[mireaux7]

If you live in the United States, youre well aware of the recent stamp increase from 39 cents to 41 cents. This hike in price went into effect on May 14, 2007. It actually caught me by surprise, I didnt find out about it until the Sunday before it occured. I had already dropped a letter in the mail with 39 cents on it. I am hoping USPS is forgiving enough to grant me some grace and send my letter anyways. I havent seen the letter come back yet, so I assume they did.

You may recall the price of stamps had just not too long ago been raised to 39 cents as well, but like me youre not able to fully recall the exact date.

The date was January 8th, 2006,.thats when it went from 37 cents to 39 cents.

listed below are some dates in recent history of postal rate hikes:

May 14, 2007...............41 cents
Jan 8, 2006..................39 cents
JUne 30, 2002..............37 cents
July 1, 2001.................34 cents
Jan 10, 1999.................33 cents
Jan 1, 1995...................32 cents
Feb 3, 1991...................29 cents
April 3, 1988..................25 cents
Feb 17, 1985..................22 cents
Nov 1, 1981....................20 cents
Mar 22, 1981...................18 cents
May 29, 1978..................15 cents
Dec 31, 1975...................13 cents
Sept 14 1975...................10 cents

source: http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html

Youll notice that the most drastic changes in price hikes has occured in the last 10 years. You can thank internet sites like Ebay and Amazon for this.

Thats right, more people are sending letters and packages these days than ever before. The U.S. Postal Service is swamped these days as the whole world has turned into a garage sale courtesy of internet commerce.

Today, you see more freight carriers like Fed-Ex, UPS and DHL out on the road than ever before. There are more 18-wheelers out there too. There has been somewhat of a decrease in shopping traffic at malls, shopping centers, etc. This is not to say people dont shop there as much anymore, but a select market of individuals are absent as they now.

Honestly, I wish the postal service would just raise the price of the stamp to 50 cents. I would much rather them raise it a few cents more and keep it that way, for say, the next 10 years or so, than be expecting another stamp price hike in the next 2 years or so.

We have a choice of different freight carriers for packages to be shipped: Fed-Ex, UPS, DHL. So why cant we have competition within the postal service as well. It could happen, you would have different colored mailboxes in public places. The traditional navy blue for the USPS, and then maybe a bright yellow mailbox for DHL, and brown one for UPS,..red for Fed-Ex?

They would each have their own seperate door-to-door carriers. Which I guess could make out for a very interesting postal route, being that not every home would be targeted for delivery by each carrier. It would be sort of an intermittent route, I suppose. But at least the postal rates would be much lower since there would be the element of competition.

Ways to combat the hike/reduce your usage of stamps.

1. Pay Bills online
2. Use email to send photos, letters, notes, birthday card, etc.

This post has been edited by mireaux7: 19 May 2007 - 10:36 AM

[Sailor Abbey]

I cant even remember the last time I used a stamp. I pay all my bills online and I refuse to send people cards. Like anybody gives a shit that you wasted $4 and 10 minutes of your life to send them some stupid poem that somebody else wrote.

[Cyzyk]

Y'know, the post office is a private business and not actually run directly by the government. As a result, you are welcome to open a direct competitor anytime you think you can provide superior service at a better rate.

[Slade]

A physical letter is nice to have once in a while as opposed to an e-mail, I think. And obviously, you can't ship things over the Internet, thankfully. (I shudder at the thought of spam via matter teleportation.

Mireaux, are you saying that the cost of stamps is going up because more people are shipping things? Shouldn't it go down or stay the USPS is making more money? And why is shipping effecting regular postage? Most people ship using something other than the postal service, so I would guess that they either raise money to compensate for other companies, or they just want to take advantage of more packages being shipped by hiking rates elsewhere and making up some bullshit contrived excuse about it to screw everyone over more. It could also be to compensate for the steadily rising gas prices which will not be stopped unless someone stops the oil barons from so flagrantly perpetually gouging prices. Of course that's not going to happen while a former CEO of an oil company is a vice president, at least here in the States.

[Cobnat]

I cant even remember the last time I used a stamp. I pay all my bills online and I refuse to send people cards. Like anybody gives a shit that you wasted $4 and 10 minutes of your life to send them some stupid poem that somebody else wrote.

Yeah you tell them Abbey!

I guess this means you didn’t like the card I sent you...

[mireaux7]

A physical letter is nice to have once in a while as opposed to an e-mail, I think. And obviously, you can't ship things over the Internet, thankfully. (I shudder at the thought of spam via matter teleportation.

Mireaux, are you saying that the cost of stamps is going up because more people are shipping things? Shouldn't it go down or stay the USPS is making more money? And why is shipping effecting regular postage? Most people ship using something other than the postal service, so I would guess that they either raise money to compensate for other companies, or they just want to take advantage of more packages being shipped by hiking rates elsewhere and making up some bullshit contrived excuse about it to screw everyone over more. It could also be to compensate for the steadily rising gas prices which will not be stopped unless someone stops the oil barons from so flagrantly perpetually gouging prices. Of course that's not going to happen while a former CEO of an oil company is a vice president, at least here in the States.

My theory is that the increase in the cost of postage is used to offset administrative costs for USPS. Its the one, sure-fire way that USPS knows it can make up for it. Whether it be demand from employees for pay increases (yeah, like they dont already make a nice salary), loss of potential revenue from the shipping services offered by USPS. (such as their postal insurance-when they have to pay it out, etc.)

[Emu]

hahaha. I was totally unaware. I guess that would explain all the random requests for 2-cent stamps in the past week or so, though.

[Despondent]

You can buy these "forever" stamps with the liberty bell on them. They cost the going rate, and are good for postage of one letter indefinitely. Supposedly.


The Bureau of Publishing and Engraving is a rip off. It costs the same to print a sheet of 2 cent stamps as it does $2.40 stamps. Add to that, all the sheets of stamps the philantics collect and never use- I'm sure that's costing the USPS money in that they have more people to handle that postage which will never be used.

Don't get me started on the commemorative quarters.

[optimus_prime]

You can buy these "forever" stamps with the liberty bell on them. They cost the going rate, and are good for postage of one letter indefinitely. Supposedly.
The Bureau of Publishing and Engraving is a rip off. It costs the same to print a sheet of 2 cent stamps as it does $2.40 stamps. Add to that, all the sheets of stamps the philantics collect and never use- I'm sure that's costing the USPS money in that they have more people to handle that postage which will never be used.

Don't get me started on the commemorative quarters.

Ive actually read somewhere, I think it may have been on that link that Mireaux posted, that USPS has recently outsourced their stamp printing, and its now privatized.

Oh, please let me know all about the commemorative quarters, or if you dont feel like ranting, then at least post a link to lead me in the right direction.

[Despondent]

I'm pretty certain the BEP still does the printing, USPS has been privatized for awhile, hasn't it?

At any rate, there's a new quarter for every state of the union. released at a rate of 5 a year for ten years. If you collect one of each, that's $12.50 you're paying for 50 metal blanks which just as easy could have been nickels. Multiply $12.50 by the number of "collectors" (yes, I'm saving one of each also); Removed from circulation, that's a lot of profit.

Don't get me started on the Star Wars stamps. And the Warner Brothers and Disney stamps which have been hugely popular. How many stamps at what cost on a single sheet, which you'll never use for postage? Oh yeah, the BEP also sells uncut bills for only two or three times what the "cut" notes cost.

[Slade]

That's on top of the cost of manufacturing, distributing, and circulating a new version of our currency that was not needed in the first place. Which most likely comes from our tax dollars.