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USPS Forever Stamps - $0.45 expires 1/26/2013

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wirednuts said:
theyre not a business. its a government program to help the country function. whether or not the post office is needed anymore is another argument, but they dont make a profit because theyre not a business. theyre there to make things work with the money they are allotted by elected representatives.
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I guess you never heard of the term, "not for profit business"...? They are most certainly a business, just heavily regulated by the US government.
 
Conscript said:
I guess you never heard of the term, "not for profit business"...? They are most certainly a business, just heavily regulated by the US government.
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They're not a business in the corporate sense. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're losing money running the USPS.
 
THE POST OFFICE is a semi private business. It used to be a full government entity. It was quasi privatized about 30 years ago.

You guys realize that forever stamps pay better interest then a bank does. I have 3 or 4 k worth in my safe deposit box at the bank. The trick is to buy them on ebay from good sellers. You buy them in July when demand is down. Cost this July was about 800 for 2000 of them. You get ebucks 2% if you buy with paypal and use a paypal credit card 2% on top of that. so the net on 2000 stamps was about 768. That is 38.4 cents a stamp. Every year they jump up a penny or 2 . If I am short a few bucks I sell 500 stamps to a local small busines at 40 cents a stamp.. Otherwise I buy and hold. I don't invest in the stock market so this is the safest investment I can find.
 
I was reading on another forum and what some people do is buy old stamp collections at less than face value and then stick on enough stamps to cover the $0.45 for some cheap mailing.
 
philipma1957 said:
THE POST OFFICE is a semi private business. It used to be a full government entity. It was quasi privatized about 30 years ago.

You guys realize that forever stamps pay better interest then a bank does. I have 3 or 4 k worth in my safe deposit box at the bank. The trick is to buy them on ebay from good sellers. You buy them in July when demand is down. Cost this July was about 800 for 2000 of them. You get ebucks 2% if you buy with paypal and use a paypal credit card 2% on top of that. so the net on 2000 stamps was about 768. That is 38.4 cents a stamp. Every year they jump up a penny or 2 . If I am short a few bucks I sell 500 stamps to a local small busines at 40 cents a stamp.. Otherwise I buy and hold. I don't invest in the stock market so this is the safest investment I can find.
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"The U.S. Postal Service is, by law, an "independent establishment" of the executive branch. The agency doesn't normally use tax dollars for operations, except for its loan from Treasury. In 2005, the Postal Service had no debt, officials said. "

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/11/news/economy/postal-service-fiscal-cliff/index.html?iid=H_BN_News
 
One thing that I've always wondered about forever stamps is their value when used for more than just a letter. If I have a large envelope or letter over the weight of one stamp and I use forever stamps to pay postage, how do I calculate the number of stamps to use? I imagine I'd use the value of current forever stamps, but I could be wrong.
 
cbunn said:
One thing that I've always wondered about forever stamps is their value when used for more than just a letter. If I have a large envelope or letter over the weight of one stamp and I use forever stamps to pay postage, how do I calculate the number of stamps to use? I imagine I'd use the value of current forever stamps, but I could be wrong.
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todays price is 45 so if you need a flat rate box small sized at $5.35 you can put 10 stamps at $4.50 hand the box to the clerk and pay the 85 extra cents. total of $5.35.

on the 26th of jan the 10 stamps are worth $4.60. I use forever stamps for my ebay business. I put just a little less then the correct postage. i then pay the rest at the post office window this gives me proof of mailing and receipts for ebay. I try to sell items that fit in priority mail if it fits it ships boxes. A mac mini fits in a large flat rate box ships to all 50 states for about 14 bucks. I add tracking and some insurance and i can ship to all 50 states for under 20 bucks. I put 40 forever stamps on the box 18 in postage the clerk puts the remaining 1 or 2 bucks i am covered and i save a few bucks in shipping.

I can't emphasize strongly enough that buying forever stamps is a no brainer.
 
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The only deal better than stamps ("Here's 45 cents to take this letter across the country") is gasoline ("Here's $3.50 to move 3000 pounds of metal 25 miles. Thanks!").
 
wirednuts said:
theyre not a business. its a government program to help the country function. whether or not the post office is needed anymore is another argument, but they dont make a profit because theyre not a business. theyre there to make things work with the money they are allotted by elected representatives.
Click to expand...

Actually, the USPS is self-funded. They would in fact turn a profit, if it wasn't for some cockamamie scheme where they have to pre-pay pensions or something like that, that costs them so many million or billion a year, whereas no other gov't office or dept has to do that.

Basically, Congress screwed the USPS, like they almost want it to go out of business.
 
VirtualLarry said:
Actually, the USPS is self-funded. They would in fact turn a profit, if it wasn't for some cockamamie scheme where they have to pre-pay pensions or something like that, that costs them so many million or billion a year, whereas no other gov't office or dept has to do that.

Basically, Congress screwed the USPS, like they almost want it to go out of business.
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Seriously, the pension they have to prepay a year is 5 billion or so. They are currently 16 billion in debt and have defaulted twice on the pension payments so far last year and have exhausted their ceiling to borrow from the treasury. I think Congress would like UPS or Fed Ex to buy them and privatize them. But who would want to buy something that has 16 billion and growing in debt a year at the rate of 5 billion a year minimum....
 
The real purpose of the USPS is to show us what healthcare will be like in a few years.

I plan on buying a sheet of forever stamps next time I am at the post office.
 
GrumpyMan said:
Seriously, the pension they have to prepay a year is 5 billion or so. They are currently 16 billion in debt and have defaulted twice on the pension payments so far last year and have exhausted their ceiling to borrow from the treasury. I think Congress would like UPS or Fed Ex to buy them and privatize them. But who would want to buy something that has 16 billion and growing in debt a year at the rate of 5 billion a year minimum....
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What people fail to mention is that neither UPS nor Fedex has the infrastructure that USPS has built. Both often use the USPS for final delivery.

The USPS is wonderful infrastructure and should be consider a "service", it's not a private business. It allows private individuals and business to make money themselves. Which is what it was intended to be.

PS: Congress (ie; the Republicans) just want to destroy any working government program and then run their mouths about how government programs don't work. The USPS has been a working program for 200 plus years.
 
13Gigatons said:
What people fail to mention is that neither UPS nor Fedex has the infrastructure that USPS has built. Both often use the USPS for final delivery.

The USPS is wonderful infrastructure and should be consider a "service", it's not a private business. It allows private individuals and business to make money themselves. Which is what it was intended to be.

PS: Congress (ie; the Republicans) just want to destroy any working government program and then run their mouths about how government programs don't work. The USPS has been a working program for 200 plus years.
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They lost their chance when they didn't become an e-mail provider.
 
Eureka said:
They're not a business in the corporate sense. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're losing money running the USPS.
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Yeah, and youre wrong. They are losing money because the Republican Congress of 2006 forced a mandate that the USPS pay out retiree benefits 75 years into the future. I think all the clueless right-wingers in here should spend a few minutes reading...
 
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