Yes, you can.
If you take an unused coil of stamps (probably works with unused books, too) back to your local post office, they will replace it with a coil of the new ones (plus you pay the $2 difference in cash). I don’t know if this is official policy, or just my local post office being nice. (But I’ve done it at several branch offices.)
But I suppose that’s not actually a refund, but an exchange. You don’t actually get any cash back.
And then the post office has to trash the stamps you just traded in along with the overstock they didn’t get rid of before the rate increase.
Stamps have to be getting more expensive to produce. Remember when you had to lick stamps? Now most of 'em are self-adhesive.
What sucks now is the 4 or 5 sheets of 1 and 2 cent stamps in my desk drawer at work will never need to be used unless I want to cover the entire front of an envelope with stamps to get rid of 'em.
I honestly NEVER noticed that I no longer had to lick stamps. I guess is escaped my notice since I still have to lick the envelopes.
A sidenote: you can get stamps with your own choice of images (within certain broad limits as to good taste, obscenity, trademarks, etc.) at Stamps.com. It’s about twice as expensive per stamp as what the USPS will sell you, but it’s fun.
You can still get the stamps that have to be licked. Many small mailers still have small manual machines that take a roll of these stamps, and will automatically cut, moisten, and seal the stamp when you press the machine down on the envelope.
But you have to specially ask for the manual adhesive stamps nowdays. They’ve gone to nearly all self-stick stamps, because that is what the public wants mostly.
And you dont have to lick envelopes. Office supply stores sell an assortment of self-stick envelopes if you want them. But they cost quite a bit more than regular ones.
Yes, I have, but, you know, I’m surprised how soon a letter often arrives from the other side of the country–sometimes just a couple of days.
However, if someone sends you a letter from Colombia, it will probably take about three weeks. Something’s going on in Miami, if you ask me. If you send a letter to Colombia from the U.S., it takes about a week.
I’ve always wondered if I send a large envelope with 41 one-cent stamps and just enough room for the addresses, would they bother to frank every stamp? Not that I have anything against the USPS, but I’ve always liked the idea of being able to steam off stamps and use them again. (Yes, I’m cheap, and I know that would be fraud…I just think it’d be fun to try.)
Here is the trick with “forever” stamps…they will indeed be good forever, except when the rates increase, the forever stamp will only be valid for first class mail weighing no more than .00000000000000001 of an ounce.
Otherwise, you will have to pay the new price, which by the year 2015 will probably be about $2.80 for a regular first class stamp.
You think the Machines will still be using Snail Mail?
So if somebody stocks up on Forever Stamps, the Post Office receives an interest free loan.
The consumer receives approximately the inflation rate as a return on his “investment” – but it’s tax free!
I wonder whether a Forever Stamp shortage will materialize immediately prior to postage rate increases.