The cost of a first-class stamp goes up to 44 cents today, an increase of roughly 5%.
The rate for mailing postcards increases 4% to 28 cents.
Across the country tens of thousands of real estate agents are lamenting their increased costs of business as they ponder the impact of the price increases to mail out all those recipe cards, sports schedules and “I’m Your Neighborhood Expert!” postcards.
Of note, the cost of marketing and prospecting on the Internet remains unchanged.
For some reason, I find it funny that the first official stamps at the 44 cent rate feature cartoon characters – The Simpsons.
If you bought “Forever” stamps in the past at lower rates, they can still be used for mailing at the new rates. If you’ve only got “old” 42 cent stamps lying around, don’t be silly and stick two of those on one envelope. Instead get thee to a post office and buy some two-cent stamps.
You may be saying to yourself, “Why it seems like postage rates go up every year!”, and lately that has indeed been the case. Here is the postage rate increase history for the current millennium:
Postage cost on January 1, 2000 – 33 cents
Subsequent first-class postage increases:
July 1, 2001 – 34 cents
June 30, 2002 – 37 cents
January 8, 2006 – 39 cents
May 14, 2007 – 41 cents
May 12, 2008 – 42 cents
May 11, 2009 – 44 cents
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Its sad that the Postal Service has to keep jacking up the rates to survive. Though, they are a fairly unsustainable business that needs a lot of updating in order to stay viable and keep low prices. They just “went digital” a few years back, yet they are still years and years behind the supply chain technology that is available these days. Try a new system, you would be amazed how much money you save when you make everything more computerized and efficient.
**Portland Real Estate´s last blog post..Russell Street Bar-B-Que: NE Portland
How classic that the increase includes cartoon characters. Like that will help take the increasing pain away. I hope the government keeps up the good work on giving us bad news with colorful cartoon characters.
As an agent with a robust absentee-owner database, these rate hikes have a direct and immediate impact on my bottom line. I send on average 500 letters a month, so my costs just went up roughly 5% too. Makes me think of Homer’s “DOH!”
**Joe´s last blog post..April Showers, May Flowers?
Joe – don’t the vast majority of those 500 have email addresses? Ask them. Tell them you are “going green” and eliminating (or greatly reducing) postal mail…
The same stamp is 52 cents in Canada now I think. I don’t know because they seem to raise the price every time I check and I don’t personally buy them. It seems a little pricy to send a Thank-you card up the street!
Wow, I had not realized the price of your postage had gone up the last three years in a row; though now your price is getting close to ours-I think ours would be about .72 cents in US currency.
I remember when stamps were 25 cents…that was rather nice when a quarter covered it. I wonder how long it will be before it hits 50 cents…though hopefully the prices don’t continue to go up every year from here on out!
**Meg Zoller-Houston Realtor´s last blog post..Houston Real Estate Reaps Benefits of Statewide Population Growth
It is funny how I was just thinking the price of stamps are always going up, but reading your post reminded me they had not increased from 02 to 06. Maybe this will be the last increase for awhile…
A smart idea to avoid the postage hike impact on our bottom line is by simply saying we are “going green” and going to email for everything and sending pdf files instead of actual info packages.
**Margaret Safford-Metro Atlanta Real Estate´s last blog post..Does the Metro Atlanta Real Estate Market Mimic the New HGTV Shows?
I was about to send a mailout and I realized too late stamps increased. I wish I bought a few thousand forever stamps.
It seems postage increases are outpacing inflation. I dont know what has gotten more expensive about the postal system.
**Jill´s last blog post..Home Sales increase from February, but down from March 2008
I haven’t mailed a letter in over a month, didn’t know anyone was still doing that…Bills are paid online, clients are emailed, contracts are faxed or emailed, mass mailing is worthless when you blog and 80+% of buyers start their search on the net – Yes the post office is out of date, but so are you if you rely on them. PS – My wife still communicates with her grandfather with a letter every week, but he’s 80.
I enjoy letters-there is just something so nice and personal about writting and receiving letters rather than email; however, the time I take to hand write an letter is usually reserved for very important people, like family and friends, so the increase in cost isn’t going to bother me any.
**MaryAnn Knell-Peoria Real Estate´s last blog post..Help for Peoria’s Homeowners
Uh oh…I am one of the guilty (i.e….lazy) ones that stick on 2 stamps instead of taking the time to go to the post office and get some 2 cent stamps. I always have rolls of stamps laying around and when I need one (rarely anymore) then I just stick on 2 stamps. Lazy AND stupid, I admit!
Had buy stamps Friday, and have to admit that the fun Simpsons stamps did ease the pain of the cost for a couple of books…hahah!
It is funny how the price of certain things can annoy people-when you think about how amazing the mail system really is, 44 cents doesn’t seem that much.
The increase of 11cents for 9 years. That is about 33% increase for 9 years. It is not an increase like oil price does. Luckily, government have some funding goes to this channel.
**Atniz´s last blog post..How To Find High PR .Edu and .Gov Dofollow Blogs
I used to work for the post office for eight years; I do not believe that they will be able to survive especially with so many people choosing to the internet as a way to do their business. overcome panic attacks
The post office will never go out of business. And it really is not such a bad deal anyway. Think about it; you can send a letter all the way across the country for just 44 cents – that’s pretty cheap in my book. What Are Panic Attack