TLP: Mail Doesn’t Really Matter Anymore, Postal Service Just Wants to Sell Stamps

All mail to JDA must carry this stamp

The Postal Service is worse than broke, can’t seem to keep a regular delivery schedule and is due for an a*s-whipping from the Republicans. And since the last request for a rate increase was rejected, maybe the answer is to just print more stamps and sell them to collectors. Whatever the price actually is.

NYT:

About 70 new stamp designs that the United States Postal Service plans to issue this year will commemorate familiar themes and subjects: famous people, historic events, America’s cultural heritage and holidays. But in a twist, nearly every new first-class stamp will bear the word “Forever” in place of a monetary denomination, and will remain valid regardless of any price increases.

President Ronald Reagan, former Representative Barbara Jordan, the actor Gregory Peck and the singer Selena are all due to be honored on stamps in 2011, along with the Lunar New Year, the Indianapolis 500, jazz music, American industrial designers and the 150th anniversaries of Kansas’ statehood and the outbreak of the Civil War.

The volume of first-class mail has declined precipitously in recent years, but collecting stamps is still big business.

The Postal Service reported delivering 170 billion pieces of mail in the year ending Sept. 30, down from 202 billion two years earlier. It also reported a net loss of $8.5 billion. But the sale of stamps to collectors brought in an estimated $300 million last year, said Roy A. Betts, a Postal Service spokesman. In 2005, collectors bought about $200 million worth of stamps.

Who knows, maybe they can print their way out of this mess. It seems to be an idea that’s popular in Washington. And if anyone wants to slap one on a letter, maybe that will work, too.

Originally published at Jr. Deputy Accountant, TLP: Mail Doesn’t Really Matter Anymore, Postal Service Just Wants to Sell Stamps