Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
BOOO!!! Link:arrow: "Price of stamps goes up this weekend"
That means if you mail a square card (or any card that needs 2 stamps) it will cost you nearly $1.00. At that rate, it's possible that the cost of the shipping is more than the cost of the materials on your card!
Perhaps the knowledge of how much it costs to mail a card these days makes the recipient even that much more appreciative of the gesture!!? :rolleyes:
BOOO!!! Link:arrow: "Price of stamps goes up this weekend"
That means if you mail a square card (or any card that needs 2 stamps) it will cost you nearly $1.00. At that rate, it's possible that the cost of the shipping is more than the cost of the materials on your card!
Perhaps the knowledge of how much it costs to mail a card these days makes the recipient even that much more appreciative of the gesture!!? :rolleyes:
A square card doesn't need two stamps. It needs a stamp and the non-machinable surcharge, which is 20 cents. (If that's going up, I don't know to what.)
People are always down on the post office for the rate increases but come on-- unless I am mailing something to someone who lives on the same block as me, 49 cents doesn't even cover the gas it would take me to hand deliver it.
I agree, Emily. I use the post office a lot and I'm happy to have them. If it is going to take a few pennies more to mail a letter and keep the USPS alive, then so be it.
Everytime someone complains we should ask if they would bend over to pick up a penny off the ground, I doubt it! We are so lucky to mail our letters for as little as we do!
__________________ Pia 2024 Scrapbook goals April 16/10 layouts YTD 91/120 Check out my gallery
My dad keeps getting on me for NOT paying my bills online. My dad! He is 72! I support my post office!!!!
I NEVER just plop 2 stamps on a card, if I need a non machinable stamp I put that on or go into the post office and pay that way. I never pay more than needed for a card to be mailed/delivered. EVER!! WHY?????
__________________ The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable. Practice safe eating always use condiments
I think the Post Office experience can be different depending on where you live. I currently live in a small town and when I go to my local PO, it takes me...maybe 10 minutes from start to finish...to complete whatever I am in there for. It's always the same people behind the counter and they are always very nice and friendly. Flashback a few years when I lived in a large city...a trip to the Post Office was avoided at all costs. If that meant paying extra to avoid finding a parking space and standing in line and dealing with the crowds and noise and crabby people, I would gladly have put 2 or even 3 stamps on if I thought it would help!!
__________________ "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack" ~Rudyard Kipling my gallery
I live in Australia and our postal services are getting worse, the price of a standard letter is 60 cents, post offices are closing, so we have to travel further to find one and now they are talking about only delivering mail to our home 3 times a week and charging us a yearly fee of 30 dollars to deliver our mail to our homes. I think the word service has been lost, in every part of the world.
Oh no!!! I totally forgot about it!! I'm gonna buy a ton of stamps before the prices go up! Thanks for the reminder!!
edited to add: whew, just bought some! Thanks!
Last edited by SophieLaFontaine; 01-25-2014 at 01:14 AM..
I did buy 2 books of stamps. And I always buy the 5, 10, 20 cent stamps too. I have scale and I add postage that way. I go into the post office 2-3 times a week, as I have a box. I do pick up change off the ground( have found 16 cents so far) and put it in my spare change jar. I'll keep writing letters and sending my cards. Just wish the service would improve. I hear in 2015 stamps will go up a penny. Time to hoard stamps again.
If you have not bought stamps from the post office online, I highly recommend it. You do have to register and make an account, but it's easy to do.
You can order the "fancy" stamps that the post office is frequently sold out of, at least mine is. I got some pretty heart ones for Valentines.
I just ordered a bunch online in advance of the price hike. The ship cost was only $1.25. Cheaper than gas, and a whole lot more convenient than going to the post office and standing in line.
__________________ Bugga in OK
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama
If you have not bought stamps from the post office online, I highly recommend it. You do have to register and make an account, but it's easy to do.
You can order the "fancy" stamps that the post office is frequently sold out of, at least mine is. I got some pretty heart ones for Valentines.
I just ordered a bunch online in advance of the price hike. The ship cost was only $1.25. Cheaper than gas, and a whole lot more convenient than going to the post office and standing in line.
The shipping cost is $1.75 if you buy over $50. Still cheap, but still. Bad marketing. It's penalizing customers for buying MORE. It's psychologically bad. $1.75 is great compared to a lot of places, but if a customer is comparing it to $1.25, it's not so great anymore. (I've been watching and listening to a lot of psychology lectures). Also, I think if anyone can afford free shipping it's the postal service!!
Here in the uk they've really complicated the system. In the past, all mail was assessed by weight. Then they introduced a system whereby how thick the envelope was a consideration (under 5mm is cheaper than over and over 25mm another price) but on top of that it also has to be smaller than 165x240mm. That is classed as a small letter and costs 60p to post within the uk. If it is over 5mm thick and between the small letter size and 353x250mm then it is classed as a large letter and costs 90p to post within in the uk.
However, if it is an international letter, it only goes on weight!
Confused??
This means you either have to go to the p.o. every time you want to send a card to check its thickness or invest in a pricing ruler.
I agree that it would cost me a lot more to hand deliver something but I don't understand them investing millions in new equipment to make the system more complicated rather than easier! I imagine our stamps will be going up again in april so I'll be bulk buying to get me thru the rest of the year!
I'm just grateful that the USPS will always honor older stamps. We lived in Switzerland for a year and when a stamp is retired there or the postage goes up, your old stamps are no longer accepted. Hey, I paid for those!! I still have US commemorative stamps that I purchased before the introduction of the Forever stamp and I can always use them (with the addition of a few smaller denomination stamps to reach the current requirement). Thanks for the great service USPS! I still love sending/getting something I can hold in my hand.
Most of my cards are pretty heavy by the time I add embellishments and several layers to them. So I have always used 2 stamps. I also make 7 X 5 cards 95% of the time.
My take on postage is this, if spending 49 cents on postage to mail a card to someone who needs to have their day brighten for whatever reason, it's worth more than a pound of gold!
It refers to a 20cent stamp for a surcharge that is added on when a card would be nonmachinable. HTH
I normally take my cards to the Post Office and they print postage on a label. Has anyone had any issue with those being assessed at another P.O. to need more postage? Personally I hate label postage because I love pretty stamps....both kinds.
I just do not make square cards. As long as you stay with A2 or 5x7 and they aren't too thick, I can use my 44 cent forever stamps. They are getting in short supply so I bought two 100 packs at Costco last week. I just think of all the fun I have making them and the fun people have getting them.
It means that the envelope could get caught up in the machine. If the picture in my mind is correct, it's like a belt and the envelopes pass through at a rapid speed. If there is a bump or something that could get caught up and stop the rapid flow of mail, it can mangle the envelope or card inside. So they have to be hand processed. I hope I explained that well
__________________ "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack" ~Rudyard Kipling my gallery
I avoid paying the non machineable charge on a square card by putting it in an acceptable size envelope. For example, if it is less than a 5" square I use an A6 envelope and cut a piece of cardstock to fill the extra space in the envelope. A larger square usually fits into an A7 envelope. Always put the cardstock piece on the return address edge because it seems to go through the machines better. I check with my local post office and this is an acceptable solution. Avoids a lot of extra postage.
Here in Canada we have been paying over 60 to mail a regular card and now they are talking of raising the price. If you buy stamps in bulk you will save, but if you only buy one stamp at a time it could cost you a $1.00. They are also talking about stopping home delivery and putting mail boxes in community areas where you would have to go to pick up your mail.
It seems that the post office is just running off customers by upping the postage occasionally. People think postage is to high and just email their letters and ecards instead.
I like the idea of opening the mail box and finding treasured, handmade cards so I will absorb the added cost of postage.
We have it so good in the US. Compared to other countries' postage rates, you can't beat the cost of mailing a letter in the US. It's like the gas prices. Why not just set the price a tad higher than "just meeting costs" so that you won't have increases in postage as frequently (and doing the same with gas prices would avoid the yo-yoing cost of a gallon of gas). It's a psychological win.
It means that the envelope could get caught up in the machine. If the picture in my mind is correct, it's like a belt and the envelopes pass through at a rapid speed. If there is a bump or something that could get caught up and stop the rapid flow of mail, it can mangle the envelope or card inside. So they have to be hand processed. I hope I explained that well
The funny thing is, earlier this month my mother (who lives with us) received a mangled envelope enclosed in a Post Office "We Care" holder. It was a check from the renter of her old house. Nothing else was in the envelope - just the check. Half of the envelope and check were completely obliterated. Guess it was "non-machinable", huh?
I really don't mind spending a little bit more on Postage stamps. However I did get a lot of the Forever stamps. So I'm set for a while....Or unless I mail out a lot of cards.
The funny thing is, earlier this month my mother (who lives with us) received a mangled envelope enclosed in a Post Office "We Care" holder. It was a check from the renter of her old house. Nothing else was in the envelope - just the check. Half of the envelope and check were completely obliterated. Guess it was "non-machinable", huh?
Mary
It probably got stuck when another letter got stuck. Sometimes one letter will get stuck, and then the following two or three letters get rammed into that first letter. And SOMETIMES it's just the dang machine which ain't working right and then perfectly good, totally-machineable mail gets jammed!!
So no one has touched on Canada yet. Our basic letter mail rate is 63c right now. I think that's about 9x7" and 5mm, 1/4" thick. 1oz, 30gm. With our rate increase in a month or so, it will jump to 85c PLUS 13% tax mind you, IF you buy a book of 10. Buy a single stamp and it's $1!! That's a 40% increase where it's never gone up more than 2-3 c before and we've never had a separate price for a single stamp before. I can only imagine what will happen to other prices such as for packages.
This is just after we've found out that all mail service except for businesses is ending. Mine already has for most of my life as all homes built after 1980something were given a neighborhood drop box at which to pick up their mail. Now everyone is being given that 'luxury'! Ha! Ugh! So drastically reduced service at extremely increased prices. Fabulous.
don't just mail cards, I also swap matchboxes, packages and other items on Swap-bot.com and I'm going to have to severely curtail my swapping because of this. It really sucks.
One tip I have for making packages/letters cheaper is spreading out what's inside and making it thinner. For instance, if you are sending socks. You can send them in a square box, balled up for a package rate. Or you can lay them out, side by side between two layers of cheap Cardstock in a flat envelope and send them as letter mail for 1/8 of the cost! Letter mail envelope sizes are thin but large so use the size available to you!
If you decorate the inside of your card, it might be weird, but maybe send it open to keep it under letter mail thickness? If the person loves you and knows you are strapped or would rather put your money into buying crafts, then they will understand. My friends would. Especially since the difference can be $5-8 overseas!
Hope that helps.
__________________ RebeccaEdnie Mixed Media Artist, Paper Crafter, Jewelry Designer SCSDirtyDozenAlumni Www.Boxofchocolatescrafts.Com YouNeverKnowWhatI’mGoingtoMake
I have noticed that my local PO's have become really strict about the size of my cards--they charged me $2.30 for a 5.5 card (a wee bit chunky--all paper doodads--but not really heavy) They claimed it had to go {parcel post} I inquired...what happened to the {large envelope option} They said it was not "bendable"? Last time I mailed a card like this it cost me .66 cents...are they ripping us off?
__________________ I love creating something...from nothing! Susanne
I have noticed that my local PO's have become really strict about the size of my cards--they charged me $2.30 for a 5.5 card (a wee bit chunky--all paper doodads--but not really heavy) They claimed it had to go {parcel post} I inquired...what happened to the {large envelope option} They said it was not "bendable"? Last time I mailed a card like this it cost me .66 cents...are they ripping us off?
After reading all the remarks on this thread and with my own exerience I would say that our Post Offices aren't totally consistent with their charges. I put 2 forever stamps on my 5.5, fairly narrow card-just a little bow in it..not bulky, and it went through just fine. Then different times hubby or I have gone inside the PO and they charged us 2.30 to mail the exact same thing. So, the last few times mailing out cards I just put on 2 Forever with the same results. All the cards were under the 6" change of price. 6x6 you pay through the nose. So, I fold those envelopes down one half inch and I don't have problems. None of my cards have come back and I do mail out quite a few frequently. I just don't put heavy embellishments, pins, big bulky flowers, etc on these. I hand those types out in person. Once in a great while I will package those cards in the bubble wrap envelopes with a piece of chip board on the front side of the card to protect it from the PO's machines at which time I do pay top postage.
Location: along the bluffs of the Upper Mississippi River
Posts: 4,146
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I know this has been discussed before, but I have had different post offices charge different amounts for the same card. That is a bit frustrating!
Oooops! Looks like that was just discussed right before me!
That said I never, ever have a problem paying extra for thicker cards or those with embellishments. I figure all the $$$ I have spent on supplies, all the time that is invested in making cards, and the win-win happiness I get from masking the cards and the happiness the recipient gets when the card arrives makes the postage inconsequential.
After reading the above post......$2.30 would be way out of my league! The inconsequential amount for me must be around $1.00!
__________________ All I want is the chance to prove money won't make me happy!
Last edited by Allistamps123; 02-04-2014 at 01:15 AM..
Postage Increase This Weekend
