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A comment on USPS shuts down site that sold 5M counterfeit postage labels for $2 each. Parent comment

Re:USPS shuts down site that sold 5M counterfeit postage lab... by fredoralive on Wednesday September 30, 2026 @02:03AM (#49904979)
“Forever” stamps in US terms are what 1st class / 2nd class stamps have always been in the UK since they appeared in the ‘80s, where they remain valid for a level of service forever. The US went through a weird phase where they had 1st class stamps, but they would only actually be for the monetary value of whatever the 1st class rate was when issued, so if the rate went up you’d have to add extra postage.

The basic split between what has barcodes and what doesn’t it that the everyday “definitive” stamps (both 1st/2nd etc. and those with a direct monetary value) were withdrawn and reissued with barcodes, but commemorative and special stamps weren’t. Basically, stuff sold to stamp collectors to be put in a box and never used on postage doesn’t have them.

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Re:USPS shuts down site that sold 5M counterfeit postage lab... by consp on Wednesday September 30, 2026 @03:09AM (#49905461)
> but they would only actually be for the monetary value of whatever the 1st class rate was when issued, so if the rate went up you’d have to add extra postage.

Reminds me of our monetary stamps. They were the old fashioned monetary value stamps which had a fixed value on it, so when the price hiked you could get 5ct/1ct stamps to add to get to the new rate, fixed value of the stamps stayed the same. People added real money to it since they were not going to buy a full sheet of 5ct stamps for one older one to compensate. And since the mail usually didn't care you sometimes got a free 5ct coin as recipient! (As a kid this was always fun to receive).

Fun thing is that those coins are way heavier than the paper so adding them might get you onto the next cost bracket making the whole excersize pointless.

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Re:USPS shuts down site that sold 5M counterfeit postage lab... by Dylan16807 on Wednesday September 30, 2026 @03:17AM (#49905520)
Stamp value still matters in the US for normal letters because of the janky way extra weight is priced. In particular, the current price of a max-weight letter is two stamps plus 5 cents.
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Re:USPS shuts down site that sold 5M counterfeit postage lab... by royskee on Wednesday September 30, 2026 @09:36AM (#49908758)
But one can get non-denominated extra-ounce stamps (for two ounce, three ounce, or "extra ounce" to use with another stamp) for letters over an ounce https://store.usps.com/store/stamps/additional-ounces/_/N-d7...
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