First class letter is 73 cents?? I thought we were at 67 and went to 68

[bucolic_frolic]

When did this occur?

And do they still sell non-Forever stamps. IOW, stamps with numbers on them, like 40 cents?

[CoopersDad]

1. Yes, you can still buy stamps with smaller values.

28¢, 40¢, and 56¢ stamps are shown on the USPS page.

https://store.usps.com/store/stamps/stamps/0-4/0-56/0-28/_/N-9y93lvZ1uzpzawZekvkdtZ3iot36?_gl=1

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Those are not first class stamps. They are for postcards, bulk mail, or additional postage

USPS by refusing to sell denominational stamps, are trying to marginalize - eliminate - using old stock stamps. Because stamp collectors have millions of these things, all still usable as stamps, and worthless because stamp collecting is basically gone as a hobby.

As a stamp dealer told me 20 years ago, get some really big envelopes!

[bif]

2. If you think about it

To get a letter from northern Maine to Hawaii in a couple of days for less than a buck, that's pretty amazing!

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

4. The first class letter rate in 1880 was three cents.

Last edited Sun Aug 11, 2024, 01:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Adjusted for inflation and depending on who you ask, that's about 75¢ today. Oh, and letters didn't travel by air then. Inflation-adjusted letter rates have fluctuated a bit (lower and higher) historically, but not by much.

More to the point, however, is the declining volume of letter mail. USPS is increasingly a package-delivery service. That's why sorting machines have been decommissioned/destroyed over the last decade. There just isn't the volume that existed when they were installed.

The Post Office Department (now USPS) was established for purposes of commerce. Mail for ordinary humans was a by-product, perhaps even an afterthought, until literacy rates increased. Then, personal mail became an "offset" to keep rates as low as possible for businesses. What business needs today is safe and speedy package delivery; letter delivery, not so much.

To make it personal for DU folks of a certain age, ask yourself how many letters do you send/receive compared to before the internet (say, around 1995 before the internet got really easy)? Electronic communication has replaced physical mail, both for both business and personal correspondence, as well as for things like bill paying. Don't know about you, but even my junk mail volume is WAY down compared to ten or twenty years ago. As an aside, when was the last time you wrote a check? I've sent fewer than ten letters of any kind and written exactly one check this year.

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

5. If you still mail a lot of letters and you're looking for a discount,

you may want to buy what's known as "discount postage" from a stamp dealer. What I'm seeing most commonly is "$100 of postage stamps for $85," so 15% off. The discount goes up the more face value you buy (like $1000 face value for $750). You'll usually get a hodgepodge of values and designs that will take a bit of assembly (and math) to make up the 73¢ or a package rate, but your mail will be quite colorful.

The reason for this is that lots of people used to put away sheets of stamps as an "investment." Unfortunately for them, stamp collecting has declined in popularity and demand for common but pretty stamps has fallen off. Instead of a kid on every block saving stamps, it's now mostly older folks with time and an interest in history and such. They tend toward the less common/more pricey items. All those "investment" stamps, while still valid for mail at face value, aren't worth their face value when sold in bulk. There's tons of this stuff around.

If you're wondering, only stamps our post office have ever invalidated (so far, anyway) were those issued prior to the Civil War, because there were stocks of them in Confederate post offices.

WARNING: be very careful when buying discount postage from anywhere other than from a stamp dealer, like on eBay or some other internet source. eBay CAN be ok if you pay attention, but it has also been a source of forgeries, mostly produced by organized crime. They're often sold in lots of current or recent designs (the lot will often be only one design/denomination), with "forever" as the denomination (i.e., the current and future letter rate) being quite common. Using forgeries on mail could get you in a bit of bother, as the sorting/cancelling machines will detect most of them. Then you've got explaining to do with people you'd rather not talk to.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. LOL

Great post because it's true. Stamps are trading at a discount to face value. I already have enough 4 cent stamps to fill a bathtub. That's why I need some 40 cent stamps. Oh well.