I’ve only mailed one letter in the last few months. A change of two cents isn’t going to matter much.
I’m annoyed because I just found out about photo stamps, which would be great Xmas gifts for some people, but it doesn’t make sense to give someone a bunch of 37-cent stamps when the price will go up two weeks later.
I agree that the P.Off should raise the price to a multiple of five and then not raise the price as often.
No, they aren’t. Even stamps with no digits printed on them have a fixed value:
http://alphabetilately.com/G.html
and
http://alphabetilately.com/G2.html
:eek: I thought I was the only person who believed in this system!
And it may make your package look suspicious. One of the hallmarks of terrorist mailings is supposedly excess postage, on the theory that they are less likely to be inspected than ones with insufficient postage, I guess.
Speaking as someone who totes a boxfull of packages to be mailed at least once a week (twice around Xmas) and maintains two PO Boxes I highly doubt it. There may be less first class mail getting processed, but my business is almost entirely mail order. And I can tell you that USPS is hands down, IMO, a better company to ship through than either UPS or FedEx. The USPS is cheaper, more reliable, and it’s easier to pick your packages up if for some reason they can’t be delivered. I dread the nightmare that is either a FedEx or UPS package facility. FedEx does contract some of the USPS’s Priority and Express mail, but it hasn’t affected the quality of the service. If anything it has gotten a bit faster.
Also, sometimes I have to snail mail contracts and paperwork across the country that needs a physical signature. Have you looked at the cost of sending one or two pieces of paper through the private carriers? All that junk mail is the reason you can send a piece of first class mail for only 37c or 39c or whatever.
Having used private “mail box” services in lieu of a PO Box some years ago, the rates are positively ridiculous compared to what the USPS charges and your privacy is not as assured. Businesses still heavily rely on the USPS. The rise of the internet has been a boon for mail order.
The only time I use anyone but USPS is when a customer specifically requests it.
I <3 the USPS.
As long as email and faxes cost the same, I don’t much care.
I actually work for a bulk-mailer, so it will affect me and my customers. My customers, by the way, aren’t just the huge bank for whom we’re sending out several thousand personalize letters this week, but the local NPR station and the local zoo for whom we sent out membership cards. The zoo, by the way, got burned earlier this year when they changed the rules about what you can include on a letter and still have it be Standard (formerly 2nd class) mail.
This issue has actually been being debated for several months. It’s complicated, but basically, the Postal Service is required to put money into an escrow fund which, if memory serves, goes to fund retirement accounts for civil servants who are in no way connected with the Postal Service. This was seen as rather unfair, surprise, surpise, and the Postal Service was trying to get those escrow payments stopped so they wouldn’t have to raise rates. They were making good progress when Hurricane Katrina hit, and other things became higher priorities. There is a rather lengthy appeal process involved in raising rates which includes the Postal Service, Congress, and a body which regulates the postcard, and there are deadlines involved. Changing rates is an exercise in massive, complicated, and, frankly boring bureaucracy. If anyone’s interested, I can dig up more information when I get to work. Personally, I’d say were lucky it wasn’t raised to 39 1/2 cents! I agree 40 cents would have been more sensible, but since when does common sense have anything to do with government? 
I usually put left over Christmas stamps on routine bills like the mortgage payment, electric bill, etc. because I’m cheap and I doubt a human being’s looking at them or, if someone is, it’s only for a few seconds. That plan will have to be modified.
CJ
“Stemps” you say?
I tried to look those up and found no dictionary entries, but lots of intriguing Google lines.
Like this one:
“Long intramedullary stemps of prosthetic components reduce complications, when allograft-prosthesis composite is used in tumor reconstruction.”
and …
"Biofuel Data:
maize /stemps
The calorific value and the elementary analysis refers to dry biomass.
calorific value
gross: 4377 kJ/kg
net:
elementary analysis
C: 47.09 wt.%,dm
H: 5.97 wt.%,dm
N: 0.74 wt.%,dm
S:
Cl: 0.05 wt.%,dm
O: by difference "
and …
“Chinese KungFu Series 4: A Drunkard’s Boxing-shaolin kung fu, kung … With stemps faltering and body stumbling, the performer now raises his cup and pours out wine for himself, now wriggles and staggers along like a drunken man”
Clearly there is more to stemps than meets the dictionary 
I thought they used excess postage to make sure that the bomb they just mailed doesn’t get returned to them.
Then again, I wouldn’t know about such things.
Since I started paying bills on line, my stamp usage has dropped to almost nil. It won’t matter to me, except I’ll have to remember to pick up some 2 cent stamps.
Won’t bother me none.
OK, please don’t kill me, because this is kind of like telling a joke and forgetting the punchline, but here goes:
I used to work at USPS HQ, and I vaguely remember someone telling me that they’ll always charge an odd number for stamps because they make more money that way. I don’t remember why that is, but there you go.
That’s what I meant; “inspected” or singled out for inadequate postage.
Again?
No, they need it to operate, and it doesn’t get supported by tax dolllars. I do wish bulk mailing advertisers had to pay at the same rate. You people can keep throwing the change on the ground if you don’t wat to use it. Over a month I can get a couple cans of pop from pennies on the ground.
No biggie, just do like I do: stock up on the cheaper ones before they go up in price!
Yeah, me too. I use less than 2 stamps a month on average, now.
I don’t care. I bought a whole fistful of stamps before the price went up. 
Is this the outfit that some joker used to make stamps depicting embarassing figures like Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, the Boston Strangler, etc?
Yes. In fact, there was a story on NPR not too long ago that they were looking for folks who are culturally and graphically literate so that they can weed out images that are either objectionable or copyright violations.
Still, it seems like a cool way to customize a letter if you don’t mind paying the price.