Pony Express

 Sign seen in Nashville

Discontinued

 Why is USPS showing a stamp on their website that is no longer available, instead of one of the 2024 stamps?

November 31

 From USPS' Postal Bulletin:

Happy November 31 to all who celebrate!

Postage rates go up tomorrow

 It's that time of year - USPS rates increase tomorrow, so if you want to save money today's your last day to buy stamps at the current rate. If you use the largest seller of stamps in the US, the USPS online shop, you only have until 11pm eastern as they'll be performing upgrades to the system.

Rate changes:

First class forever stamp - up 2c to 68c

Postcards within the US - up 2 c to 53c

International postcards and letters up to 1 oz - up 5c to $1.55

Postage increases Sunday, January 22nd

 USPS is increasing most of its prices on Sunday

1 oz letter up 3c to 63c

Additional oz stays the same at +24c per oz

1 oz letter = 63c

2 oz letter = 87c

3 oz letter = $1.11

3.5 oz letter (the max weight for a letter) =  $1.35

Non-machineable surcharge up 1c to +40c. Non-machineable is a non-rectangular or non-flexible piece that won't bend as it goes through the sorting machines.

1 oz non-machineable letter = $1.03 

2 oz non-machineable letter = $1.27

3 oz non-machineable letter = $1.51

3.5 oz non-machineable letter = $1.75

Domestic postcard up 4c to 48c

International mail 1oz letters and postcards up 5c to $1.45

***

You can purchase stamps at the current price until Saturday, however if you're buying online note that the USPS website will be down from 11pm eastern time (8pm pacific) for maintenance.

Most other categories of mail (large envelopes, packages, etc) are going up as well. Check online or at your post office.

***

These otters and flowers look happier in the snow than I will be later this weekend - stay safe if you're subject to a storm in the next few days.

Recycled Christmas mail

I recycled the sides of a USPS box as four Christmas 'postcards'. I have yet to find out if they made it to their destinations...

Update Jan 14 - one has been received in France.

Update Feb 25 - the one to the UK also arrived intact.

Hope you get something you like tomorrow...

Last year the front cover of the Christmas Eve USPS Postal Bulletin had an amusing cover.

Merry Christmas Eve! And if you don't celebrate, have a peaceful day today and tomorrow.

Oz Mega Win

This showed up on my phone when I was playing words with friends.

 Screen captured (but not downloaded) and sent to Eva inside this envelope. Front:

And back:

___________________________________

Bonus reblog.

Last year I sent another Oz piece to Eva. Recently Eva showed the stamped side.

I find the GIANT cancellation fascinating. I have never seen anything like that before. Also entertaining that it ended up in the wrong corner, leaving the stamps unmarked. They even managed to escape the dreaded sharpie.

Update!

Eva forwarded a picture of another received large postcard where the giant cancellation is in the correct position. I wonder if this is for larger pieces of mail that USPS classifies as 'flats'.

And here's the close up

Thanks, Eva!

Starling Wars - The Birds Awaken

Stripy goose sent me this fantastic piece of mail art.

It was too big to fit through the letter box... and either Royal Mail or USPS had done a great job of keeping the stamps and mail together.

The back:

The Birds Awaken....

And a bonus card!

Thanks for the out of this world mail art!

BBC and MissiveMaven articles on the allure of sending mail

The BBC recently had an article about mailing letters.

MissiveMaven also blogged about the same article.

And if you look at an earlier post on MM's blog, she has reblogged a neat graphic showing some of the new postal rates for USPS.