Why??? doesn't the post office charge a round number like a multiple of the number 5 for the price of a stamp?

Question

Charging a round number seems much more sensible to me. Then they could sell just one or two stamps at a time without having to mess around with silly pennies or one cent stamps.
I bet that bulk mailing companies get a discount anyway, so why would they care what the price of single one cent stamp is?

Answer 1

they will when it goes up next !

Answer 2

By law the Postal Service is not allowed to turn a profit. It also is forbidden to lose money. Therefore the Postal Rate Commission is only allowed to raise the price of postage to a degree that the USPS will not make any more money than is needed.
Indeed if prices were raised by 5 cents at a time, one would think that prices would have to be raised less often. But, people do have adverse reactions to even an increase of just 2 cents.
It is rare that someone goes into a postal facility and only buys one stamp. Most times people will buy a book of stamps which would be 20 stamps or $6.80. So there really aren't any pennies involved.
Companies do get discounts on 1st class mail depending on the amount of presorting and volume that they do. You will notice that if you get mail from your utility company the 1st class postage can be about 31 cents, maybe even cheaper. And because they use postage meters or postal permits they do not have to deal with the 'penny factor'. By the same token imagine what 3 cents times a million pieces of mail might mean for a company? That would be $30,000 a year, and you can imagine that many large corporations mail far more than 1 million pieces of mail a year.

Answer 3

Because the postal service wants to make it look like they aern't charging much. Also, so that you can use older stamps and add the increments together so you can stil use them.

Bulk mailing companies get permits, not discounts. Non- profit organazations and government get special stamps or permits too.

Some people run small businness, thats why they need stamps to mail letters and ads.

Answer 4

I totally agree with you - I have no clue why they always charge an odd amount for a stamp.

I think I'm going to stock up on the 'one price' stamps, so that I don't ever have to worry about it again!

....wonder how many I should buy.........Wait! I pay my bills online, I correspond with my friends online........I do everything online, so I don't NEED any stamps!

Thanks for jump-starting my brain!

Answer 5

I fully support you on this! And, the message should also spread through the entire manufacturing and service especially finance industry where we still grapple with fractions, ounces, pints and so on whereas the whole world has switched over to the metric system!

Answer 6

i would imagine its due to the fact, if they charged on the even 5,, they would have to increase it 5cents each time an increase happened, and people use to complain about it going up a penny,,,,,,, though your idea does make sense,,,,,,,,,
and nowdays, with many using email and other means, they probably could get away with evening it out,,,,

Answer 7

prices of a stamp involve federal tax as well as the actual price, thats why its not a uniform number.

Answer 8

Good idea, pass it on to the post office. Be cautious it could be the time of the month when he goes postal.

Answer 9

Because it is the Government! Sensibility is not a factor..

Answer 10

To get you to buy more stamps at once.

Answer 11

It's becasue they inch it up a penny or two at a time.