The Forever Stamps Are Here
An AP article in today's Times- Standard finally brought it to my attention that the U.S. Post Office has started issuing the long awaited Forever Stamp. You buy them now and they're good forever, saving you the hassle of buying those one or two cent stamps whenever the postal rates go up.I'd read about the idea some time ago but thought it was still in the discussion stage.
I don't use stamps much anymore, so they often lay on the desk for some time and I end up having to buy a bunch of one cent stamps when the rates go up. Then it gets confusing cause I have some new stamps, some old stamps and the one cent stamps. The other day I wasted a couple because I put the wrong ones on an envelope.
It didn't even strike me the last time I bought stamps that I'd just bought the Forever Stamps. I didn't even figure it out yesterday when I went to put a stamp on an envelope and didn't notice a monetary value on the stamp- All that was on the stamp was a picture of the liberty bell and First Class Forever. Finally after I read the news this morning I realized they finally issued the stamps and those were the ones I'd bought last time at the post office.
Kudos to whoever came up with this idea.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 9:41 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Fred, I am surprised you didn't google for opinions against it.
http://www.pfadvice.com/2007/03/22/5-reasons-why-the-forever-stamp-is-a-lousy-investment/
Hmmm...hadn't thought about it from and investments angle.
I've just gotten in the habit of putting on two stamps when the rates go up. How could the postal service be running at a loss when their are folks like me squandering stamps. I suspect that rates will increase more frequently now that the Forever Stamp is available.
hucktunes, and the price of the forever stamps will rise with it. I don't see it as a good idea. I you misplace stamps and find them years later, yes.
But for people that keep pretty good track of the stamps and use them enough, then no. I would buy regular ones and be done with it.
That being said, I did buy a book of forever stamps thinking "AWESOME!!" and then I looked into it more and am thinking, "Damn shysters ripping us off"
"Forever" stamps can be a hedge against future (more frequent?) postage hikes for (the pooor) first class postal customers but are only for domestic postage. By treaty, postage for international mail must carry a monetary designation. Future postal rate increases will doubtless involve steeper commercial rates and include higher priced "forever" stamps but will be justified by using the argument that the increases only apply to eeevil businesses. From the progressive's viewpoint, what's not to like? Unless you have an IQ above room temperature.
It would be great if my mail box didn't get stuffed with junk mail. But junk mail does keep the rates lower.
Competition would solve the problem.
They do have competition. It's called e-mail, UPS and FedEx, among others. I'll take the USPS over the losers in brown any day. USPS is faster by far, even on 2-day guaranteed shipments. I give Amazon my PO Box address to force delivery by USPS to get my shipments faster.
Except UPS and the others are forbidden by law from delivering Less than urgent mail.
I remember reading some years ago about FedEx(?) being fined $10,000 for delivering such mail. Not sure how they define urgent vs. non-urgent.
I've heard more complaints about USPS than I've heard about the others but, while I think USPS service has deteriorated some over the years, I think they do ok considering the volume of mail they handle.
I've personally had more improperly addressed mail delivered to me by USPS, but that might be simply because of the volume. I remember receiving one wrong package from UPS. It was supposed to be delivered to the same numbered house of F street, not E street.
Everybody makes mistakes.
What's less-than-urgent? UPS takes one to two weeks to deliver with standard shipping. USPS gets it there in 1 to 4 days, usually two. Most of my 2-day UPS mail still takes 5 days. So I don't buy the "less than urgent mail" situation.
FedEx ships overnight mail, guaranteed. That sure sounds urgent.
Federal law prohibits any entity except USPS from delivering first and third class mail. It's called a monopoly. Bad service? Tough s**t. FedEx and UPS cannot deliver to P.O. boxes.
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