Forever Stamp: You pay for choice

April 26th, 2008 | by mbhunter |

The United States Postal Service will be bumping the price of a first-class stamp up a cent to 42 cents on May 12th, 2008. We (foolishly?) have about a couple books’ worth of non-Forever stamps that we probably won’t be able to burn through before the 12th. (I didn’t use them to mail my tax returns. Sending my partnerships’ returns using comic-book superhero stamps wouldn’t have left the kind of impression I wanted to leave with them.)

If you mail letters, a stamp that will always mail that letter would seem preferable to a stamp that will mail that letter only until the next rate hike, right? Why ever buy a stamp that will need extra postage in the future?

Prior to the introduction of the Forever Stamp a year ago, choice basically costed nothing with the USPS. You could choose from any of the available designs, express your personality in a number of ways, and mail your letters with the same ease and the same headaches when the price of postage went up.

Now, though, your choices don’t cost the same, and unless you really love the Liberty Bell, you’ll need to use your stamps before the next postage hike or else they won’t work. There’s just one design for the Forever Stamp. (No, there isn’t actually a Milton Berle Forever Stamp.)

So I bought Forever Stamps this time. Bye-bye Superman.

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  1. 8 Responses to “Forever Stamp: You pay for choice”

  2. By Jake Stichler on Apr 26, 2008 | Reply

    Personally, I’ve never really understood why people feel they need to express themselves through their stamps. But maybe that’s just me. I guess for a little “eh-heh, look at that, Superman” thought in the receiver’s brain, fine and swell, and at least they don’t cost extra… but I’m more concerned about that bill payment making it to it’s destination than what they’ll think of my choice in stamp designs.

    Now, if I’m stuck with stamps of flowers or something… that’s a different story.

  3. By Tim on Apr 26, 2008 | Reply

    The forever stamp is a pretty good idea, especially since now in the days of online bill pay, I MAYBE use a book of stamps up within a year. Its nice to not have to go back out and by 1 and 2 cent stamps when they raise the rates, instead my next book will be forever stamps!

  4. By Mrs. Micah on Apr 27, 2008 | Reply

    We just bought some too. We needed a new book of stamps and the deadline is just too close. We didn’t stock up, however. Perhaps we should have bought 2 packs. Nothing fancy.

    But I’m glad that we won’t have to but 1 or 3 cent stamps to augment these…I remember my mom doing that when I was a kid.

  5. By Jen on Apr 27, 2008 | Reply

    I always liked the different stamp designs. In light of this, of course, I will not use them. I had those exact superhero stamps, though, and I thought they were cute!

  6. By tracy ho on Apr 28, 2008 | Reply

    Up , up everything is up , so choices are no more stamp ,

    tracy ho
    wisdomgettingloaded

  7. By Todd on Apr 28, 2008 | Reply

    Unfortunately, it seems to me that the ever-increasing frequency of the postage rate hikes may only serve to hasten the obsolescence of traditional mail. Less mail = more expense per item = less mail = more expense per item …

  8. By Jim ~ mydebtblog.com on May 5, 2008 | Reply

    I think the days of US Government subsidized mail is coming to an end. A lot of people also use electronic billing/paperless statements, so the bulk of mail in circulation is junk. The stamp prices have always increased, so the forever stamp is a good idea in that they keep their value. Have you considered bringing those stamps back to the post office to maybe exchange them? I don’t know if they do that, but it wouldn’t hurt to consider the idea.

  9. By AKBAR on Aug 16, 2008 | Reply

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