I have need to send a gasp snail mail letter. After composing, printing, assembling, finding a damned envelope, I needed a stamp!
I for one danced in the streets when the whole concept of “Forever” stamps came about. And I know for a fact we have numerous Forever stamps floating around here! One is UBER cool: it’s the Eclipse stamp, and that is heat-sensitive, you can make the Sun’s shadow disappear with your thumb.
So, I need a stamp. And my safari locates a handful of stamps, not one of which is a flippin’ Forever stamp!
I dug around in my purse and found ONE Forever stamp. I hope it has enough stickum to at least stay on through the cancellation machine.
I googled and found a website which would tell me the value of the stamps I found.
Okay. The stamps that actually SAY “1 c” (I don’t have a cent-sign on my tablet), I shall assume they are worth one cent. While I have quite a few of them, I don’t think I have enough to add up to the present fifty-cents postage.
I have “H first class” stamps. They are worth 33-cents. I have the “H rate make up stamps.” They are worth all of a penny apiece!
And finally, I have the “2006 First Class” stamp with the Statue of Liberty. Those are worth a whopping 39-cents each!
What do you have lurking in the dark corners of your house?
~VOW
I’m pretty sure I still have some twenty-nine cent regular postage stamps. Checking online, I see that the last time postage was twenty-nine cents was 1991.
Once upon a time, out of all the postage stamps in circulation, some were pretty cool, and people used to collect them. I suspect that with fewer stamps around, collecting them might get prohibitively expensive for someone who wanted to get into that hobby.
Anyway, as for sticking on ancient stamps found in your purse: you can use mucilage, or those glue sticks that come in a twist dispenser. Probably even white paper glue will work. It doesn’t really matter unless it’s a valuable stamp the recipient will try to detach (dissolving the glue with benzene and so forth).
I buy stamps in those 20-or-so booklets from time to time. For a long time I’ve paid most of my bills by telephone, so I only actually used one snail-mail stamp per month, plus the occasional one-off bill. I try to buy colorful stamps when I do buy.
So recently I saw some purdy stamps on display and, thinking I was running low, bought a couple booklets.
Surprise, surprise. Turns out I already had a few booklets from the last time I did that. And furthermore, the last bill I used to pay by snail-mail I have recently started to pay by phone too.
So now I’m stuck with what is probably a lifetime supply of Forever stamps. (Would the OP like me to send her some? )
Here’s a tip: I tried paying bills on-line some years ago, and eventually discovered that most or all such bills can also be paid by telephone. I found, furthermore, that paying by phone actually seems to go quicker and easier than paying on-line. Just one straightforward (usually) menu to plow through with straightforward questions to answer. No need to log in and then navigate through multiple web pages to complete the payment.
I suggest that anyone who pays bills on-line, give a try to paying by phone instead. You might like it.
In California at least, the same happens with annual vehicle registration renewal – Do it my snail-mail, or on-line, or by phone. Here too, by phone was quick and easy. I think you can even do the same with drivers license renewal.
Now you use them, unless you are saving them up for some reason. I’m sure you have an old friend who would be happy to get a cool postcard, or unexpected letter.
A collection of various spiders, a bunch of mateless socks belonging to either the ex or the vaderling, assorted legal documents of varying vintage and the other sorts of random crap one would expect but no stamps. On the rare occasion these days that I need to send a missive via the services of the USPS it’s probably something legal related and needs to be sent certified mail so I don’t actually keep stamps around the house anymore.
I have a bunch of 1 cent stamps lurking around here. I thought about plastering them across a Christmas package, but these days you go to the post office and the print a bar code to slap on the box - or is that UPS? I don’t know for sure, I so seldom send anything by mail these days.
I do pay my rent by mail - the post-mark serves as proof you got it in on time. Saves having to chase down the office guys who are mostly not in the office, their doing stuff like mowing the lawn or cleaning out the gutters or the like.
Sometimes I pay my credit card bill by mail (I pay it off at the end of the month, assuming I use it at all, which I don’t always) but there’s a branch of the bank on my way to/from work so sometimes I just stop and pay it in person (the bank branch remembers me - probably from the month I paid my CC bill with singles and spare change, in cash - it was a small amount, what can I say?) I paid my car insurance by phone this year (I pay it all up front, then don’t have a bill for 12 months). I pay my internet bill on-line (seems appropriate somehow).
I guess I’m that rare bird that actually uses all my options. I like having options.
As long as the address is fully readable, it’ll go through just fine.
Stamp dealers get rid of excess stock by sending out purchases in envelopes covered in stamps all the time. It’s sometimes more fun to look at the envelopes than what you’re buying.
I buy a stamp and in my head I say “I’ll buy a couple more so I’ll have them” Nope. Never find them again.
Recently I’ve just resorted to buying an envelope with a stamp already on it, at the
counter in the post office, use it right then. And move on.
We still send birthday cards to our kids and their spouses and our grandchildren. I don/t think we pay any bills by mail, but it is possible. The motor vehicle bureau wants you to add a $4 handling fee if you pay with a cheque in the mail.
I bought a sheet of commemorative Civil War stamps, thinking they might be worth something someday. So far, nope… I wonder if I can still find them.
Other than that, I don’t think I have any stray stamps. There’s a partial book of forever stamps that gets used for the rare item that can’t be processed on line. Oddly enough, it’s faster for me to mail a check to my credit union in FL than wait for the credit union here to process an electronic transfer. (I think they just mail a check also. Insane, right?)
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