Stamp prices going up starting tomorrow

[atikovi]

It’s the same thing like pulling 100% depreciation forward to the current year on capital assets. You drag future money to the present to make the numbers look good, and let 5 years from now worry about itself, because that will be somebody else’s problem by then!

How many people bought $100,000 worth of stamps as an investment when they cost like 40 cents, thinking that postage might rise to a dollar pretty soon? I guess they didn't count on the internet and email virtually killing off letter mail.

 

[someonesomewhere]

Creating the forever stamp was the smartest thing they ever did. I remember huge lines at the post office just because stamps went up a couple cents. Dumb.

Yep, and having to buy the stupid penny stamps to add-on to the now undervalued stamps you already had from before the price went up. So a basic letter would have anywhere from 2-??? stamps on it depending on how old your stamps were. They also had other 'change' denominations iirc (3¢, etc). Haha

 

[ATex7239]

Stamp pricing has always seemed odd to me… There is no discrimination of distance. It cost the same to mail something 5 miles away as 5 states away.

 

[paulo57509]

No more route walking here. We have those "community" mail boxes. Makes it much easier for mail thieves to grab the piles junk mail.

 

[Kira]

No big highjack intended.
Years ago the USPS curtailed "surface rate" for economical overseas mailings. That sucked.
It was so much fun to mail little gifts to people I met traveling.
What followed was a 20 year depression...increased drinking....isolation. It's been bad.
You don't care, I know.

Mailing a tee shirt to the UK now costs >$10. Criminal.

 

[atikovi]

Stamp pricing has always seemed odd to me… There is no discrimination of distance. It cost the same to mail something 5 miles away as 5 states away.

Same thing for car freight charges. Same if you pick up from a dealer a mile away from the factory in Detroit or over 1000 miles away in Miami.

 

[fdcg27]

What good or service hasn't seen multiple price increases over the past couple of years?

 

[fisher83]

How many letters are people mailing for this to have any impact on their daily lives whatsoever?

 

[Shel_B]

Years ago the USPS curtailed "surface rate" for economical overseas mailings. That sucked.
It was so much fun to mail little gifts to people I met traveling.
What followed was a 20 year depression...increased drinking....isolation. It's been bad.

Clearly, there was/is more at play here than a postal rate hike.

 

[Kira]

Currently, people are "short linking' numerous cause and effect scenarios.
You know, the telegraph corrupted our youth, etc.
At the time, the USPS hadn't been blamed recently for anything so I latched on.

If cell phones had been introduced 10 years later, perhaps I could blame my indulgences on the phone company.

 

[SHOZ]

They are buying new electric vehicles. Say no more....

 

[Jesse_NE]

About 50% of the bills we pay out at work are to smaller vendors, so that means sending a paper check the mail. It's way overkill, but I bought 800 stamps before this price increase.

On a personal note, I ordered a box of blank birthday cards a few weeks ago. I figure that some people might appreciate getting something in the mail over a text or social media message.