The Most Expensive Place in Town

Main Post Office Flushing, New York on Main Street

The most expensive place in town these days is not the supermarket. It is the post office.

For anyone who hasn't bought a stamp recently, I'm here to tell you that first class domestic U.S. Postage is now 63¢. Yes Virginia, send that letter to Santa now with the wrong postage and naughty or nice, you'll never hear from Santa.

That was shock to me, because just a few weeks before it was 60¢. And shortly before that it was 58¢. Since January 2021 to now it has gone from 55¢ to 63¢. Only rockets and jet aircraft go up faster.

Not everything can be transmitted online. Sometimes physical paper has to travel to a recipient. Just got back from the post office where last week I got 50 Forever stamps for 63¢ each. I used to get a coil of 100, but there are cash flow limitations these days. And I do use direct online banking for some vendors.

When forever stamps were introduced, someone asked the financial advice question if buying a massive flock of stamps could be a hedge against inflation. At the time, increases were not expected to be great, and they were going to be far apart. So the answer was a no. Not so now. Ask your financial planner. 

Today I had to mail several copies of forms to someone that needed to be sent Certified/Registered Receipt Requested. To be sure, to be sure: $9.72.

Once upon a time the postal service was a cabinet position and was subsidized. Then, I think in the early 1970s it was set to stand on its own, to be run as a business. It is impossible to hand deliver mail six days a week to any address in the United States and make money doing it. It's like expecting the police and fire departments to make money responding.

Supermarket weekly circulars show up in the mail box, and I bet it's not costing ShopRite 63¢ to send each circular. First class postage is subsidizing the commercial postal users. And it isn't just one supermarket circular that gets here. At least six do, three of which are useful to my wife who makes the most out of coupon offerings so well that if supermarkets were casinos she'd be banned as a card counter through facial recognition.

During today's visit to the post office I noticed up on the plexiglass partition an offering of 20 "Cancer Stamps" for $15. I'm confused. If postage is 63¢, then 20 stamps would be $12.60. Perhaps the extra is a contribution to some organization for cancer research. Next time I'll ask.

Live long enough and of course you can remember when things were cheaper. Of course you made less money, but subway fare was once 15¢, a slice of pizza was 15¢ and postage was 3¢. Of course it was also Eisenhower's first term. Postage went to 4¢ during the second term. Egads!

Like the years on a calendar: how high can the numbers go?

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