Thanks for the heads up - I still send quite a bit of snail mail, so I stocked up on "Forever" stamps @ 42-cents.

PV

PV, don't you have a sneaking suspicion that there's a catch with the "Forever" stamps? I bought some at Costco last time I was there for same reason as you but I'm just waiting for another shoe to drop. Maybe I'm missing something but for a quasi-governmental "business" they keep jacking up rates and on the other hand sell "Forever" stamps. Regular businesses can't use "Forever" stamps so guess USPS makes up revenue on them...and then businesses have to raise their prices to consumers.

We live in a very strange system.

Karendee,
You are correct that the postal rate goes up on Monday May 11, 2009 and that a regular letter size envelope goes up to $.44.

But other information that you posted is not accurate and is confusing to those that do seed trades using bubble envelopes, which is what all seeds should be mailed in and especially confusing to Newbies.

First of all, a bubble envelope is considered a large envelope if it meets the following criteria

The bubble envelope must be between 1/4 inch and no more than 3/4 inch in thickness, uniform in thickness, which means that LARGE ENVELOPE RATE envelopes can be no more than 3/4" thick, and the uniform contents (seed packets) need to be taped in place to avoid shifting and possibly jamming up the USPS sorting machines, or costing the receiving member Postage Due when they receive it.

In otherwords If an envelope is over 1/4" and is less than 3/4" thick, and it is uniformly thick, and the contents are not shifting (taped in place) it should go as a LARGE ENVELOPE RATE.
Per your link above, a 1 OZ or less envelope with the above dimensions is 88 cents and each additional OZ is 17 cents.

If a bubble envelope does not meet the above requirements, then, and only then, would it go as a Parcel (package as your work calls it) Rate, which $1.22 up to and including 1 OZ. It is then an additional 17 cents for each extra ounce..

For bubble envelopes that are used for mailing seeds the correct information is as follows

1 0z $.88
2 oz $ 1.05
3 oz $ 1.22
4 oz $1.39
5 oz $1.56
6 oz $1.73
7 oz $1.90
8 0z $2.07
9 0z $2.24
10 oz $2.41
11 oz $2.58
12 oz $2.75
13 oz $2.92

parcel rates/package rates are as follows

1 oz $1.22
2 oz 1.39
3 oz 1.56
4 oz 1.73
5 oz 1.90
6 oz 2.07
7 oz 2.24
8 oz 2.41
9 oz 2.58
10 oz 2.75
11 oz 2.92
12 oz 3.09
13 oz 3.26

please see below link from USPS for accurate information on postal rate increases

Newbie in nj the USPS has been using the forever stamps for quite a few years now.
It is actually cheaper for them to print those for public use since the postal rates keep going up all the time.

If they decided to no longer print the forever stamps, they would be stuck with far too many postage stamps with the incorrect price on them and would then have to increase the number of additional postage stamps to add to the old postal stamps to use up the stamps with the old price on it.

Fran

Here is a link that might be useful: USPS accurate information on postal rate changes from USPS

Sorry I did provide a link to the USPS site so people could look for themselves. I just did a google search for that site. I assumed since it was USPS it was correct. I got the info from work our postage meter supplier told gave us the text I copied.

Everyone please do check the USPS site. I was trying to help but I guess I should have skipped the post.
I did not mean to confuse people or make anyone upset. Sorry again. I will stick to mostly reading posts.
Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: USPS Calculate postage link