think tank forum

so the usps now offers "forever" stamps, stamps that will always be good for first class mail. they cannot be subjected to rate hikes.

so do you think that a market will emerge for trading forever stamps? if we could compare the inflation rate against the trend of postage rates, we could figure out if forever stamps would be a security worthy of investment.

they would be a good inflation hedge, but not a very good investment overall. i once actually made a chart of stamp price in 2006 dollars, and it has been constant for the last 20 to 30 years, except for the discreteness of price changes. I think the USPS consciously tries to keep the stamp price constant in real dollars.

thanks for the info. looks like i'm not investing in forever stamps, then.