Realcent.org

I ran across this on the postal website. May be something for you penny shippers to get bought before the next big jump in prices.

http://uspsstore.stamps.com/Store/catal ... navCount=1 (medium flat rate forever $11.35)

http://uspsstore.stamps.com/Store/catal ... navCount=1 (large flat rate forever $15.45 each)

Good til bankruptcy

inflationhawk wrote:Good til bankruptcy

Awesome point, HAWK.

Doesn't do me any good It's only available to Americans.

[Any posties around here? If so, you've just got the Unbelievable Complaint. "Some crazy Canuck is whining about how he wants to hand over his money to us but we won't let him."]

Do you realize that 78% of those who get welfare don't have bank accounts, how can the USPS go bankrupt if so many can't get paid?

Elcid69 wrote:Do you realize that 78% of those who get welfare don't have bank accounts, how can the USPS go bankrupt if so many can't get paid?

Baahahaha... No wait, that's kind of not funny...

Just another band-aid on a gaping wound. The purpose of these prepaid boxes is to raise funds, short term, in an attempt to give the appearance of increased revenues. Once a few months have passed, and the larger users of the FRBs have laid in a good supply, the sales will drop considerably, revealing the short sightedness of the plan. This will likely coincide with a general rate increase request to the Postal Rate Commission. Just my opinion.

crazypennyguy wrote:Doesn't do me any good It's only available to Americans.

[Any posties around here? If so, you've just got the Unbelievable Complaint. "Some crazy Canuck is whining about how he wants to hand over his money to us but we won't let him."]

Have them shipped to your favorite US Post office "general delivery" or to your PO Box. I'd buy some but I don't ship much.
'

JadeDragon wrote:

crazypennyguy wrote:Doesn't do me any good It's only available to Americans.

[Any posties around here? If so, you've just got the Unbelievable Complaint. "Some crazy Canuck is whining about how he wants to hand over his money to us but we won't let him."]

Have them shipped to your favorite US Post office "general delivery" or to your PO Box. I'd buy some but I don't ship much.
'

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'd still have to make the physical drive down and back. All in all, I might as well pick up the free boxes and pay on the spot once I get them ready. It works out to be the same thing.

I generally find flat rate boxes to not be the most economoical way to ship things for most people but for bullion, pennies, etc definatley is the way to go. Interesting post never knew they had these.

These are fairly new products. Local PO had heard about them, but did not have any, and did not know if they would get any. PO employee was of the opinion that the PO hopes that many of these prepaid boxes would remain unused, or used for other purposes, thus getting revenue for the PO without providing any shipping or delivery services

You mean like when people buy stamps, then lose them? Or don't use them because the rates go up and they can't be bothered to buy the additional stamp to make up the difference? THAT'S how the post office will make money. Off our laziness and irresponsibility. U! S! A! U! S! A! U! S! A!

Normally I jump on the Bash the USPS Bandwagon early and often. But today I'm chiming in to say that the concept of Forever Postage is genius. Good for the people, good for the Post Office.

It used to royally piss me off when I would have half a book of stamps, rates go up by a penny, then I either have to waste 2 stamps on one envelope or go to the PO and buy a 20 cent book of 1 cent stamps, then I have half a book of left over 1 cent stamps. What pissed me off even more is the fact that I was getting pissed off over the grand sum of a dime or two. I'm sitting here getting pissed off just thinking about it.

Sorry for all the potty talk. But I used to get myself all winded up into a tizzy about it back in the day.

Back before we got our "permanent" stamps here and postage went up I'd go to the PO
and get the exact number I needed to top off what I had in old stamps.

Actually I remember when the GST (Goods and Services Tax) came in I bought a bunch
of stamps the month before it came into effect to get them without paying GST. Of course
the postage rate went up Jan. 1st so I had to top them up. For the next 3 or 4 years until
I used them up I'd go buy 6¢ worth of small stamps at a time so I could buy _those_
without paying GST because that was the maximum I could buy and have the tax round
down to 0¢ rather than up to 1¢. Yes, I had a lot of time on my hands, this was 5-6
years before I had internet. ^_-

Also had to top up for the difference when mailing to the U.S., now I have to buy a stamp
specifically for that as the "P" stamps aren't eligable for topping up for the difference so
I can't keep an assortment of stamps on hand to assmble into what's needed. Of course
I send a lot fewer letters nowadays anyways since the outbound portion of a mail order
transaction is submitted online with a debit or credit card nowadays. Only really have to
mail a check/cash if it's with annother individual and I haven't done that in quite a while.

If the U.S. Post Office needs some extra cash they have some interesting assets they could
sell off or rent out:

http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-56-0-0-0-1/pft
http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-192-102-241-0-1.html

The class A is a bit on the big side unless you are a major internet provider, however even
that class C could be handy for a small organization that needs to multi-home their network.

Ironically these are some of the most underused IP blocks around because although
usps.gov is hosted in their class A, usps.com is hosted on an outsource provider,
plus they seem to have a whole bunch of addresses reassigned to them from AT&T,
NASA, other organizations instead of just using the addresses in their own blocks.