I still think it's a pretty good deal to ask someone to deliver a letter clear across the country for 44¢.

I have vested feelings where stamps and the postal services are concerned. Being a carrier and then a clerk, were my first 'real' jobs and I was the first woman whom they hired for those jobs in my area. A first class postage stamp costs nine times what it did then, but wages haven't increased at the same rate for the average person, and services certainly haven't...it has decreased dramatically. So, given that .44 does seem like a bargain, what you get, relatively speaking isn't.

I'd not give it too much thought, if the way the postal service has chosen to tighten its purse strings were more fair and equitable to its private customers. Junk mail is still being subsidised at a cheaper rate and a good part of it ends up in trashcans, unread.

Most of the mail drop boxes in our city are history. They've disappeared from all the urban residential areas. The ones still remaining at places like shopping areas are down to one or two pick-ups a day and that day ends very, very early. I have had to drive to the post office to post letters in their boxes, when I have found the mail boxes so stuffed, that mail was literally falling out. That doesn't speak well for privacy and security of an item the government used to consider sacred.

The lines at our post office are clear to the door now, despite wonderful and busy postal clerks. They've taken out the stamp vending machines! So, you can wait in line behind the crowd with parcels, and needing registered and insured services. I can't see where that's cost containing.

Now they are dealing the last death knolls to what used to be many sectional centers and want to move the mail processing duties ever and ever more 'centrally'. So that only the most major processing centers will process it. IOW a letter you used to be able to drop off for a village a few miles away from you will go halfway across the state, to be canceled and sorted and then come back. The reason they want to do away with our facility is that mail volume has decreased so dramatically all the expensive machines in the state capital aren't being used to their projected potential. So, the service we used to have 'overnight' shall probably take three days. Next whisper I heard was to stop daily mail delivery several days a week.

Yes, you can print postage out now on your puter, or order stamps the same way. That's cool if you're not poor or so elderly you can't afford a computer or too disabled to learn to use one. It's also one reason I fax and email so much of my business correspondence.

So, yeah, a postal increase sort of miffs me too.

I never thought about it but you're right. I haven't seen a mail drop box anywhere lately except the post office. They used to conveniently be all over the place.

I hate to admit such a thing, but I remember 3 cent stamps.

I also remember how dear money was back then. 3 cents would buy a lot of candy. two more cents and you could get a soft drink. AND, best of all, there wasn't any such thing as "junk" mail. That's one thing that I wish the Post Office would eliminate.

I work part-time in an office located in a rural area. We used to have a pickup box right in the parking lot, which was really handy for the several businesses located in this small complex. No more! Now it's a ten-mile round trip to the nearest PO.

I have sent Priority mail packages several times. They took 7-10 days to get there! This is priority? I'm still waiting for cards from kids and gkids to get here, and they were mailed (according to them) last week.

Thank the computer gods I can pay most of my bills electronically. Over the years, I have received many notices of payment due when the payment was sent in plenty of time..only to have said company notify me that the check was received two or three weeks later!

Can someone tell me why most drs offices and "medical associates" can't take electronic transfer?

I worked for a local company with national business which depended on the USPS for timely delivery of time-sensitive chemical tests. The incidence of those arriving too late for analysis was totally unacceptable, and the in-house powers that be took an inquiry to the Postmaster General (we replaced items which arrived too late at no cost to the consumer) only to be told that it was a local problem and nothing could be done. So we absorbed the cost. The company finally was forced to raise their price, after accepting this treatment for many years.

I am so fed up with the USPS I can scarcely speak! Our regional hub has a lot full of trailers, full of mail, which hasn't been touched in months!

And yes, I remember 4 cent stamps. And mail that got where it was supposed to go in a reasonable time.

I have a large variety of different generations of postage. For quite a few years Christy did all the bills and mailings so I only got stamps when I saw one she bought that I liked. I'd hoard them and then not use them. Then occasionally I'd get her to buy 1cent or 2 cent or 5 cent stamps to make up the difference to the current rate. Then I wouldn't send anything. Now I've taken over the bill paying since it was stressing her too much. I pay as much online as possible but there are still a number that require mailing the check in. Which reminds me, our mortgage company charges $11 to pay online. WTH is up with that? $11!!!!! Needless to say a stamp is the way to go with that one. When I found out the price was going to go up I went online and bought a bunch of the Forever stamps. Enough to last me at least a year for the bills I pay. Maybe just postponing but what the heck. Then I always can go back to all those Xmas stamps I never got around to using too.

I remember the 3¢ stamps; and the upset when they went to 4¢. In 1950, the average income was $3200, or about $60 weekly before taxes. Using 20 stamps a month was a part of the budget, not something so small that it could be ignored. I remember mum using 'onionskin' paper for correspondence, so that more pages could be sent before the overweight charge.

And in opposite outlook of coconut's mortgage company -- Virginia is charging fees for certain transactions done in person, and giving a discount for doing the transaction online. IOW, there is an additional $5 charge for vehicle tags if bought at a DMV center, and a $1 discount if paid for online.

DH says he expects to live at least another 10 years, so he bought enough Eternity stamps to stamp the bills for that time. Me, I'd rather pay online and not pay anything for stamps. Actually, I don't mind paying for stamps for the postal service, but I mind greatly subsidizing the junk mail. As long as that stuff gets discounted rates, *we* are paying for their service.

Here is a link that might be useful: dates of postal rates

Actually, I don't mind paying for stamps for the postal service, but I mind greatly subsidizing the junk mail. As long as that stuff gets discounted rates, *we* are paying for their service.

That's my big peeve. I used to work the junk mail sections at night. The envelopes are all odd sizes, it's a pain in the butt to deliver, and takes just as much effort as an important letter. You wouldn't mind so much, but you know nine times out of ten, it's wasted effort. It won't even be opened. It wastes trees and fuel. I'm a businessperson, and I know that if you get a two percent response from mailouts, you're doing well. That means 98% of the ads you mail are ignored. That's ridiculous and wasteful. We are getting 'new' mailings for my DH's ex wife. It just started about a month ago and she hasn 't lived at this address for 30 YEARS! Somebody made money selling an antique mailing list. We've asked the postal carrier repeatedly to please just junk it and not deliver it, but he does anyway and we have to deal with it. It's just easier for him to case it and drop it in our box. Return postage is of course not guaranteed. And we all pay for this with our postal raises and taxes. ARgh.

Note that we can REFUSE mail, even after it has been placed in your mailbox. The key is that the piece must not have been opened.

Does this work? Yes and no -- it depends on the type of mail. However, I did regularly use this for a school admin office for a few years and it was effective! Sometimes it took several refusals for a particular company, but eventually "junk" mail did get down to only the occasional piece.

Here is a link that might be useful: Refuse mail - PO regs

I wonder if the REFUSED works for something addressed to "Resident" or "Occupant". My DH swears he's going to have that on his tombstone instead of his name.

Speaking about the 3 cent stamp. That was for a SEALED envelope. If, in the case of Christmas cards and birthday greeting, you just tucked the flap inside the envelope and didn't lick and seal it, it was only 1 cent.

I never did understand why sealing it would make it 2 cents more difficult to deliver.

I have a bunch of old letters my dad wrote during the Korean war and a pile of my own from the late '60s, don't remember if the stamps are still there. These are some Missy has from her grandmother.

Here is a link that might be useful: Old Postcards

I think mail is one of the best bargains around. Granted it adds up when one sends a lot of mail out, like Christmas cards, but I think sending a letter all the way from California to New England for 47 cents is a terrific deal.

Same with all the way to the UK for 90 cents - door to door!

Entirely possible I may be mis-remembering (if there is such a word and if not, there should be), but at one time a few years ago they put out stamps with no "cents" marking on them, just an American flag. I think it was just before one of the price increases and the new stamps weren't available...that was sure confusing.

Like Coconut, I have a pile of miscellaneous denominations. Seems every time I stocked up another price increase came along. And for a few years I had a big suppply of $1.00 stamps when I was mailing lots of books/plants. Later tried to swap out at post office but they wouldn't...guess they thought they might have LSD on them...lol Took me years to use them up.

I've noticed more and more special stamps, commemorative and otherwise, being issued in recent years. Most are probably never used...just saved by stamp collectors. Can't help but believe that operation is heavily subsidized by us regular patrons, too.

It's another of those vicious circles...the more we use alternatives, the higher the price for service. Like the newspapers charging more for less news by fewer reporters.
josh

These posts remind me that I want to go to the Post Office before Friday--5/15--and buy some "Forever" stamps. I'll tuck them away--hopefully I won't forget where!--and when postage hits $1.00 per piece, I'll feel good about using them. :>)

Coconut: You should be able to pay your mortgage with electronic pay through your bank. I pay 90% of my bills that way. It's just like writing a check, and in fact, they will send a check if the receiver doesn't receive electronic money. I set up all the bills that I pay, and then on bill pay day, I open up the page, type in the amount for each one, press "pay" and viola, it's done. You can even set up ongoing payments. My mortgage gets sent on the 5th of every month without me doing anything. I'm getting ready to set up a few more bills the same way (car payment for one :) )

I still do charitable contributions by check, mostly because I want the record for taxes.

My bank doesn't charge for the electronic bill pay, but I would assume a few banks do. I think the banks prefer the electronic method because it cuts down on check sorting.

Lisa

I don't mind the price increase so much, after all, everything else does too. What gets me is the time it takes to go to there from here.
In 1950 I lived in a small town about 50 miles west of Boston, MA. If my parents send a letter per air-mail on Wednesday, I got it on Saturday morning. If I answered right away and put it in the mailbox by Saturday evening, it was in my hometown in Germany on Wednesday morning.
My youngest son lives about 35 miles from me in Louisville. Our mail goes first to a nearby town, then to Cincinnati and with luck he gets it in a week. Needless to say, unless it's something like a birthday card or present, nobody writes anymore.

Bummer! The new rates went into effect on May 11, not May 15! I made the trip to the Post Office in vain--at least in terms of saving money! When the clerk told me the rates couldn't be changed for at last 12 months, I thought, "Heck, I've got a whole year to buy 'Forever Stamps'; I don't need to do it today!" (I still have three books of the $.42 cent Forever Stamps!)