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Comment by skrebbel | Hacker News Reader

It works real well for people like me who don’t send physical mail often. Just pay online and write the code onto an envelope with a pen.

I love the simplicity.

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For me too.

I used to have a sheet of stamps lying around. Often only one was used. Then those would "expire" after years, in the sense that (yearly?) tariff-increasments would invalidate the "now too cheap" ones. I then had to buy additional special ones to compensate for the price.

Digital is the way forward and this is a perfect example of simple digital to analog. It works fantastic.

Generally there are also non-denominated "forever" stamps available whose real value will remain the same despite changing rates.

I assume you're talking about the US? I thought that nowadays all US postal stamps are "forever" ones as of several years ago, but maybe it's just the post offices around where I've lived that don't bother selling the "temporary" ones.

I’m talking worldwide (I only have first-hand experience about Finland, but they seem common according to Wikipedia)

> maybe it's just the post offices around where I've lived that don't bother selling the "temporary" ones.

Are we talking about US? If so, it might be your office. The one near me tries to sell me all kinds when I actually go in to do stuff. USPS still sells varying rate stamps ranging 1 cent additional postage to $30 priority mail express stamps.

The most common UK First- and second-class stamps (the ones without a price on them, just a "1st" or "2nd") don't expire.

Of course you don't need a stamp, you can purchase postage online.

The monetary ones (1p/2p/50p et al.) don't expire either, you just need to meet the cost at the time you use them. (Exactly like cash in that sense: loses value with inflation, but you can still use what you have, just for less.)

The old stamps with a monetary value you would have to "add" value by adding a stamp if the cost increased (and people were adding 5ct coins as a result). The new ones (1/2 numbered) do not expire and keep their relative value. [1]

1. https://www.postnl.nl/klantenservice/tarieven-postzegels/gel...

I was indeed talking about these old ones.

With the massive price-hike on stamps, buying a 50/100 roll of these many many years ago, this got a great return on investment ;) Though I'll still have enough stamps to last until I die ;)

I never thought those ten $50 rolls of 100 first class (USA) stamps would ever pay for themselves... but last I checked FCM stamps are now 36% more expensive.

Still have five rolls, which is:

>enough stamps to last until I die ;)

BUT the hand-written OP stamps are a great idea!

Ok now I get it. Somehow despite all the detail the Wikipedia article doesn't seem to capture the point of it.

This does lead me to wonder what happens when something gets held up and it's an older code (sir) but it checks out.

You (if you wrote a return address) or the receiver (if you didn't) get a bill that you can either pay or ignore

Very true. Most of all because stamps required value for a letter change often and I always ended up with lots of old stamps which were not enough for a letter anymore, had to buy lots of stamps with very little value to complete, it was anarchy.

(2012, 2016, 2019 and 2022 saw price increases for German post for example…)

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