Stamps for First Class Mail to Increase to 44 Cents in May – Chart of the Day
Soon, it’s going to cost you a little more to mail that 1st class letter.
The USPS today announced the new prices for first-class mail. Effective on May 11, 2009, the postage of a one-ounce first-class mail will be 44 cents, up from the current price of 42 cents. Prices for other mailing services, such as Standard Mail, Periodicals, Package Services (including Parcel Post), and Extra Services, will also be adjusted. The USPS has already increased shipping costs early this year. While you can keep using Forever stamps that you bought early without being affected by the price change, it will cost you 2 cents if you buy a Forever stamp when the new price kicks in. It’s time to buy Forever stamps now if the USPS, as expected, keeps increasing mailing costs.
The Postal Service has changed the price of first-class stamps every year since 2005, with adjustments made based on Consumer Price Index. Using the historical inflation data from 1997 to 2008, I plotted the theoretical postage after the inflation (blue line) against the actual postage (red line) and they came out pretty close. Like the USPS claimed, “the average increase by class of mail is at or below the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.”
Despite the increase in stamp prices, the Postal Service doesn’t seem to be in a good shape either in this economy. Actually, the USPS is considering cut mail delivery from 6 days a week to 5 due to the decline in mail volume. With so many options available, I wonder how many people still use snail mails to communicate nowadays.
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