US Post Office: Two Delightful Items

[jesse_the_k]

ForeverStamp.com
is "a little web site designed to make your life simpler by tracking the price of a stamp by Christopher Maxwell."

Since 2007, the United States Postal Service had been selling a non-denominated stamp for first class postage. It’s labelled the forever stamp, and it insulates casual mailers from thinking about the cost to send a letter.

While the stamp doesn’t list its value, you can still use it, at its current price, to mail other items. Finding anything is challenging at the official USPS official home—this site provides a convenient alternative, as well as the stamp’s history and answers to questions you didn’t know you had.

tl;dr (Don’t stockpile more than a year’s worth.)

---

I just learned about USPS Dogs, a Facebook group where critter-loving postal carriers show pictures of friends (canine, feline, equine, etc) they meet on the job.

In the cut: a pair of human hands holds a small gray and white dog above a patch of snow. The dog has stubby legs, random black speckles, white-blue irises, a longer-than typical bulldog-like nose, and huge erect ears (larger than their head). I suspect it’s the result of a lively encounter between an Australian Cattle Dog and an English Bulldog.

Comments

[sonia]

Thanks for the link to foreverstamp.com! Lots of good information there that I've had cause to go digging around for on the usps site before.

I do have more than a year's stamps stockpiled, because I bought dragon, national park, and rivers stamps when they came out. I don't think that's a problem, since I'm not "investing," just buying the ones I like. Not looking to sell them at a profit, either!

[jesse_the_k]

Yeah, I was boggled at the idea that someone would think Forever stamps were an investment opportunity!

My faves right now are Marvin Gaye and the paper cut ones. When I wasn't looking USPS starting making stamps I actually like!

[boxofdelights]

That is one ridiculous-looking animal. Can we be sure it isn't Middle-Aged Yoda?

[jesse_the_k]

THAT'S IT!

[esteefee]

I love my forever stamps. I have a whole ton in a variety of flavors: women in STEM, luminescent marine life, sharks, johnny cash, star trek, batman... :) I don't think it matters that you buy more than a year's worth as long as you keep using them as first-class postage for letters?

[jesse_the_k]

Not only can you use 'em for letters, if you're sending a big enough box you can pay your parcel post with 'em.

Luminscent marine life -- waaaaa! I bet they only sell those in cool cities on the coast.

[dogstar]

Pssst - this dog is a Frenchie cross. :) (FrenchBulldog, rather than english- shows inthe shape of the skull and the less-deformed front assembly than EBs tend to have).He's merle, not ticked (ticking is the color pattern found in ACDs/heelers as well as some spaniel breeds like English cockers, German Shorthaired Pointers, and related to the pattern that causes spotting in Dalmatians.)

Merle is a trendy color that has been crossbred into the breed (probably via Chihuahua). It's controversial not just because it's not native to the breed but because when two merles are bred together, the homozygous offspring (this guy is a heterozygous merle with one copy of the gene) may be born with really severe issues. (like, lack of eyeballs, deafness, etc). Merle is also 'covered up' because it only affects one type of pigment (the black/brown/blue/lilac eumelanin) and not red/golden/blonde (phaeomelanin) so it can be very hard to spot on phaeomelanin based colors like fawn, sable, golden, buff, etc.

This guy is a dilute (grey/blue pigment rather than black) as well, which is another trendy color not traditionally accepted in the breed, as it's associated with some immune issues and hair loss (Color Dilution Alopecia, specifically). It's a very striking pattern, though!

That's me educated!

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.