Sound Off: I heard that postage went up recently. Are the “forever” ... / LJWorld.com

Sound Off

Postage for a one-ounce letter went up to 45 cents, postal employee Greg Howard said. But forever stamps bought in 2011 will still be recognized, without the need of additional postage.

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FarneyMac 1 year, 3 months ago

What about "forever" is so difficult to understand?

Solomon 1 year, 3 months ago

Either the "for" or the "ever" part, probably.

youngjayhawk 1 year, 3 months ago

"forever stamps bought in 2011 will still be recognized"

Hope your loss is not too great!

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

He was pointing out your stamps are from 2009 and the article states stamps bought in 2011 are still good. A joke that went over your head.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 1 year, 3 months ago

I am still using forever stamps I purchased in 2007. Between the rate increase and other factors, I figure I am earning 7¢ every bill I pay.

ignatius_j_reilly 1 year, 3 months ago

Or, if your receiving company would do bills online, you're only losing 30-odd cents for each bill vs. 40-odd.

Curtis Lange 1 year, 3 months ago

I wonder about people sometimes. :/

wissmo 1 year, 3 months ago

Um, I guess I save .45@ with auto deduction services and pay online.

overthemoon 1 year, 3 months ago

45 cents is a bargain. With FedEX and UPS trying to push the USPS out of the market, just think what it would cost to mail a birthday card!! I recently got a letter from a friend in MO. It came in one day. No expedited delivery, just regular mail. For 43 cents. I think we need to think about the cost of mail relatively and not be going nuts over 2 cents.

Did_I_say_that 1 year, 3 months ago

"With FedEX and UPS trying to push the USPS out of the market..."

First, there was no "market" until UPS created it; prior to that USPS had a government owned monopoly.

Second, FedEx and UPS do not offer daily door-to-door delivery. So how are they pushing USPS out of the market? How is it FedEx or UPS's fault that people don't use/need daily junk mail deliveries?

acornwebworks 1 year, 3 months ago

The "market" was created long before the USPS. Indeed, PRIVATE delivery of letters was the only option before 1871. That's like, uh, for the first 95 years of our nation.

And, for the delivery of packages? Ever hear of Wells Fargo or American Express?? They were among the many private transportation/delivery companies that were absolutely necessary for the delivery of non-first class mail. Heck, it wasn't until the early 20th century that the USPS even started delivering non-first class mail! (I've heard it started with the Sears Roebuck catalog in 1906.)

So...we had 95 years with PRIVATE delivery of first class mail, and over 130 years of PRIVATE delivery of packages...before UPS came along. 130+ years of market development.

Oh...and let's not forget that UPS was started in 1907. (It was called American Messenger Company for the first 12 years.) Wow. UPS started almost exactly when the USPS started delivering something other than first class mail.

So...could you please explain your "there was no "market" until UPS created it; prior to that USPS had a government owned monopoly"? I mean, the facts certainly don't support that statement...but perhaps I'm missing something?

Did_I_say_that 1 year, 3 months ago

I will obviously accept your correction on the historical facts. However, it only supports my refutation that other companies are trying to force USPS out of the market - in fact it appears to be the other way around considering your time line.

So, how does any of this relate to the two problems that USPS has? First, not as much first class mail is being posted. Second, they cannot provide the same price/level of service as the private companies.

kansanbygrace 1 year, 2 months ago

Wrong on the second point, DIST. USPS, one of the best mail delivery services in the world, delivers small and light for less and faster than any of the competitors.
Another point is that every single day, a great portion of the small packages that UPS, FEDEX, DHL handle are delivered to the USPS for postal carriers to deliver to their destination.
The private deliveries would be substantially more expensive if they didn't outsource their small package handling to USPS.

friendlyjhawk 1 year, 3 months ago

What are the USA H First-Class Rate stamps worth as postage today?

kujeeper 1 year, 3 months ago

USPS is horrible, typical government workers who won't go above and beyond for any reason. Lets privatize it, see postage decrease, and service quality sky rocket. I just got a Christmas card from KC last week and I only live 55 miles from the sender, they could've walked it to me faster!

acornwebworks 1 year, 3 months ago

You mean...like how private FedEx and UPS offer a sooooo much less expensive option for sending that Christmas card??? Uh huh. Sure.

Unlike you, I don't expect perfection...but I still haven't had something I sent via first class take more than a day to get to its destination in years. (And I use first class mail regularly for specific reasons so, yes, I actually do know if the mail has been received.) Unfortunately, one of the USPS plans for lowering costs is up the delivery goal to 2 days. Cutting costs of providing service...lesser results.

By the way, it sounds like you didn't know that FedEx and UPS depend on the USPS for deliveries to remote rural areas. Yup. That's what they do...hand off deliveries to the USPS. Kinda sounds...to me...like the way they stay so "efficient" is by utilizing that very thing you think needs to be privatized.

acornwebworks 1 year, 3 months ago

As an aside...wanna know where USPS are losses coming from? From Congress mandating, in 2006, that the USPS set aside $5.5 BILLION annually for 10 years into a “Future Retiree Health Fund”.

There's already over $40 billion in the account but, even with USPS financial problems due to changes in how Americans communicate with each other, Congress won't back off. Won't reduce the amount by a single penny. Won't even allow the funding to be stretched by smaller set asides over a longer time period now that there's sufficient funding to cover costs for over 40 years!!!

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

"Lets privatize it, see postage decrease"

Yeah, that's why Fed Ex wants to charge me $16.06 to send an envelope from Lawrence to Kansas City and USPS charges me $0.45 for the same envelope.

globehead 1 year, 3 months ago

Odd, I mailed a letter from downtown KC just before midnight once addressed to my mother in Topeka. She got it at 10:00am the very next morning. Of course, I did use a stamp on mine.

wissmo 1 year, 3 months ago

Kujeeper, Even sadder

Much like the sticker shock of the 1990s when citizens realized school administration in small communities were making 100K or more. In Western Kansas some of these birds were making 3 x more than anybody else in the county. We did nothing. Not much has been done about the contracts loaded with cash out insurance, new cars, full pay for a year after retirement, and gulp (smile you paid for it), the famous consulting contracts, we should now turn our attention to the USPS. Well all non specialized tax payer funded jobs really.

Folks are now realizing we gave up the farm to fed workers. BTW....regarding a national story ......The more folks know about Wisconsin state employees pay packages the less popular the protests are. Notice you don't hear much anymore. Why? The citizens of Wisconsin saw the real figures and benefits and are sizzling mad.

Check and see how much an average postal worker makes. Check out what the ave. for an asst. manager (10 years) of a small town post office makes. State employee benefits are generous, you should see what our federal buddies receive. You do not need any training except a high school diploma either. Think folks would line up for a job like the above?

parrothead8 1 year, 3 months ago

"... we should now turn our attention to the USPS. Well all non specialized tax payer funded jobs really."

You do know that the USPS isn't funded by taxpayer dollars, right?

acornwebworks 1 year, 3 months ago

Would you PLEASE explain to me why your goal is to lower other workers' pay and benefits packages...rather than to raise those of everyone else? Or at least to raise those of yourself? That makes ZERO sense: "I don't make as much as you do, so I want you to make less!" Uh huh.

Oh...and if you are actually whining because "it's taxpayer dollars"...then please explain why you used postal workers as an example, then. After all, they aren't paid by taxpayer dollars! They get ZERO taxpayer dollars.

wissmo 1 year, 3 months ago

Comrade acorn, have you read about the Greek economy lately? A Euro country (weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee everybody gets everything) which may not have the moolah to pay the electric bill in March. Germany is pi@@ed off. Not nice to make Germany mad.

Yes, when people like mail folks earn more than teachers, by a long shot something needs to be done which makes sense.

rockchalker52 1 year, 3 months ago

Fund the damn post office & while you're at it, throw some money in there for public broadcasting.

JackMcKee 1 year, 3 months ago

There are no stupid questions. There are only stupid people.

purplesage 1 year, 3 months ago

When did this latest increase take effect? I don't remember news coverage.

FedEx and UPS both deliver piles of stuff to the post office. Then, the postal service is supposed to make the final leg of the delivery to an address. I say supposed to; a recent experience, small town, a parcel arrived from Massachusetts. Once the post office got it, it was never seen again. At least, until some unknown good samaritan left it, 3 weeks later on our back porch on a Saturday morning.

Why can the privately run, for profit agencies make a bundle and the post office is a welfare case?

JackMcKee 1 year, 3 months ago

take one look at the people working at the post office and you're question will be answered.

grammaddy 1 year, 3 months ago

What kind of slam is that? Are you aware that USPS is the single largest employer of Veterans?

wissmo 1 year, 3 months ago

Good, love vets, also like to see my money working correctly.

deec 1 year, 3 months ago

The post office receives NO taxpayer funding. UPS and Fedex subsidize their profits by handing off their mail to the post office in rural areas for delivery. Both UPS and Fedex also raised their rates recently.

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

Mail a letter with UPS or FedEx and see what they charge you.

I went to fed ex website and got quote to ship an envelope weighing 0.01 pounds from Lawrence to Kansas City. The cheapest quote was $16.06.

Which would you prefer to pay to send a Xmas card to Grandma... $0.45 or $16.06?

That's why "for profit agencies make a bundle". Because they charge 35 times more than USPS.

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

I should mention that envelope won't be delivered until Wednesday the 15th. Today is the 11th.

deec 1 year, 3 months ago

This is an illustrative example, clearly showing that the private, for-profit option is much more expensive and less efficient. It was presented to refute the fallacious contention that privatized service is both cheaper and more efficient.

acornwebworks 1 year, 3 months ago

I wouldn't read too much into the word "won't", Math.

After all, Jesse was telling us the "cheapest quote" he found on the FedEx website...and the delivery date. Doesn't mean he actually sent a 0.01 ounce envelope that way. Could be he was just looking for comparison purposes?? Because of the posts on this forum???

deec 1 year, 3 months ago

Of course you got it wrong, on purpose, probably. He clearly is stating it is an example only. The post office, Fedex, and UPS websites give an estimated delivery date, which he mentioned in the post. His example shows that private for-profit methods of delivering a letter are more expensive and less efficient, which belies the conservative mantra that private enterprise is cheaper and more efficient,

acornwebworks 1 year, 3 months ago

So you have never use the wrong word in a quickly typed forum post? Why am I skeptical?

I apologize for not being clearer in my suggestion that you not read too much into his use of the word "won't". I realize I should have said...at that time..."haven't you ever used the wrong word in a quickly typed forum post?"

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

Pull your head out math... the quote rate also gives a delivery date. No I did not send an envelope to KC via Fed Ex. It was an illustrative example.

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

And yes I should have stated wouldn't instead of won't. Mistype on my part.

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

Maybe we celebrate Xmas in mid February... and we like paying outrageous prices for mundane items.

Or maybe I just want to make sure an evening shift freight supervisor over at Fed Ex has enough work.

Ya never know!

mommatocharlie 1 year, 3 months ago

January 15 or 16. Where have you been hiding? It was plastered all over the news.

tennesseerader 1 year, 3 months ago

U.S. postage has gone up 41% in five years. That is over 8% per year! In other words if you would have bought $100,000 of "Forever" U.S. postage stamps five years ago they would be worth more than $141,000 today. That is a better rate of return than any CD and just as safe.

Postage rates remained relatively unchanged until the 1960's and after the last link of the U.S. currency to gold was broken in 1971 the FED has printed money and devalued the currency.

From the Daily Oklahoman December 9th, 1951 said it best:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.

deec 1 year, 3 months ago

Postal rates have risen from 39 cents to 45 cents in the last five years. http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html "Declining mail volume is a symptom of the weak national economy[citation needed], particularly related to the financial and housing industries, and to trends toward the use of electronic mail. First-Class mail volume (which is protected by legal monopoly) peaked in 2001[24] and has declined 29% from 1998 to 2008, due to the increasing use of email and the World Wide Web for correspondence and business transactions.[25] Lower volume means lower revenues to support the fixed commitment to deliver to every address once a day, six days a week. In response, the USPS has increased productivity each year from 2000 to 2007,[26] through increased automation, route re-optimization, and facility consolidation.[25] Despite these efforts, the organization saw an $8.5 billion budget shortfall in 2010,[27] and has been losing money at a rate of about $3 billion per quarter in 2011.[28]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_S...

acornwebworks 1 year, 3 months ago

A situation that could be eased by Congress backing off from their 10 year $5.5 billion requirement that the USPS fund the “Future Retiree Health Fund”.
Right now there's over 40 years of funding in it. But Congress won't even considered stretching the last 5 years of this requirement out over a longer period and concomitantly reducing the annual funding requirement.

Seems like they want to drive the USPS out of business so that there doesn't need to be any health care funding needed after a while.

wissmo 1 year, 3 months ago

I am 6 decades old, the USPS has been barking the same lame message for my entire life.

Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 3 months ago

"after the last link of the U.S. currency to gold was broken in 1971"

You mean in 1933.

The link to silver was broken in 1971.

FlintHawk 1 year, 3 months ago

Here's some clarification: Only the "Forever" stamps that have "Forever" printed vertically on the right hand side of the stamp are true "forever" stamps.

I spent hours earlier in the week trying to get accurate information about the increase and "Forever" stamps. Many people bought what they thought at the time were "Forever" stamps (no amount shown on the stamp), but turns out those stamps are NOT forever.

The only real Forever stamps I have are the Liberty Bell ones, with "Forever" on the right hand side. Those are now worth $.45.

Jane 1 year, 3 months ago

I bought the 'garden love' forever stamps yesterday. 'Forever' is printed on them, just fyi.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 1 year, 3 months ago

"Mail a letter with UPS or FedEx and see what they charge you" - vertigo

But mailing an non-urgent letter with UPS of FedEx is illegal.

vertigo 1 year, 3 months ago

Granny urgently needs her birthday card. It's a matter of life and death.

peachesncream 1 year, 3 months ago

the garden love stamps are "forever" stamps, it is not limited any longer to the liberty bell stamps only ...

Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 3 months ago

Just think, by the time you find them, they'll be worth a fortune!

Did_I_say_that 1 year, 3 months ago

"Just think, by the time you find them, they'll be worth a fortune!"

Or, they could be worthless .....

Will UPS or FedEx accept USPS stamps if USPS shuts down? /s

kansanbygrace 1 year, 2 months ago

usps, one of the best mail delivery services in the world, delivers small and light for less and faster than any of the competitors. Another point is that every single day, a great portion of the small packages that ups, fedex, dhl handle are delivered to the USPS for postal carriers to deliver to their destination. The private deliveries would be substantially more expensive if they didn't outsource their small package handling to USPS. The Congressional mandate to USPS that they must fund an enormous "future benefits liability" that no other business in the world has to do busts the budget by itself. Congress is doing everything they can to kill the more effective, efficient and economical delivery option and leave us paying more for less.

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