Thank whatever diety came up with this.
I can now stop buying those gods damned 1 and 2 cent stamp rolls to make up for my 37 and 39 cent stamps.

Massive USPS deficit predicted for 2010. Canada Post to take over operations in 2011.

I toured the guts of a post office just this week and it is SO COOL! The stamp safe is HUUUUUUGE and has a pretty blue door.

(The postmistress is in my book club.)

*looks around guiltily* <_<; ummm... nope. So long as I have the option of free online bill pay around, I ain't mailing paper checks. Good lord what a pain in the arse that used to be, and even paying by phone is still annoying to go through all the menu trees.

Sorry post office. I still love sending/receiving packages though. In fact, I nominate everyone to send me a present in the mail to keep the post office afloat! :P

WHen the Forever stamps came out, I understood that on person bought over $2,000 worth. He came out like gangbusters when the hikes started up..

I'll wager that the USPS is rueing the day they brought those out. They are losing money right and left due to investors hoarding.

I'm not calling for the abolition of the Post Office. Not immediately, anyway. But I do think we should legalize competition.

@Nighthawke: Maybe I'm missing something. How are they losing money from people paying up front for Forever stamps a few years ago, and then hoarding them?

If they're just hoarding the stamps and not using them, that's more of a win for the post office since they've been paid for mailing letters that haven't yet been mailed. Do you mean that these people are now reselling the stamps?

Notice that the USPS didn't promise not to raise the price of Priority Mail.

@Nighthawke:

Fail, fail, fail, fail, epic fail. No one ever has or ever will "[make] out like gangbusters" with Forever stamps.

The price of a stamp is by law tied to the rate of inflation. The price of a stamp cannot increase faster than inflation.

Stamp investors are a bunch of suckers. It is a safe investment though (you won't lose your money unless you lose the stamps), and someone who thinks postage stamps are a good investment probably aren't very savvy investors... perhaps it's best that they stick to the postage stamps.

Fail.

@MooseOfReason:

The reason it is illegal to compete with the Post Office's first class mail is because any competitors would ignore the unprofitable parts of the country. The post office would still need to exist, and it would be even worse off because it's required to service unprofitable areas.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: Especially since the government loves to understate inflation. Of course in that case stamps aren't going to be worse than savings accounts or bonds paying government-set interest rates

@Chumas: I remember having way too many of those left over after a change in college once... I ended up sending a bill where the whole front of the envelope was basically 1 cent stamps just to use them up.

The real reason they won't raise the rates is because they can't raise the rates. Last year Congress made new rules and the rules stated that stamps can only go up by the rate of inflation. No inflation ( actually negative inflation) in 2009 means no rate hike in 2010.

@Jaynor: hehe, i did that once to send a letter to my aunt...
she said that it arrived with every single one postmarked...

And i think they should only sell "forever" stamps - even if they're an old denomination, accept them as if they were the current one. (got a 2-oz letter with 2 42c stamps? you're fine!)
this will hopefully cut down on the lines in the post office of people trying to buy 1c stamps... the machines are ALWAYS out!

also, the self-serve postal machines need to include media mail.

Walmart is taking over the post office. You'll be greeted by an employee every time you buy stamps. Of course your mail still won't be delivered quickly or often to the right address, but that's small potatoes in the scheme of things.

Oh, they'll only take debit cards.

@Cant_stop_the_rock: That's funny, email, UPS and FedEx serve the entire country.

@aaron8301:
Acutally there are large sections of the country that FedEx and UPS have the Postal Service deliver their packages for them because their delivery networks aren't as extensive.

@Nighthawke:

Check out this article:

Should I Invest in "Forever" Stamps? [www.slate.com]

There are multiple reasons whey the post office is turning into an epic failure to the tune of losing about 8 billion dollars this year. How can a business that loses that much money still be in business.

A good example of how ridiculous the post office is recently happened to me. I recently purchased something on Ebay that was shipped via USPS. I had just moved and forgot to change my address on Ebay, that part is my fault. I used to live in Hartland, WI and it took 2 days for my item to get from California to Wisconsin. Thats pretty good. This is where it gets stupid. The item had to be forwarded, again this was my fault, from Hartland to Sussex, WI. This is about 10 miles. AND IT TOOK 5 DAYS!!

@Yurei: I pay a couple of bills online, but there are others where the website is a fracking nightmare so i just mail a check. My utility bill gets a check also, because I can just drop it in the box at their office; they close before I can get there to pay it in person.

I also love to get packages in the mail. My mom sends me cookies sometimes. Whee!

@tingeyga: And FedEx hauls a lot of the mail.

@MrChrisCarey: Priority Mail is a joke anyway. You can't really track it, and it never goes when it says it will.

Use FedEx for overnights/two/three day packages. (I don't work for them but I use them regularly and they do a much better job with that.)

How many letters do people mail out these days anyway? I've mailed out a total of 3 things in the last 3 years! Since the advent of e-mail, what's left to mail? You email your friends and family, or call them. You pay bills online or on the phone. Netflix has free return shipping. Except for my taxes and the occasional small package, I haven't needed a stamp in years!

I have a rural mailbox at the end of my driveway. I mail Netflix returns and my car payment. The bank wants to charge me $5 to pay the car payment online, so I spend the 44 cents to mail the check. I receive two bills in the mail, only because my gargabe hauler and paper carrier don't offer online billing, but they do offer direct debit from my checking account.

I'd hate to see my Netflix deliveries go away, but I really don't see how the USPS can break even, let alone ever make a profit. My mail carrier is awesome, though, and it's nice to be able to get stamps without driving to town.

@gStein: THIS. What's the difference between paying the current rate for a stamp that doesn't say the rate on it or the then-current rate for one that say $.39? I mean - really. I was also left with a ton of stamps when they hiked it a few times ago. I tried buying stamps to make them up to the current rate, but I mail things so infrequently that the before I'd even gone through those, they were selling Forever stamps. And I don't buy rolls of stamps or something! I ended up pitching the 1 cent stamps (for a loss of about ten cents) and just, as you said, doubling the stamps up to avoid going to the post office.

Gawd that turned into a rant. Sorry.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Postmistress is such a cooler title than postmaster. I'm not sure why.

I'd be willing for the price of stamps to double if they'd use the money to upgrade post office facilities and have at least two clerks at the windows at all times. I live in a town where the population has exploded, and we make do with an ancient post office and, often, only one clerk servicing customers at a time. And I'm stuck with going there if anything gets shipped to me requiring a signature.

My home mail is really just an unwanted advertisement delivery system for me. I get unwanted balance transfer checks (stop!) and unwanted coupon circulars. It seems odd to say, but if I didn't get mail delivery at home I wouldn't mind.

@HogwartsAlum: I've never tried mailing home made cookies before. Do they make it in one piece without being ruched or stale? When my boyfriend deploys to Iraq next year, I am probably going to be testing out mailing goodies and would love tips.

@subtlefrog: And my understanding is that the "forever stamp" approach is profitable for them, too. Which is fine by me, as it's still more convenient for me than running around getting 2 cent stamps or exulting when I finally have the 2 oz. mailing that I can use a lower-priced second stamp on.

@Yurei: Generally, recipients are perfectly happy to root through crumbs anyway, but I've had pretty good luck doing it (haven't tried for a while, I admit). Here are a couple of how-to pages: [www.cookinglight.com]
[www.baking911.com]

@Snakeophelia: Contact the postmaster and set up an appointment to pick up your item.

It seems that the only reason to use the post office or at least the major reason is to mail packages for ebay. Even with that, there are other options you can use for mailing packages. With the declining sales and less sellers on ebay due to ridiculous policy changes I can see why they are suffering. Ebay isn't the OMG thing that it used to be.

@aaron8301aka Polaяßæя:

No, FedEx and UPS do *not* serve the whole country--there are tions of remote places in Alska, Idaho and Montana (just the few I know personally--there are more)that they don't deliver to.

@subtlefrog: Probably because it sounds dirty.

@Nighthawke: Forever stamps are a convenience for the user and a low-interest loan for the Post Office.

@Yurei: I don't know...I never did it myself. She usually packs it in a bunch of other stuff so they don't move around much. Some are always broken, though.

RANT

Uhhhh NO THANKS A**h***s! Increased prices due to high gas prices...NOT decreased when the prices went back down. THIEVES!

/RANT