USPS forever stamps cheeep... How?...Why?

[rphillips]

I just saw today, the price of USPS first class postage stamps are going up again, from .60 to .63. I've been buying stamps, appx. past couple of yrs, for appx. 30% less than what they cost at Post Office. Right now on ebay... 100 first class forever stamps $39.00, that's .39 for a .60 stamp. Seller has 100% feedback, which means nobody has had a problem with these stamps. Not just ebay, they're all over the computers for sale... What's the heck is going on.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Not to worry. Our taxes cover the deficit of the USPS, and apparently has for years.

https://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/usps-uses-18-billion-in-taxpayer-subsidies-to-subsidize-junk-mail-killing-100-million-trees-and-irritating-millions/

[rphillips]

Maybe??? Are you say'in, USPS is selling old unsold stamps, to someone else, cheap enough they can sell them to the public for 30% less than face value. When the USPS could be destroying old unsold stamps then selling present stamps at face value... yep, I see how that would make sense to the USPS..... No really, does anyone know how and why these stamps are available for such a price? I've not been able to find any info. on them.

[Baatfam]

Just an investment. You could do it.
Go buy $10,000.00 worth of $0.60 stamps today, wait ten years or so for it to get to $0.90, but sell yours for $0.80 and make a profit.

[rphillips]

Thanks Bob,, that may be close, but the first forever stamps in 2007 were .41, now .39 and cheaper if you shop a little. Just looked at ebay, 2022 sealed rolls, still has the USPS seals on them, of 100 forever stamps for $40... .40 ea. They cost $60 pr. roll, .60 ea. at the Post Office in 2022.... Probably bunches of speculations, but got to be an almost legit. answer out there... Looked through ebay's listing of completed items, cheapest I saw was 10 rolls (1000 stamps) for $175.00.... 17 1/2 cents per stamp, close to cost 40 yrs. ago, 1981 stamps were .18

[Baatfam]

Thanks Bob,, that may be close, but the first forever stamps in 2007 were .41, now .39 and cheaper if you shop a little. Just looked at ebay, 2022 sealed rolls, still has the USPS seals on them, of 100 forever stamps for $40... .40 ea. They cost $60 pr. roll, .60 ea. at the Post Office in 2022.... Probably bunches of speculations, but got to be an almost legit. answer out there... Looked through ebay's listing of completed items, cheapest I saw was 10 rolls (1000 stamps) for $175.00.... 17 1/2 cents per stamp, close to cost 40 yrs. ago, 1981 stamps were .18

OK....So that ain't it.
Maybe stolen? Or maybe grandma passed away and had a mountain of them squirreled away? Don't know...

[rphillips]

Still thinking there is a legit answer, something that may not seem legit to the general public, but legit to the USPS.... Either would be interesting to know.

[Cipher]

Counterfeits.
my god I have used penny stamps.

[rphillips]

Yes possibly. You could have mailed a post card for .01 or a letter for .03 if you were around back in 1951, 1952 rates went up. And yes I've read the info on Beware of counterfeit stamps, but personally haven't been in contact with anyone who has got scammed by them.

[Cipher]

Yes possibly. You could have mailed a post card for .01 or a letter for .03 if you were around back in 1951, 1952 rates went up. And yes I've read the info on Beware of counterfeit stamps, but personally haven't been in contact with anyone who has got scammed by them.

makes you wonder just how much definition a high speed sorter can examine when a letter is flying through it.
Years ago with the advent of the Video Lottery Terminals and the later adoption of bill readers in them it was always a point of wonder among us if a high dpi printer could fool them.
drop in 500 play down then cash out.
dangerous thing
especially if the machines had a camera to capture an image of th euser. and possibly a silent alarm to roll cops to your seat if a phoney was detected.

many years ago in a retail setting a guy paid with two fifties using the over under good on top trick. But the under bill was waxy and undefined clearly a bodge done on a high end wax printer.
I looked him in the eye and said if you have another fifty I'll finish the sale. He never raised protest just produced a genuine bill and was on his way. Not a known customer to us clearly traveling passing phony bills. But you'd have to have no eyes or finger tips to let it by. Handling a great volume of cash gives a fell for the texture mass flexibility and undulations of the intaglio printing.
I never got a phony tilled a million plus in my sorry career.

[rphillips]

Never seeing nor knowing anyone who has seen a fake postage stamp, I have no idea how orig. they look or feel. Glad you didn't get scammed with the fake $50.

[Cipher]

Never seeing nor knowing anyone who has seen a fake postage stamp, I have no idea how orig. they look or feel. Glad you didn't get scammed with the fake $50.

Well Wed just stuff in the deposit bag with 150 grand in cash and let the bank take the hit. And us a crown corporation at that.

[kerrfunk]

Seems like counterfeiting postage stamps would not be particularly difficult, and also not particularly lucrative. Seems to me.

I think one of the reasons for "FOREVER" stamps is so the USPS doesn't have to create and sell millions of three-cent stamps every time they raise the stamp price.
Like it's easier to eat the difference than to pay for the remedy.

I don't need hundreds of stamps, yknow?

[rphillips]

I've wondered if all these cheap stamps may be counterfeit, but the USPS sorting machines aren't sophisticated enough to kick them out. But the numbers being sold, that doesn't seem logical either, and like you it wouldn't seem lucrative to counterfeit stamps..... Got to be a logical explanation somewhere.

[Cipher]

Seems like counterfeiting postage stamps would not be particularly difficult, and also not particularly lucrative. Seems to me.

I think one of the reasons for "FOREVER" stamps is so the USPS doesn't have to create and sell millions of three-cent stamps every time they raise the stamp price.
Like it's easier to eat the difference than to pay for the remedy.

I don't need hundreds of stamps, yknow?

Even subway tokens get counterfeited. Or did. Don't know if anyone uses them snymore