January 9, 2006
Adding my 2 cents. Stamp prices increase.
Mail those bills and belated holiday greetings today, or pay two pennies more. Starting tomorrow, the price of a first-class stamp jumps to 39 cents.
The increase is necessary because of a congressionally-imposed requirement that stipulates that the US Postal Service must set aside $3.1 billion each year in an escrow account, said Ann Powers, a spokeswoman for the Boston district of the Postal Service.
The last increase was in 2002, when the first-class stamp price rose from 34 cents to 37 cents to pay for increased operating costs at the same time fewer letters were being mailed. Stamps cost only 2 cents when they were first introduced 1885.
Richard Sasse, an engineering consultant from Providence who works in Boston, bought fifty 1-cent stamps from the vending machine at the Fort Point post office yesterday because he did not want to wait in line for the 2-cent stamps being sold at the counter.
Sasse said he mails about 20 letters a week — mostly bills but also cards to relatives and friends in Virginia and New Jersey.
”I like the personal touch,” said Sasse, 56. ”Fortunately they waited until after Christmas. Stamps were 5 cents when I went to college.”
The new rates did not faze customers yesterday.
”I still think it’s cheap to get [mail] on a plane to California for 39 cents,” said Sara Nechasek, a healthcare administator who was mailing six belated holiday cards.
Vikram Kumar, a software engineer from Waltham, said he began buying and using the new 39-cent stamps, which feature the Statue of Liberty against the US flag, soon after they went on sale last month. He had affixed the 39-cent stamps to the two dozen holiday cards he mailed even though the new rate was not in effect.
”It’s not much, and I don’t want to hunt around for 2-cent stamps,” said Kumar, as he mailed visa documents for his baby twins to the Indian consulate in New York City.
Pat Tuohy, an executive assistant at a nearby law firm, spent her lunch break at the post office buying nearly $40 worth of 39-cent and 2-cent stamps for six of her co-workers. The clerk labeled each waxy paper envelope of stamps with their individual names. Another customer stood in line to exchange his 37-cent stamps for new 39-cent stamps, paying the difference — something the post office agreed to do.
Lou Stathis of Roslindale was not so lucky. He needed stamps for 45 RSVP postcards he had planned to send out yesterday with invitations for a party in March. The new 24-cent postcard stamps have not been issued, so Stathis must buy 1-cent stamps to make up the difference. But he left the post office empty-handed; he did not know how many 23-cent postcard stamps he already has.
”I need to go home and recalculate,” Stathis said.
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Melysa
05/10/2007 at 8:17 pm
how much are stamp prices going up now?