SCOTT JAGOW: This morning, postal regulators will likely recommend another increase in the price of stamps — 3 cents this time to 42 cents. But they might also recommend a new stamp. One that’d be good no matter how much the price of stamps goes up. Pat Loeb reports.
PAT LOEB: The Post Office is calling the stamp the “forever” stamp because it would be good, well . . . forever.
You’d buy one at the prevailing rate — right now, that’s 39 cents — and you could use it, any time, no matter how high stamp prices get. That means no more running out for new stamps when the price goes up, or having to buy those 1-cent stamps.
It’s a good deal for the Post Office, too. It costs more than a penny to print and sell a penny stamp so there will be an immediate savings. And Commission Chairman Dan Blair says the “forever” stamp might encourage consumers to stock up.
DAN BLAIR: If you paid 39 cents today and didn’t use that stamp until a year from now or two years from now, the Postal Service got the benefit of that 39 cents earlier than when the service would have actually been used.
The Commission’s recommendations go to the Board of Governors, who will make the final decision this spring.
I’m Pat Loeb for Marketplace.