with "communications" stuff. Here in Australia, until the mid 1990s, there was the federal government-owned Telecom Australia, and that was pretty much it. The industry was then deregulated, Telecom Australia was re-named Telstra and listed on the stock-market, while new companies entered the market.

Anyway, for quite some time, the standard cost of a local call at a public/payphone was 40 cents, which rose fairly recently to 50 cents. Apparently, payphones are not profitable - Telstra claims that every time someone uses one (paying their 50 cents), it actually costs about five dollars. This means that payphones are now disappearing from all but the busiest locations, while the Telstra phones inside shopping malls are replaced by ones owned by other companies, which are very expensive to use (e.g. timed local calls).

Sure I have a mobile (cell phone), but it is always nice to know that there will be a public phone there when you need it! Oh, and sorry to "my fellow Australians" for telling you what you already know.

[Mark Healey]

I was actually fairly pleased with the new rate hike, not because I will pay more to send mail, but because with it came the introduction of the Forever Stamp. No more fiddling with the 1 and 2 cent stamps every time the USPS changes rates. We bought 1000 and that will probably last us a good 10 years or so.

I don't know what the big deal is. Other countries have been doing this for years and I've been bitching that we don't have it.

I wouldn't have bought 1000 of them. All you did was give the Post Office a $4.10 interest free loan.

[Banrion]

I wouldn't have bought 1000 of them. All you did was give the Post Office a $4.10 interest free loan.

$410.00, but not the point. I don't use stamps, my fiance does, he has not yet realized the joys of online bill pay. However, since I am the wummin, if he runs out or can't find any stamps, guess who he comes to? Then guess who has to spend her lunch break running to the 4 corners of Boston trying to find the stupid stamp truck? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first two don't count. I would tell him to go get them himself, but that just means that then his bills would be late because him and errands don't get along so well.

So all in all, it wasn't really my money, it was his, and it will save me/him a whole lot of money in the long run, since one late fee = 100 stamps. Eventually, probably soon, we are going to have to face the fact that getting married means everything is ours, no more of mine vs his really.

[BookstoreEscapee]

A few weeks ago I bought 53 four-cent stamps because that's how many 37 cent stamps I still had left (yes, 37 cents). I had about a sheet and a half of two-cents still left when the rate went to 41 cents, so I had to put three stamps on everything I mailed. Hopefully I will be able to use them up before it goes up again .

(The reason I had so many was because I had bought a roll of 100, and then I misplaced it, having used maybe 3 of them, and so I bought a book of 20, and then I found the roll, having used maybe 2 out of the book.. and I don't even use them all that often**! )

When I use them all up I will get some forever stamps, and maybe pay more stuff online.

**obviously

[Andara Bledin]

Apparently, payphones are not profitable - Telstra claims that every time someone uses one (paying their 50 cents), it actually costs about five dollars.

It's true. Payphones are hideously unprofitable, and with the age of cellphones, they're mostly useless.

Eventually, probably soon, we are going to have to face the fact that getting married means everything is ours, no more of mine vs his really.

Actually, even after you're married, you can keep it a yours/mine split. In some situations, it makes things easier. In my marriage it would have saved a ton in overdraft fees. I could have let Shameless play with the money in his account, and made him give me money when it was time to pay bills. Then he wouldn't have been able to look at the bank balance, see the money that was being held to cover the checks that had been mailed, and spend it like the money-foolish idiot he was. I blame his mother. She did practically everything for him until he turned 18, and then he was supposed to magically become independant. She also likes to play the martyr. Ugh!

.....

I don't get why everybody doesn't do the online bill payment thing. It's terrific! You always know exactly when the money is going to go, you don't have to buy stamps or envelopes, and there's no worry that the payment could get delayed. I haven't mailed a payment in years.

Just don't do the automatic payment thing if you can avoid it. It's not usually an issue, but there's no way to refuse a charge from an automatic payment plan. If there was a dispute, you would have to put up with it being charged every cycle, and then disputing it, rather than getting your bank/card provider to block the charge before it goes through.

^-.-^

[mattm04]

I pay everything I can online. I don' t have to worry that the USPS lost the mail or whatever else may have happened. Bill payment wise, I only write two or three checks a year tops.