The "Forever Stamp"

[greedy4chips]

What is all the hoopla over the "Forever Stamp"? For the last 2 weeks I have been hearing on TV and radio about the stocking up on Forever Stamps. Not once have I heard anyone challenging the financial side of it.

I have the money to buy 1000 stamps for $410, which should last me about 10 years give or take a year (Xmas takes 50-60 per year). That $410 invested in a 5% savings acct would give me a $20.50 return the first year or 50 stamps @ 41 cents per stamp. So every year I could get 50 free stamps as long as the price did not increase or the interest rate drop.

Stamps have not increased in value by 5% per year in the past. Sure they could in the future along with accounts not paying 5% returns anymore. Mathematically it just doesn't make that much sense to me to purchase/stockpile these stamps except in one situation.

That situation is if they are still offered just before they increase the price of stamps again, then I may go out and buy some just to avoid the not so dreaded 2 cent stamp issue.

I would just like to hear them discussing reasons as to not stockpiling these versus just hyping the purchase of them.



Jeffrey has a post here and an article here that explains it too.

[tinapbeana]

stamps? what are these STAMPS of which you speak?

you mean people still use stamps? OOOOOOOOoooooooooooohhhhhh....

seriously, i use online bill pay so i mail a bill once every 3 months, and even then chances are good i might just drive it to the water company. it's a mile away, at $3 per gallon and 30 miles per gallon that's 10 cents for my trip, 20 cents if it's round trip, so i'm better off just driving the bill rather than mailing it.

ditto Christmas cards: deliver by hand.

[greedy4chips]

We use stamps very seldom except to mail Xmas cards to the people we don't see or live out of town, or packages and large envelopes sent via USPS.

With online bill bay and email we don't send much else. I have even thought of using those return envelopes to send mail to other people just to see if they work.

[getforfree]

I use the return envelopes to mail stuff. If it has a hole for the address, I just glue or tape a rectangular piece of paper on top. It takes only a few drops of glue, and the small bottle I purchased for I think like 17 c will last forever.

[disneysteve]

What is all the hoopla over the "Forever Stamp"?

I think "hoopla" is the key word. It is a sales gimmick designed to sell more stamps. It doesn't make any sense financially.

[momof1in150]

I would only buy the multiple forever stamps if I knew there was a price increase coming. Seeing that this just happened this week there most likely won't be another one for 2 years so I would rather have the money earning interest in an account. I did get stamps yesterday and they automatically gave me the forever stamps. I probably go through a book of stamps every 6 months.

One thing I did learn was that packages are now priced by size, not weight. The larger the package the more it costs to ship. Keep this in mind when you are mailing a package.

[sweeps]

One thing I did learn was that packages are now priced by size, not weight. The larger the package the more it costs to ship. Keep this in mind when you are mailing a package.

Yes, this is a more important change to me than the forever stamp silliness.

[disneysteve]

One thing I did learn was that packages are now priced by size, not weight. The larger the package the more it costs to ship. Keep this in mind when you are mailing a package.

There is a lot of discussion about this among the ebay community. Some people got burned by auctions that started before the increase and ended after because they quoted the old postage rate and it ended up costing significiantly more when they actually went to ship. In some cases, they actually lost money on the transaction because the shipping price skyrocketed.

[bigsaver]

I don't think one can make a profit buying a lifetime supply of the forever stamp since one could probably profit more by investing the money in an index fund.