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Forever stamps have thier limits |
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Written by Susan Ager
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Monday, 26 March 2007 |
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I strolled into my post office this week, planted my palms on the counter, leaned forward to look my postmaster in the eye and said, "Forever?"
We were alone. He sighed. Then he shrugged.
I do not hunger for my postmaster, nice guy that he is. What excites me is the promise of what the U.S. Postal Service is calling "forever stamps."
The stamps will go on sale in the middle of April, a few weeks before the rate for mailing a letter rises two pennies — on May 14 — to 41 cents.
Each 41-cent "forever stamp" will be good for first-class postage forever, no matter how high rates go. If 20 years from now mailing a birthday card to your brother costs two bucks, your original 41-cent forever stamps will carry the day.
"There's no fine print," Dave Partenheimer of the USPS told me. "Forever means forever."
That's what they said about Social Security, of course. That's what Charles told Diana before the eyes of the world.
That's why my postmaster shrugged: He's dubious, too.
The USPS says this stamp will make life easier for us. Four billion have been printed already and, since it will look the same forever (its design will be unveiled Monday), the USPS also niftily saves money as it prints more and more, forever and ever, amen.
When you run out of 41-cent forever stamps, you can buy more at the current first-class rate.
Forever is so seductive! I imagined buying $2,000 worth of the new 41-cent stamps, keeping them forever in a safe place, then bequeathing them to our kids, who can leave what's left to their kids, and on and on for generations.
I had, however, two concerns: How much space would $2,000 worth of forever stamps consume?
And, how long will people like you and me use stamps anyhow?
I asked my postmaster to show me how he gets 39-cent stamps in bulk. He returned from the back room carrying a packet of stamp books sealed together in cellophane.
It looked about the size of a stick of butter.
"That's 2,000 stamps," he told me, 100 books of 20 stamps each. "Right there," he said, "that's worth $780."
I gasped to hold so much postage in one hand.
We concluded that $2,000 in "forever stamps" would easily fit into that flimsy carton that holds a pound of butter.
But is it smart to store such a big investment in my fridge?
The USPS says households use on average 14 first-class stamps a month, but the number is falling. People younger than 35, for example, send half the mail their parents do.
I asked my stepdaughter, who is 40, when she last used a stamp. "Yesterday," she replied by e-mail, "to open a new bank account. Before that I put two in January on thank-you notes."
In 80 days she used three stamps.
Like more and more Americans, she pays bills online. She reaches out to friends by phone and e-mail. She sends e-greetings. She gets e-invitations to parties.
Etiquette still requires that sympathy notes and wedding invitations be sent by snail mail. But who gets married anymore? And how long will etiquette matter?
So, I abandoned my stamp investment plan. I will continue, however, to buy butter in bulk.
Butter I'm sure is forever. | Only registered users can write comments.
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