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Kire Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:25 AM
Original message
First-Class Stamp May Cost 41 Cents
First-Class Stamp May Cost 41 Cents

WASHINGTON - It may soon cost more to mail a letter. A published report says the U.S. Postal Service is expected to seek approval for an increase in postage rates of at least ten percent early next year.

The Wall Street Journal says the rise would push the price of a first-class stamp to at least 41 cents.

...

The Journal says the expected new rate increase stems partly from the failure of proposed legislation that would have allowed the post office to take advantage of pension-fund savings.

More: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=8&u=/ap/20041124/ap_on_re_us/post_office_rates


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gnofg Donating Member (502 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:27 AM
Response to Original message
1. Inflation
There is no inflation. Bush told us so.
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AllegroRondo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:28 AM
Response to Original message
2. Still very cheap
compared to other countries, we have the cheapest postage in the world
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BattyDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:30 AM
Response to Original message
3. The more they raise the price ...
the less snail-mail I send. I currently hand-deliver most of the birthday cards I buy and I've cut my Christmas card list to family and very close friends. All my mail-order catalog shipping is now done over the Internet. Most of the mail I send now is bills ... and if I start paying those online via electronic checks and/or directly transfer the money from my bank account, I can cut my stamp usage to almost nothing. :evilgrin:

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Occulus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:40 AM
Response to Original message
4. Ending mass-mailer subsidies would help keep stamp prices down.
The USPS doesn't want to hear that.

Know what? Mass-mailers pay about half the first-class price for their mailings. The USPS doesn't want to end the subsidies because it thinks mailers will abandon it in droves if it decided to make the playing field fair to all. So, instead, they raise the price of first class, forcing all us peons to pick up the extra costs.

Know something else? They get a discount for "presorting" the mail and banding it into bundles of like-adresses. We, in the plant, then have to unbundle it all, so it can run through our machinery with the rest of the mail. Oh, and that "presorting" is nothing of the kind; we still sort it all according to the exact. same. rules.

So, basically, we're giving mailers a big discount for exactly nothing. No reason at all. NONE of the mass-mailings go out the door unsorted by us dur to "presorting"; we still work all of it.

Then the USPS complains about losing money. Well, DUH!!!!
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phantom power Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
5. I'd love to see bulk-rates increase. A lot. Every day I recycle
an egregious number of catalogs and assorted junk mail. Even assuming the recycling, it's needlessly wasteful.
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flamingyouth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:44 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. A good idea, but I doubt we'll see that happen
Of course, if there is a substantial postage increase like this, the bulk rates will likely go up, but they're still really cheap compared to first-class mail. And like you, good grief, I stop at the recycling bin before I even bring my mail into the house. Some days I swear it weighs 20 lbs.! :crazy:

I admit it, I have a bulk permit for my store, but we send very little mail and only to people who have specifically requested to be on our mailing list. :hi:
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phantom power Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:54 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. I'm not against bulk mailing. But like all things in life, moderation
is a virtue. These days it's become standard operating procedure for mail-order companies to send out a catalog every damned month. Seems to me that quarterly catalogs are more than plenty.

I have to say that this season Signals, or one of those companies, sent out their holiday catalog and on the cover it said "Save this catalog, it's the only one we're mailing this season." I hope that trend catches on....
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flamingyouth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 10:58 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. I totally agree
We normally send postcards informing people that their items they buy annually have arrived. We also send a very few catalogs (a holiday one, and occasionally, something for Mother's Day).

Frankly, I can't justify the expense (or the blatant abuse of resources, which is a whole other subject) of the crazy, bi-weekly mailings I get from certain places.

What's even scarier is how soon they get your new address. I'd only lived in this house for less than six weeks, and already my mailbox was filled with new, random catalogs - that's how quickly my name and address had been sold. :grr:
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Occulus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:09 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. Those little cards sort a WHOLE LOT faster.
Edited on Wed Nov-24-04 11:31 AM by kgfnally
Oh, and I mean a whole lot faster. On the order of thousands of pieces per hour faster. We like sorting the cards on our machines. You should see just how fast they sort.

Contrast this with mailings from, say, Haband. Those things are bulky, heavy, and damnably slow to sort, even on our high-speed machinery.

If you're making a large mailing, use smallish cards that are thin but durable and use nongloss ink. Those type of mailings sort a great deal faster.

Heh- to phonetically sound out the difference, Haband mailings go chot-chot-chot-chot-chot etc, while cards go chiggachiggachiggachiggachiggachiggachiggachigga. :D
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flamingyouth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:12 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. That's good to know - thanks!
We use regular card stock and print our own cards, usually. Sometimes we send glossy cards we get from our manufacturers, but usually it's our own stuff. Glad we're making someone's job easier. :D
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Occulus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:25 AM
Response to Reply #10
13. That glossy stuff is a pain sometimes, though.
You should see what happens on occasion in the plant. Go to grab a big handful of glossy cards and SQUIRT! It ends up on the floor.

Couple tips:

For the addresses on your cards, have them printed on the card itself if you can, instead of using a self-adhesive label. The reason for this is because those labels add thickness to the card in the same spot for hundreds of them. This creates a "spot thickness" that can and does cause the mail to fall off the belt on our machinery.

Here's a photo of one of the main machines we use:



This is called a Delivery BarCode Sorter, or DBCS for short. See that feed belt, with the paddle (next to the red light console at the center of the image)? That paddle applies pressure to the mail on the belt. If the mail has a spot thickness, those pieces tend to squirt all over and have to be baby-sat to avoid it.

Another tip is to make sure the card stock isn't too thin. The reason for this is because the diverters inside the machine that change which level of stackers the mail goes to flip back and forth rapidly, and if mail gets caught on one, it can create a very nasty jam in the machine (we do not use these machines to process SS and other government checks for that exact reason). The closer the cardstock is to regular paper, the more likely it is that a jam will occur.

I really wish the USPS would publicize this information.
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Occulus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:14 AM
Response to Reply #8
11. Your name and address wasn't sold, exactly.
Your forwarding order went over to CFS, the Computerized Forwarding Service. By filing a change-of-address form, you're really asking the postal service to update their directory. Mailers usually request an address service, which means if your address has changed, they find out and update their mailing list. It's all very automatic and there's nothing sinister about it.

Just mark the stuff "refused- RTS- remove from mailing list" and they'll stop sending the stuff to you.

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flamingyouth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:16 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. Wow, you're a wealth of info!
:D

I was just amazed at the sheer number of new catalogs I started getting when I moved. (It wasn't all a bad thing, because in the deluge I found a great place to buy stuff for my mom.)
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tanyev Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:28 AM
Response to Original message
14. Yet another one of my pet peeves.
Why in bleeping bleep can't they go by fives? I remember back when it got raised to 24 cents. Just go to 25!!! Think how much simpler the vending machines would be. Every increase since has been the same. And don't even get me started on all the single stamps you need to buy to use up all of the stamps you still have on hand when the change goes into effect. I don't care if they raise it to 45 cents. It would be simpler than 41.

<off of soap box>
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Kindigger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:37 AM
Response to Reply #14
15. I guess I should quit procrastinating
about unloading my "needful things". This will totally devastate EBay.
:hurts:
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colonel odis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:40 AM
Response to Original message
16. fine. it's still better than using fedex or ups, both of which are huge
contributors to bush.

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Chimpanzee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 11:59 AM
Response to Original message
17. I never use snail-mail anymore - Doesn't bother me
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Straight Shooter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-24-04 12:42 PM
Response to Original message
18. How about they stop wasting money printing huge sheets with few stamps?
You know what I'm talking about, the fancy sheets with the gorgeous panorama of animals in the wild western fields, or the oceanic photospread, et cetera. They are gorgeous, but half of the sheet is wasted, because they only have a few stamps on them. And the stamps themselves are huge.

I wonder what the waste factor is in those sheets.
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