Stamps!

Last week, I ordered some stamps from the USPS online shop. I love using a variety of stamps to make the envelopes and postcards more interesting. So, I picked out a few new stamps and a few older stamps, some worth 65 cents, some worth 1 cent. I think I had 14 or 15 different types of stamps.

They were delivered to my mailbox within a couple of days for only $1.25 for shipping and handling. That's a great deal!

And, since they arrived, I've been having such fun counting up the correct amount of postage for letters and postcards!

Now, I need to order more of those unused vintage stamps. I love those, too!

Forget "Air Mail," he's talking about "Space Mail"!

U.S. Astronaut Don Pettit has been on the International Space Station for since December 2011. He recently blogged about what his space address would be, if it were possible to send "snail mail" into outer space. You can read his ideas, as well as his other posts from space on Letters to Earth on the NASA Blogs site.

Another postcard!

I received this beautiful postcard featuring scenes of the French Alps from Jean-Michel via www.sendsomething.net. If you love to send and receive mail, and you're not signed up on sendsomething.net, get over there and sign up. (Be sure to read the comments to determine if the addresses are up-to-date.)

International Postage

I was wondering about postage recently...is that too "nerdy"....that I sit around thinking about postage?

Specifically, I was wondering how much a Forever stamp is worth when being used on an international letter.

The concept of the Forever stamp is that you can buy them at the current first-class postage cost, and then if the postage rate goes up, that stamp can still be used to mail a first-class letter to a U.S. address. In the olden days, before the Forever stamp was invented, when postage went up, you had to purchase "additional postage" stamps to add to your first-class stamps so that they would equal the new price. Starting in 2012, all newly issued First Class mail stamps are Forever stamps.

But, the Forever stamps don't have an amount printed on them; just the word "Forever." So, I didn't know if I could use them, in combination with other stamps, to mail international mail. And, I was wondering if they were worth the current price of a postage stamp or if I somehow needed to remember how much they were worth when I bought them.

Thankfully, the U.S. Postal Service doesn't leave much unanswered. I found the answers I was looking for on the MailPro page of the USPS website and in Postal Bulletin 22325, published in December 2011.

According to the Frequently Asked Questions:

Customers can use Forever stamps for international mail, but since all international prices are higher than domestic prices, customers will need to attach additional postage. The value of the Forever stamp is the domestic First-Class Mail 1-ounce letter price in effect on the day of use.

 Through the years, that information has been posted on the USPS website in several locations. According to what I see online, all postal employees may not honor such usage of the Forever stamp (see this note on Zine World), so you might be prepared to purchase additional postage, if necessary.

By the way, I love the way the new Four Flags stamps are designed so that they say "Freedom Forever," "Liberty Forever," "Equality Forever" and "Justice Forever."

Memorial Day holiday

Don't forget...Monday, May 28, 2012, is Memorial Day in the United States, a day of remembrance, honoring all of the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

There will be no mail service on Monday, and post offices will be closed.

Note cards from Tulsa

I came across a story in the Tulsa World about a small greeting card company, Arbor Vitae Cards. Designer and company owner Claire Harkness sounds like an interesting person, and the cards are beautiful! If you go to the website, be sure to download the catalog...it has quite a few more cards than are shown on the website.

New Stamps - Great Film Directors

Today, in Silver Spring, Maryland, the U.S. Postal Service will issue four new stamps featuring "Great Film Directors."

The "Forever" stamps (that means, once you buy them, they can be used to mail a 1-ounce or less letter first class, no matter how much the current postage rate is) cost 45 cents each and are sold in blocks of four or 10 or a sheet of 20.

The four directors featured on the stamps are Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston and Billy Wilde.

For all the details on the Great Film Directors stamps, visit the Beyond the Perf site or the USPS online shop.