postage

The Real Value of Forever Stamps

Linsey Knerl — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:27:08 +0000

I’m horribly unorganized to the untrained eye. I’m a “stacker”, which means that while I know the general vicinity of any given piece of paper, it must be culled from a heaping pile of similarly-group items before I can use it. It’s my own method of organization, one that gives my husband the heebie-jeebies. It’s also the reason that just recently I’ve vowed to forever and always purchase the forever stamps.

What are forever stamps? For those who don’t know, they are first-class postage stamps that never decrease in their supposed value. If I buy them today at 42cents, they are good for first-class letters. If I keep them until the price of sending the letter goes up to 43cents, they are still good for first-class letters – no need to hunt down those pesky penny add-on stamps to legitimize my mailing.

Are they a good investment? There’s much debate to this topic. Financial experts claim that it’s an investment better made in something else (like canned goods, maybe?) I agree that postage stamps probably won’t be the next big investment vehicle; they only earn you something when you don’t use them, and then the price of postage goes up enough to justify buying scads of them in the first place. If you’re not a heavy mailer, you’ve really saved nothing.

But if you are a hopeless paper-collector (like myself), they may have a value above and beyond what can be measured by your annual postage budget. There is a certain “I did it again” factor that can be completely avoided by buying these puppies. Here’s how it works:

I am searching frantically for a stamp. Any stamp will do. (It doesn’t have to have Disney princesses or the latest wildlife habitat to tickle my fancy. It just has to be worth 42 cents.) The mail is arriving in 10-20 minutes, and since I’m located 6 miles from the nearest civilization, I’m hoping to find precious postage that will keep me from having to make the drive to town. (Back in the golden days, I could put an unstamped letter and pocket change right in the mailbox, and my postman would mail it for me.) After finding a crumpled-up sheet of stamps, I realize that I don’t know how much they are worth. They simply say “First-Class” but don’t have a monetary value printed on them. I head to the USPS website and do a search on their online store for a stamp that looks like mine, only to find that it is worth 41cents (or possibly even 40cents.) I continue rummaging through my files to find a 1cent stamp that I remember buying just a few months ago. Nothing.

Why o’ why didn’t I just buy forever stamps? (Or maybe you’re wondering why I don’t put my stamps in a special place where I can always find them.) Since it’s easier to change one purchasing habit than it is to reprogram my filing style, I have vowed to do just that. There is one catch:

Some post offices are reluctant to sell them. They won’t deny them to you. They just won’t offer them, either. Similar to other forms of cheap postage (like parcel post), they won’t suggestively sell this budget-friendly option. When I ask to buy a book of stamps, they whip out the beautifully-rendered holiday nutcracker stamps or my weakness, the Jim Henson Muppets series. I usually don’t even consider asking for “forever stamps.”

But all that will change. While many New Year’s Resolutions involve vows to eat less carbs, I’ll promise myself to always buy forever stamps. It will save a few pennies here and there, but it will also save some face. I’m investing in my self-esteem here.

Written by Linsey Knerl and published on Wise Bread. Read more articles from Wise Bread.

New Postal Rates Are Coming, Should You Stockpile the Forever Stamp?

Xin Lu — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:41:56 +0000

On May 12th, 2008 the United States Postal Office will be raising the following postal rates:

• First class mail one ounce or less: Up one cent to 42 cents
• Post card: Up one cent to 27 cents
• Large envelope, 2 ounces: Up 3 cents to $1.
• Certified mail: Up 5 cents to $2.70
• First-class international letter to Canada or Mexico: Up 3 cents to 72 cents
• First-class international letter to other countries: Up 4 cents to 94 cents

Going forward, the postal service will also adjust the rates every May according to inflation rates. They only have to give a 45 day notice as long as the changes are within the rate of inflation for the previous 12 months. As a result, millions of people are stocking up on the Forever stamp, which is currently priced at 41 cents. The Forever stamp's cost also rises to 42 cents on May 12th, but Forever stamps purchased at the 41 cent rate can still be used as a first class one ounce stamp without adding postage.

So should you grab as many of these stamps as you can? Well, I think it really depends on how much postage you spend in a single year. If you are only an occasional mail customer like me then purchasing Forever stamps will only save you a few cents a year. However, as Julie Rains points out, you can use the Forever stamp as a 42 cent stamp on mailings costing over 42 cents so stacking the stamps on more expensive mailings could save you a little more. For example, international rates are going up 4 cents to 94 cents so it is possible to use 2 Forever stamps and a 10 cent stamp to cover that cost. The problem with stacking Forever stamps is that it takes a lot of time to save a few cents.

I read a story sometime ago about a man who purchased $8000 worth of Forever stamps as an investment, and I thought that was rather silly because it is probably better to just put that money in a mutual fund or even money market. For the past 36 years postal rate hikes have been lower than the inflation rate. Since the whole point of investing is to beat inflation, betting on Forever stamps is not a very good strategy. Going forward, since President Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act in 2006, it is guaranteed that postal rates will not go above an inflation-based ceiling.

Basically, I think that buying too many Forever stamps is probably not a good idea. They are easily destroyed or lost and you cannot deposit them like money. You could easily estimate how many letters you send a year, and multiply that number by five and ten. That would be the max number of Forever stamps I would buy because you would be set for five to ten years. I am sure most of us probably do not need more than a few hundred stamps. Now if the government introduces a Forever gas stamp that guarantees a gallon of gas for today's price, then I would definitely stock up $8000 of that stamp.

Written by Xin Lu and published on Wise Bread. Read more articles from Wise Bread.

Junk Mail revenge part 2 - It's WAR!

Paul Michael — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:36:12 +0000

In my last article about the dreaded junk mail, I showed you how to make some easy money from a ValPak coupon. Hopefully, a few of you have already taken advantage of that. Well, now it's time for the next stage of my anti junk mail campaign. This one is a lot of fun, and if enough of us do it the junk mailers will be out of pocket by many thousands of dollars.

The video I have posted below explains it all, but in a nutshell here's the process. When you get junk (usually from credit card firms) they enclose a handy, pre-paid envelope. This helps the potential ~~victim~~ customer get over the hurdle of sending back the application form. If it's free, it's easy.

Now, those envelopes have not actually been paid for yet. The credit card company pays the postage only if it's used. And as a good response rate from a campaign is just 2%, 98% of that postage is never actually paid for. You can see where this is going.

Next time you get a piece of junk mail, take the handy pre-paid envelope and stuff another piece of garbage inside it. Maybe a competitor's offer, or a pizza coupon. Be sure to remove any identifying marks from the envelope (the video shows you how). When you pop that envelope in the mail, you have just cost the credit card company 41 cents. Pah, only 41 cents?

Well, if everyone does it, and the average junk mail blast is 2 million households, you can see how that adds up. In fact if only 100,000 of you take the time to do it, you've just taken $41,000 out of their pockets! If a million people do it, that's $410,000. And that's a whole chunk of change. Here's the "how-to" vid.

So, join me in my junk mail war. It's a great way to make a point in an effective way. And it won't cost you one cent.

Written by Paul Michael and published on Wise Bread. Read more articles from Wise Bread.