I read this article tonight and am still in shock. Cost of postage stamps to rise.
Sixty cents. Oh help me. On 28 June, we will pay a crazy 5 more cents for postage on a standard letter. It's no major assault on the purse, it's just that I will now need to add crazy little 5 cent stamps to all my current 55 cent stamps in order not to embarrass myself.
And I am still recovering from the last postage increase from 50 cents to 55 cents. (When was that? A few weeks ago? Seems like it.) The first I knew of the previous postage increase was when my good friend Hippomanic Jen was bemoaning the fact that postage had gone up and she hadn't known about it! I was even more behind the times than she was - her post was the only alert I received regarding the increase.
It bothered me at the time because I had just bought about a hundred 50 cent stamps. I had to go and buy a LOT of crazy 5 cent stamps to make up the extra postage.
I have now finally used up all my 50c + 5c stamps, but in the intervening time I made the following surprise findings in a desk-drawer-cleanout:
(1) Quite Ancient "Regular" stamps at the very outdated price of 45 cents. These have until recently required two 5 cent stamps to make up postage on a standard letter, and from 28 June will require three 5 cent stamps. (Forget higher denominations of stamp - who wants leftover 5c, 10c, and 20c stamps? In this house, we go with the 5s.)
(2) Not-quite-so-old "Christmas" stamps at the discount price of 45 cents. These require similar 5-cent treatment:
(3) Quite Ancient "Christmas" stamps at the extremely outdated and discounted price of 40 cents, currently requiring three 5 cent stamps, and from 28 June will require four crazy 5 cent stamps.
Now I hear of another postal increase.
It's not the increase that's bothering me, for what's 60 cents? It's the fact that I seem to be perpetually swimming in a sea of under-priced stamps and a depressingly unequal number of crazy little 5 cent stamps floating around trying to make everything alright again.
Sigh. I am tempted to save my 40 and 45 cent stamps for a little longer. The way things are going here, postage will soon be 80 cents, then 90 cents.
The other option is to request emergency supplies of 5 cent stamps. Lots of them.
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Acknowledgments:
Artwork for 60c stamp from here.
Artwork for 55c stamp from here.
Artwork for 50c stamp from here.
Artwork for 45c stamp from here.
Artwork for 40c stamp from here.
Artwork for 5c stamp from some forgotten dark corner over there.
14 comments:
So you have the same postal issues in your country as we do in the U.S. I honestly can't keep up with our rate. They usually raise it by .02. So you have to plaster .02 stamps extra on your envelope. I know if you take back your old stamps here they will give you a credit towards purchasing the new stamps. But who wants to stand in the never ending line. It's not worth it. They did come up with a clever solution in the USPS recently. They introduced the Forever Stamp. So you can buy it at current rate and use it even if the price goes up. That is all I buy now, because I can't keep up.
Love your stamp collection. ;)
♥ Joy
Oh dear! This brings back crazy memories. When we got married 8 1/2 years ago, my husband had a stockpile of unused stamps dating back at least ten years - you know, you buy them and intend to use them, put them away and forget you have them!
So in an effort to be frugal, I decided I would launch a campaign to utilize this stockpile of old stamps. You can imagine the ridiculous looking envelopes that were sent forth from our home/business for the next few months. There were times when I had difficulties finding room on the envelope to write the address to which the mail was being sent!
For some reason, the post office had 1c stamps and 10c stamps, but nothing in between so I ended up having to use the most ludicrous number of stamps as I refused to put more than the necessary amount of postage on each envelope.
Stupid postal system! I always sigh when I read old Sherlock Holmes novels and mail sent early one day arrives later that day somewhere in London. If I sent a letter to my Mum across town here in little old rural Southern Ontario, it has to go first into our closest major city for sorting and then back to our town which takes at least 4 days!!! I think if I tied a note to my dog's collar and told her to go visit "Grandma" it would get there MUCH quicker!
Ditto Joy. I'm glad she explained all that so I didn't have to. Except that sometimes it goes up by 2, sometimes by 3, so forget using the same makeup stamp next time. Forever or forget it.
Crazy Sister. The definitive make-up stamp. Awesome! (And Santa over Woody--priceless!)
I agree with the forever stamp. It's so great not to have to worry about increases when those stamps are good forever. I've been known to stock up on them whenever mention of postal increase is in the air.
But my BIG gripe with our postal service is you have to pay EXTRA to guarantee it's arrival. It's called delivery confirmation and it's not cheap.
Thanks for sharing as I never know when stamps go up and I look like a "drongo" when I go into the post office...
But I am loving your stamps here! I'm guessing Crazy Sister will be suitably impressed with the number her of appearances on this post ;)
Thanks for the heads-up, and for a wonder I'm half-way through the box of 100 x 55c stamps, rather than just starting it.
By the way, don't you wish they would bring back 1c & 2c pieces so that they didn't need to go up by a whole 5c each time?
Oh yeah, I'm impressed. So impressed. Check out my blog, I'm so impressed...
(Attempting to insert an evil, vengeful-looking emoticon here-)
;[
That's such a great post. And I can't wait for you to respond to Crazy Sister's photo challenge...duel away! You know, in a friendly amusing-for-the-rest-of-us kind of way.
I was just at your sister's blog. She has some great ones of you. Hehe. Your post made me think of my Dad. He collects stamps... somehow, I think he missed these. Hehe.
Does it make me old to say I remember 23c stamps?
Yes.
My husband has also just finished using his 50c + 5c stamps - and is now in the same boat as you.
The day before the last increase came in, my friend (who didn't know about it) went & bought 100 x50c stamps! I can't believe they let her! Unless they thought she was getting in early for Christmas cards!!
'revaties'
Okay. Bwahhhaaaaaahhhhaaaaaa!!
That's all I've got.
Its crazy increasing postal rates in such bad economic times
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