Comments on: The Forever Stamp

By: Michael Lynch

Michael Lynch — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:40:03 +0000

But seriously folks, I was wrong on August 27th. You should always buy the Forever Stamp over the denominated stamp. You just lose money by buying more of any stamp than you plan to use, because prices go down year by year relative to inflation, but you lose more on denominated stamps because they don’t appreciate in value.

By: alhwang

alhwang — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:40:41 +0000

I couldn’t disagree more. I’m sitting here with a bunch of $0.41 stamps and I can’t send a letter without wasting $0.40. I’ll probably spend more on gas by driving down to the post office to buy the roll of $0.01 stamps than I will on the full postage.

By: Michael Lynch

Michael Lynch — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:40:07 +0000

But seriously folks, Al is wrong. From a purely monetary standpoint (ignoring convenience), the Forever Stap is a bad deal. Historically, postage rates increase slower than the CPI, meaning that each year the amount of “wealth” a person must have to buy a stamp is actually decreasing. In fact, the price of US postage is legally required to increase slower than CPI by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, so you’re guaranteed to be getting an equal or better deal on your postage each year by buying the denominated kind.

By: Michael Lynch

Michael Lynch — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:26:36 +0000

The only “forever” that you should be thinking about is keeping those Gerald Ford stamps. Forever. Gerald Ford died today and I’m gay. That makes those stamps very valuable.