USPS Raising Prices, First Class To 58 Cents

Being a grumpy old man, I delete e-mails with electronic greetings cards without reading.

Here in Oz, we pay $1.10 nationally, and $3.40 for overseas.
I rejoice in the value.
I send swaps to US for $3.40
Then receive stamps from US colleagues in parcels $12 and above.
It makes one feel guilty.
Ergo, I usually send 2 or 3 packages to their 1.

rod222,

But don't you know that you aren't supposed to send those things by letter?javascript:insertsmilie('')

May I ask how long it is taking to get back and forth between the USA for letters for you?

I had two letters from the USA that took 6 weeks each, one that took 3 weeks and today we got one that took 39 days...........

M.Y.
I am getting mail from my swap partners
Florida 21 days
Northern Canada 21-35 days
Regularly
As far as I am aware, only lost 1 letter in 15 years
My very first swap to University in Turkey

I rarely buy stamps on ebay, and very rarely buy them from the US, but I recently picked up some Laotian oddments. Sent, with a couple of free stamps, in a letter from Astoria, NY, and reached here within a week. Tracked and signed items that I've recently sent to Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong have been delivered in 7-10 days. Domestic post seems fine. I can say, rather nervously, that things are largely back to normal.

I dislike e-greeting cards too, but sadly they are the future.

Affordable package delivery should be the primary future goal of the USPS in its pricing methodology.

Greeting cards and bills that can't be paid online have inelastic demand. Most economists would recommend charging a high price for such items with inelastic demand. Have an over $1 first class 1oz rate subsidize affordable package delivery.

As for greeting cards, it is not the postage that is expensive but the card itself. Hallmark brand cards now run from $5 to $7.

Highway robbery IMO. Call me a cheapskate, but I get my greeting/sentiment cards when needed at Dollar Tree: two for a buck. Low-priced schmaltzy sentiments serve the need just as well as expensive poo.

My wife learned years ago that I think that cards are as crazy as giving plant sex organs (flowers) as a gift.
Don

Actually, rev, you can leave me off the Christmas card list this year ...

The cemetery is a great place to pickup flowers on the cheap for that special someone. And very "green" to boot!

We had a florist here who a few years ago was convicted of reselling floral arrangements from grave sites. He would surreptitiously "cherry pick" the best arrangements and resell as his own.

This is good. I was trying to figure out an old postage angle. The best I could come up with 20 cents + 20 cents + 18 cents.

The Postal Regulatory Commission has approved the rate increase.

https://www.linns.com/news/postal-u...ce-rate-case

It is becoming more and more difficult to use up my pile of three cent stamps.