I just received this notification. The picture cuts the rest of the info off, but it says prices will now increase twice yearly.
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Not relevant to me now, but years ago I’d send out Media Mail books every so often, so that price seems really steep now.
For $1.40 I’m pretty much using two Forevers and a batch of 20’s I bought recently, though two 10’s is an alternative.
The brush rabbit 20 cent stamp (additional ounce) is now worth 24cents.
I’m planning to use two forever stamps and two tens to get to $1.40 for international cards, and a brush rabbit 24 and two tens to get to 44cents for domestic postcards.
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Sending out single post cards by themselves…doing much less of that now compared to years past. Eight months ago stopped Official Postcrossing; done with getting so many unsuitable cards. The only thing the USPS does extremely well is raise prices. Ugh.
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You can pretty much count on them raising the price every year. It’s one of those things we just have to get used to like changing the clocks during daylight savings.
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Isn’t every six months now?
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Yeah I bought like 60 dollars worth of stamps i preparation for the TEN CENT increase of international mail, it was worth it because the stamps are forever stamps to they always work no matter what the price is so in the long run, i am saving money
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Here in UK postage cost for international stamp is $2.22 ( up to 20 grams, 1st class).
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A good trick is to go to stamp shows if you live in or close to an area that has them. A lot of the vendors will have stamps at 20 even 30 percent off. I have found several dealers at the shows that have full sheets of stamps from 20 + years ago. Even ebay sometimes has good deals on stamps if you buy in bulk.
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I swear if the price keeps increasing and it one day goes up to $1.90 for international stamps ….yo imma have to quit this 
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I can’t keep up with all these increases!
I am mortified to say that I sent out approx 40 cards the other day (July 12?) with the wrong postage! It was under $1.40 … anybody know what is the fate of these postcards!? I used to write my return address, but I found out that postcards were never returned if undeliverable for whatever reason, so I stopped.
Edit: I used a variety of stamps (combination of non-international forever stamps and old stamps)
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Honestly, I think the postal employees don’t have the time to count the postage on multiple stamps like that, more an honor system thing.
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I would have thought that the whole system was automated, like going through those machines that “read” the postage and then cancel them.
Kind of unrelated, but I remember some years ago, I requested some letters to be hand-cancelled, and the postal worker got real sassy with me and said that it was now “illegal” to hand-cancel. Is that true? I found the word “illegal” to be quite strong for what I thought was a simple request.
definitely not illegal - i ask for hand-cancels all the time and most folks are happy to do it (even some post offices will do it by default if you hand the postcards over the counter). the most pushback that i’ve gotten so far is a mildly surprised look that i used the term haha.
i think it just depends on your area, how busy it is and the person working at the time. i agree that the term illegal is very hyperbolic lol
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I think it’s just the fact that I live in central Los Angeles, so it’s rather a large mixed-bag when it comes to customer service here. At my last local post office in Koreatown (5 minute walk), I would always pray to get a particular postal worker since she was nice… everyone else you just kind of had to hold your breath with. At our new location, the post office always has the longest line with one postal worker working. He’s amazing, though, and always has a smile on his face. I appreciate that he remembers the regulars (like me).
Sorry, kinda got side-tracked there.
Maybe I’ll try hand-cancelling again with some cards. (In the past before my request was deemed “illegal”, when I did manage to get things hand-cancelled, I found out that they ended up getting machined with the automatic cancellation mark, too! So it just looked messy).
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They’ll probably be delivered. A couple of years ago, I mistakenly sent some international postcards with only the domestic postage on them - and then worried I’d have to do resends. But one by one, every last one of them got delivered just fine. 
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Im sending good vibes into the universe for these postcards to be delivered. Your reply gives me hope! Thanks!
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I’m guessing that’s probably why my postcards to the US haven’t gotten to it’s destination in weeks when it only takes few days domestically
Some of my postcards (6 i think) have been delivered this week within the US … so I guess it’s taking about one week now minimum to arrive domestically. I am so thankful that they have indeed made their way to the recipient, even if I didn’t put the correct postage! I’m still hoping for the best for all the international postcards!
Edit: I did talk to a postal worker at the postoffice on Monday and she told me that they generally give about a week’s grace period when a postage change occurs (from postmark date).
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Mine still traveling to Florida from Arizona 33days now