PSA: USPS to increase first-class stamp by 2 cents

[Ceepa]

(AP) "The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that the price of a first-class stamp will rise to 44 cents on May 11.
That gives plenty of time to stock up on Forever Stamps, which will continue to sell at the current 42-cent rate until the increase occurs. They will remain valid in the future regardless of rate hikes."

[Octobermommy]

I wonder when they will conveniently run out of forever stamps?

[vonfirmath]

Maybe even not so conveniently. There's a limited supply, demand will go up when people know that the price is about to go up and these will be a "value" and they can't raise the price to go with the demand. Therefore, there will likely not be enough to go around.

[rlu]

I'm still using .41 stamps with a penny make-up. Guess I need to go get more penny stamps (d**m, they took away the self-serve vending machines and now I need to go to the counter). Thank goodness for online payments.

[new_mommy25]

I also found out yesterday that priority rates have gone up. I put a flat rate stamp on and when I went to drop it off I owed $.15. Aargh.

[bluestarfish18]

As much as I detest them constantly raising the postage rates, there was a really interesting article in Smithsonian magazine (yeah, I'm a nerd) a few years ago about how extremely low the rate is compared to how it used to be via pony express. If we converted what it costs now to send a letter to back-then times, it would cost at least $30 plus extra time to race those ponies cross-country.

Don't mean to open a can of worms, but the rate of inflation on fuel is lower than almost every other everyday consumer product in America.

[kellij]

Crazy!! I'm still trying to get rid of my .39!

[tylersmama]

Heck, I didn't even know they had raised it to 42 cents until a couple of months ago! I TOTALLY missed that one. I had mailed a couple of thank you cards and luckily my mail carrier was nice enough to put them back in the box with a note that said they needed 42 cents. I was like...huh? When did that happen??? I still have at least 10 41 cent stamps left, too. I guess next time I go to Costco, I'll pick up some Forever stamps.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Don't laugh, but I have a sheet or two of 37 cent stamps that I was still doctoring up with 1,2, and 4-cent stamps. And DH will only use the plain forever or flag stamps, leaving me with all the old ones. All my mailings look crazy.

[Octobermommy]

I just found a .34 stamp. How long ago was that? I *really* should clean out my desk more often.