Wednesday, December 14, 2005

USPS.Com--A Little Holiday Blessing

And while I'm on the subject of holiday cards...

I notice that I'm almost out of stamps, but I'm hesitant to get more, because the price is going up to $.39 next month, and I hate fiddling with 2-cent stamps. I don't even use that many stamps most of the time, because I do a lot of online banking, and most of my personal correspondence occurs electronically (birthday cards being a notable exception).

But whatever I decide, re: stamp purchasing, I will use the wonderful U.S. Postal Service site. You can choose from every available stamp, not just what's at your local P.O. You can choose by format--rolls! sheets! first-day covers!--or by subject matter, newness of issue, or amount of postage. It's a wonderland of stamps, even for those of us whose depth of knowledge about philately extends to, "Um--what pretty stamps do you have today?"

Your whole order costs just a dollar to ship, and it arrives in your home mailbox after a couple of days. Beats a trip to the post office (which seems silly just to buy stamps), and it's only 50 cents more than my bank charges for buying stamps through the ATM. Plus, you don't get the pretty stamps from the ATM. Flags, usually. Boring flags.

I've also begun printing postage-paid priority mail labels for my holiday packages. You just enter the info, print it out on plain paper (comes with barcodes and everything), and stick it on with that clear mailing tape that you probably already have lying around anyway. (Doesn't everyone at this time of year?) Then, toss it any any postal box (or, in my case, the office outgoing mail bin). Again, no trips to the P.O. Last year, when I had some big boxes to ship, I even used that service where you request a postal pickup, leave your packages on the porch (or wherever) and they'll come and get 'em.

Convenience, thy name is Internet. Ironic that it's so helpful for snail-mail, too.

2 Comments:

Blogger Alison Rose said...

No withholding, I swear! They just announced the rate change last month. They do that to keep us from rioting, I think. If we had time to plan a riot, we just might do it.

On the other hand, the 2-cent stamp with Navajo jewelry (first introduced a couple of years ago as an additional postage stamp) is quite beautiful. You can see it at http://shop.usps.com/cgi-bin/vsbv/postal_store_non_ssl/display_products/productDetail.jsp?OID=4849297

On the other hand, given my aversion to troublesome extra postage stamps, I'm hoping never to actually own any of them. But if I had 200 stamps, I'd stock up, too! :-)

On another note, glad to see you're posting again!

10:26 AM  
Blogger jewelry said...

I like your site!! I invite you to take a tour on my jewelry website, and if should more information is required. http://www.or-jewellery.com

11:03 PM  

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