Comments on: Why You Shouldn’t Invest in Forever Stamps

By: Geocarlin

Geocarlin — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:46:26 +0000

You can call it the forever stamp. When they decide to up the price again, they will just create the “AND A DAY” stamp.

By: CA Emery

CA Emery — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:39:00 +0000

popsciolist:
If I understand you correctly, those stamps that are unmarked with a monetary value still have a fixed face value, see the usps page here:
pe.usps.gov/text/qsg300/Q604a.htm
This page shows a photo of each unmarked stamp and how much postage it is actually worth. Perhaps you and your friend just got lucky and had enough postage on your piece by accident!

By: popsciolist

popsciolist — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:02:49 +0000

Actually, one of my friends discovered a predecessor of the Forever stamp some years ago–the humble “First Class”-only stamp unmarked by any monetary amounts. We’ve saved hundreds of cents (dollars, even) by buying loads of these generic first class stamps that keep their value with each postage mark-up. That is, until this last one. Now we’re unable to mail a letter with a single “First Class”-only stamp. Le sigh.

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:09:20 +0000

It always kind of amazed me that it to the brilliant minds at the USPS so long to come up with this. It eliminated a ton of hassle for their clerks (probably enabled canning a whole bunch), and encourages people not to be meager buying stamps. The USPS gets the money up front and a lot of those pre-purchased stamps get misplaced and never used.

One thing that absolutely drove me mad in the old system was the “letter denomination” stamps they would print in anticipation of a coming rate hike. They would just say “E rate” or something stupid because they wouldn’t know how much of a rate hike they’d be able to get away with. Well, when you turn a few of those up in a drawer years later, it’s always a pain to figure out what their denomination is. The “Forever” stamp should be the norm for 1 oz First Class postage.

By: CL

CL — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:39:57 +0000

Don’t forget that we will need fewer and fewer stamps with online banking.

By: n2y2

n2y2 — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:25:41 +0000

And you haven’t even added in the ‘Future Value of Money.’ That is the calculation that financial calculators do to weigh spending a dollar verses investing the same dollar. Adding that to the mix would make the investment even worse.

While it makes no sense as an investment, it is still a good idea buy forever stamps for personal use. I am still working through a stack of $.39 stamps. I had to go down and purchase and equally large stack of 2-cent’rs. When that supply runs out, I am going to buy the forever stamps so the next rate hike won’t mean I have to wait in line again to get the upgrade stamps (the vending machine is always out of them).

By: suzan

suzan — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:37:24 +0000

in my neighborhood, we have a post-office that is considered universally horrible by all who have to use it. local hardware stores, drugstores, and 99 cent stores sell stamps in packs of 10 for $5 because people would rather pay the extra 9 cents per stamp than deal with the horrible post office.

now THAT is highway robbery, but it’s also a genius way to make easy money.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:28:53 +0000

when i was probably 7 or 8, i cut the advertisement out of seventeen magazine and counted up my change to order a kit that would give me high, define cheekbones(!). i put the article and my money under the rug in front of my bedroom door (why did i have a rug in front of my bedroom door?) and went to go play, and when i came back the stash was on my bed. i was so embarrassed that someone knew i was going to order a cheekbone kit (even my little kid mind thought it MIGHT be a scam, but maybe not!) that i just, never ordered it.

this story is kind of relevant.