Postage Increase in USA

@aerobear - you’ll have to start using the standard Canadian size postcards. Haha Everytime, I go back home to Oregon, I always forget how small the standard postcards are in the US.

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Not sure about the other countries, but the prices of US and Germany both show the price to send a domestic letter (€0.80 in Germany = about $0.97).
Whoever labeled the chart should have done a better job … I think they compare domestic first class letter prices on an international basis …

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No, they are not! I am afraid you don’t know what a really HUGE stamp is. Ask people from Russia :joy:
And we don’t have special stamps like global forever. Each time we have to calculate and think about the size of a stamp and the spare place left on a card :sweat_smile:🤦

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Curious! Could someone explain to me how the postage system works in the US, please?
In Germany, when the rates are raised, you have to put that new amount on the card. The time of purchase of the postage does not matter. Also, we don’t have forever stamps and I always wondered how that worked?

Thank you in advance! :slightly_smiling_face:

The same about Russia. And they raise prices once a year! As for international rates, I began with 35 roubles (40 for airmail, but actually it works for some very limited countries where they can really deliver only by air) in 2017. Now the rates are 52 and 58 roubles respectively. These days I mostly use 58-rouble rate because I cannot be sure anymore in this pandemic time.

Or people from Poland! I can cover 3 US stamps with just one Polish stamp - this one has the domestic postage value, so I have to add still more for an international postcard/letter :laughing: Luckily, not all stamps are huge - just the pretty ones :rofl:

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US Forever stamps always carry their current value, not the value they held when purchased.

One Forever stamp will send a letter anywhere within the US and its territories, forever. One Postcard Forever stamp will send a postcard any where in the US and its territories, forever. One Global Forever will send a letter or postcard anywhere internationally, forever. To send internationally using any stamps other than Global Forever you must use a combination of stamps (Forever and definitive) that equal the current international rate.

The history behind this: First-class mail (standard domestic letter rate) in the US used to use stamps with a definitive cost printed on it. For example, when the first-class rate was 10 cents, you bought a stamp costing 10 cents, which had “10 cents” printed on it.

The rate stayed the same for a very long time. But after a series of price changes where the post office knew the price would go up, but didn’t know exactly how much until the last minute in the 1970’s-1980’s, the USPS began using alphabet designations instead of definitive price on the stamp (alphabet A through H). It was kind of annoying to customers, since you had to know what an “A” or other alphabet stamp originally cost, and add additional postage to make up the difference as the alphabet advanced. Realizing they would run out of alphabet eventually, they began printing just “First Class Rate” on the stamp.

Eventually after that, the USPS settled on the “Forever” designation. A Forever stamp would always be worth the current first-class rate, even if it cost less than that when you bought it. This encouraged people to buy and hold on to more stamps, since they would end up spending less money on postage as the prices went up. The first Forever stamp cost 41 cents and it can still be used today, even though the price to purchase a current Forever stamp is 55 cents.

You can find a table of historical US stamp costs here:

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Thank you for this easily understandable explanation! :grinning:

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Part of the Forever stamps story that I read is that the USPS saw how well the “First” “Second” or 1 and 2 stamps the British Post Office were using was working and so we tried it here, also with success as we all know. ( As I understand the British system is the same. The cash value is the cost of the rate indicator at time of use, in their case the minimum rate for a letter by First or Second Class Post, regardless of the date and price of original purchase).
Both Royal Mail and USPS found that contrary to popular belief, the “forever” idea was actually SAVING them money (logistics and such especially).

And yet the value indicator is microscopic….

Here’s another.

100 for $0.32, 100 for $0.31, or 300 for $0.30 per stamp.

Coil of 100 for $28.77 ($0.29 per Forever Stamp).

100% certain these are fakes, unfortunately

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I’ve personally bought the heart stamps several times.

Most likely are fake. As a lifelong stamp collector, the biggest discount on legitimate stamps for postage use from recognized stamp dealers is about 20%, and for such well organized and pristine lots as shown in the bay ads, only 10%. Legitimate dealers get real USPS stock, and when they can’t sell them to collectors they dump excess inventory by selling them 5-20% off actual value. All legal and the stamps are real USPS. If it’s too good to be true… I also don’t see anything to indicate these folks are true stamp dealers such as APS or ASDA membership (always used as a selling point and should be verified before buying). Not even pretending to be.

If nothing else, there are warnings all over the collector community about those cheap stamps on eBay. Chinese fakes, they suspect. They tend to fake the definitive stamps as the designs are simpler and less likely to fall into collector hands (people who’d know what to look for). If they are real, they could be stolen. Post office break-ins happen for a reason and there was a case years ago of a crooked manager who made off with six figures worth.

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Ooo. This is all good information.

I suppose I have been fortunate. I’ve bought at least 1200 stamps of this calibur.

I do have a seller who resales vintage blocks from whom I have purchased several times, but he currently doesn’t have any lots for sale.

After reading your post, I took a very close look at some Love Forever Skywriting 2017 discounted stamps I bought on Etsy that turned out to be shipped from Russia (that was a bit of a surprise). I don’t have any of the same design bought from USPS to compare them to, but I compared them to other design legitimate stamps purchased from USPS.

What I discovered was: on extreme closeup there are printer dots visible, and the corner cuts are slightly off. Every legitimate USPS-purchased stamp sheet I own has neat and perfect “pinwheel” corners (see green circled areas). The suspect counterfeit stamps have joggled corners (see red circled areas). Am I right in thinking the Love Forever Skywriting stamps are fakes?
EDIT: Yes, they are fakes. Confirmed it with an article in Linn’s Stamp News. :worried:

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Ooo. The ones I have aren’t cut wonky like those, but I haven’t checked for printer dots. I always make sure I’m ordering from the US though. I have heard of fakes being sold and shipped from overseas, but that was a story told by a friend, so I don’t know the validity of it.

Right now I put on two forevers and one ten cent. After August will a card need an additional 4 cents?

For an international postcard, that’s correct.