Poor Skills at the Post Office

[belleweather]

So the USPS just released new regulations about how much it costs to mail stuff, and we got bitten by them. My darling husband was sending out resumes, and since he generally has to send writing samples with them, he had been sending them in 8x10 envelopes. It turns out that with the new regulations, sending documents in an 8x10 envelope even if it

Comments

[teenonfire4lord]

The only one I can contribute is one I've seen here before.

Stamps have recently gone up to 41 cents. Sucks. But, the Post Office is now selling these dealies called Forever Stamps. They are orange stamps that sell right now at the current rate, 41 cents. Deal is, 1 Forever Stamp will send your letter FOREVER, even if postage goes above that. Basically, if postage goes up to 45 cents next year, your 1 Forever Stamp you paid 41 cents for will still send the letter.

[teenonfire4lord]

Doesn't really have anything to do specifically with new weight and size restrictions....sorry.

[chaeri]

sure it does. the weight and size determine the amount of postage, and you can use forever stamps on anything going through the USPS. so, if you buy one for 41c now, and in 6 months the prices go up say 2 cents per ounce, then you can use an old forever stamp or two and save money.

[munchkin1616]

read up on this, it's a BAD INVESTMENT... inflation is always higher than the price of stamps, so it's a very stupid move to buy a ton of stamps now in expectation of the price increase. the only time it'd make sense is say, the week before an increase.

[chaeri]

i didn't say buy a ton. i said buy some. i'd have to check on the amount of inflation in the time period of a stamp increase or two, or three. it could go up more than the stamp, or it couldn't.

[stacycat69]

Actually, Bush signed a law right before the forever stamps went into effect that the post office could not raise stamp prices other than to match inflation.

But, wages usually do not rise in the same way of prices. Still, I wouldnt buy a lot of forever stamps.

[munchkin1616]

by government law, the stamp price must be below the rate of inflation, so these are never a good idea.

[staceyloobug]

I actually heard this too...

[munchkin1616]

it's been all over the news, on MSN, and I'm fairly certain articles have been posted here!

[staceyloobug]

Well then, that's probably how I knew it (posted here, not the MSN or news part). :)

[belladonna]

Um, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm in investing in stamps.

I very rarely use stamps so I'm happy that, with these stamps, if I buy them now and then in 2 years find a couple in a drawer when I need to mail a letter, I can use them as-is.

[belladonna]

Er, NOT investing in stamps.

[purplesharpie]

Yeah, I am always finding a leftover stamp here and there, usually older stamps. It would be nice to be able to find a leftover forever stamp instead of that half a book of 25 cent stamps from 1994 I found when I was going through some old yearbooks :D

[munchkin1616]

it'd be smarter to buy them individually then than to buy these. read up, there are tons of articles about this and what a bad investment it is since government laws won't allow stamp prices to be higher than the rate of inflation

[belladonna]

I read those posts and I disagree.

I don't see buying stamps as being an investment. I buy stamps to mail letters and birthday cards. With the inconvenient hours and long lines at the post office, I find it a better investment of my time to buy a book of them and use them as I need them.

[munchkin1616]

which isn't what they mean at all... an investment is when you purposely by lots of something because you expect it to be worth more in the future, not because you don't need them for a while and they come in a large quantity