USPS Postage Increase...Am I crazy?....

[PUX]

Food for thought I reckon..

How come when the USPS implements a rate hike, they simply do not let the old stamps phase out? It seems the printing, labor for distribution, and handling costs of putting the 1 cent stamp into production would actually result in a loss for the USPS. Not to mention the millions possibly billions of dollars of lost productivity for workers to make special trips to purchase the stamps, and to adhere the additional individual stamp. The USPS is a private entity, why don't they simply pull the old stamps off the shelves and begin selling the new stamps with the rate increase at the time of announcement?



....My wife's been telling me, and I finally submit, I have got to rejoin the workforce!

 

[shifrbv]

At my local post office they have. You can't go in and buy old 33 cent stamps but you can get 1 cent ones until you use up your old ones.

They have an interim stamp which they're selling in my area which doesn't have the price on the stamp. It's kind of like the class E stamps they've issued in the past while going through a rate hike period. It seems they don't even have the real 34 cent ones available in my area yet.

 

[BiggieN]

because some people stockpile stamps so they never have to buy any for a long long time. these people need to get 1 cent stamps so that they can continue to use their stamps. the post office cannot pull them from the shelf until the rate hike takes place because some people would not pay that extra cent when they can keep it.

1 cent stamps have been in circulation for a long time and they print them all the time so its not that big of a problem. i have 1 cent stamps from 5 years ago that i haven't used yet so this rate increase will let me use them again.

 

[Shack70]

You guys forget why they have the price hike at all....

The need to buy more "Window Closed, Please Use Next Window" signs

 

[beat mania]

You think they'd bother to count if I put 34 $.01 stamps on an envelope?

anyway, all they have to do is print the extra $.01 stamps for a short while. After a while the extra demand of these would prolly die down and then they can reap in all the benefits of a rate increase.

 

[dopcombo]

why not just call it a basic stamp? or a local stamp?
then when u go to the post office u pay for a stamp that is worth 34 cents but it doesnt really say how much it is on it.
so then when the next price hike comes along, whatever stamps u have left over would then be worth 35 cents and yet u dun have to buy some 1 cent stamps to put on it. you can use the older stamps until u run out and then u go buy some more. except that they will then be 35 cents each.

and only very few people would buy like 20000 of the stamps now in anticipation of the hike an unknown number of years from now.

or u could simply impose a limit of 100 stamps per purchase or something like that.

i dun understand why they have to mess with all these 1 cent stamp stuff.....

 

[1greatguy]

how do they decide they need to increase the price? I mean, why don't they just jump to 50 cents?? I think 34 is crazy, they just increased it to 33 what, 2 years ago?

 

[ManSnake]

$0.01 stamps are cool, I have lots and lots of them from the last rate hike!

 

[vi edit]

how do they decide they need to increase the price? I mean, why don't they just jump to 50 cents?? I think 34 is crazy, they just increased it to 33 what, 2 years ago?

Because people are bitching and moaning over a $.01 increase. Imagine the bitchine and moaning over a $.15 increase PER stamp.

Just like any company, USPS has to react to the market. UPS has started adding on a 2% "gas usage" fee to help make up for the increase in fuel prices. I would imagine that USPS is adding on the extra $.01 to help offset the costs of increased transportation expenses among other things.

The real hike is in priority mail prices. What used to cost me $3.55 a package to ship, has now be bumped up to just a hair under $4.00.