Postage Rates Rise

And, I mean really, who cares? Who cares about the daily home delivery of scraps of paper anymore? If I want to send a personal note to a friend I don't write a letter, I write e-mail. It is faster, cheaper, and more reliable. My mail mostly consists of:

• catalogs from businesses I have never heard of, let alone would I ever buy from them,
• solicitations to donate money to charities I didn't even knew existed,
• solicitations to donate money to charities I gave to once in the distant past and now just won't leave me alone,
• bills from a handful of old-fashioned organizations that have never heard of electronic fund transfers.

I remember from my days working with nonprofits that mail solicitations are mostly a wasted effort. The return rates is about 2% - meaning between the cost of postage, printing and processing those fancy 4-color flyers, and handling the whole mess, the sucker who responds needs to donate at least $20 just to pay for the other 49 people who threw the junk away.

Selected postage rates ~ look here for the full list of rate changes

• Prior to 1958 ~ fluxuates between 2 and 3 cents
• 1958 ~ 4 cents (the penny postcard now costs 3 cents)
  
• 1963 ~ 5 cents
• 1968 ~ 6 cents
• 1971 ~ 8 cents (the first 2 cent rate jump)
• 1975 ~ 13 cents (a 62% increase in 4 years)
• 1978 ~ 15 cents (the penny postcard now costs a dime)
  
• 1991 ~ 29 cents
• 2006 ~ 39 cents
• 2007 ~ 41 cents (postcards now cost 26 pennies)

Although, it could be worse. In Germany in 1921 postage cost 0.60 marks. By November 1923 it cost 80 billion marks to send a letter. This is a 5 billion mark postage stamp.