With the price of a first-class stamp set to increase from 41 to 42 cents next week, the U.S. Postal Service is offering customers a way to freeze prices.
It’s called the Forever stamp, and here’s how it works.
The Forever stamp costs 41 cents until Monday. It will remain valid to mail a first-class, 1-ounce letter any time in the future without additional postage, regardless all price increases.
This means you no longer need those pesky 1-cent stamps to supplement the old ones in the desk drawer that no longer cover increased postage.
Besides saving a penny apiece on those graduation announcements or wedding invitations, a USPS spokesman said the hassle of keeping up with price increases was the impetus for creating the new stamps, which came out in April 2007.
In the last week, customers at the Main Street post office in Temple have been buying the Forever stamps like there is no tomorrow. Customers bought on average about 8,000 Forever stamps a day for several days during the end of April and first of May.
“Several of my customers have been buying them at $300 to $400 at a time,” said Anita New, a supervisor at the Temple location. She said one regular customer recently bought 100 books, or 2,000 stamps, at once.
Ms. New said seniors especially like the Forever stamps because they typically use more stamps than other age brackets and they like the convenience of not having to keep up with price increases.
The post office and others seem to be having a good time with the Forever stamp.
Back in March 2007, the postmaster general introduced the stamp at a trade show by asking: “Who says nothing lasts forever?” Playing off the Liberty Bell image on the stamp, in late April the USPS announced brisk sales with a press release titled: “Every time a bell rings . . . another Forever stamp is sold.”
National sales recently doubled, from about 30 million per day in April to 60 million per day in May. Customers have bought about 6 billion total since they went on sale last year.
The Forever stamp has its own Web site too. Although not connected with the USPS, ForeverStamps.com offers links to commentary, photographs, news stories, even a Wizard of Id comic strip that features the Forever stamp.
Forever stamps are available at local H-E-B grocery stores and on the Web at www.usps.com. Beginning Monday, they will cost 42 cents, but are good for a lifetime.
