Category Archives: postal service

Postal Zones Introduced: 1943

Eighty years ago, the U.S. Post Office Department introduced postal zone numbers in the 124 American cities shown here. These were the predecessors of the ZIP Code, introduced 20 years later in 1963.

The number was written after the city, but before the state. When the ZIP code was introduced, these zone numbers became the last two digits of the ZIP.

This list appeared in the October 1943 issue of National Radio News, which reminded readers to use add the code 9 between “Washington” and “D.C.” when mailing lessons and other items to the National Radio Institute.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from OneTubeRadio.com!

For the cynics who believe that the New Year is just a conspiracy by the Big Calendar Companies to sell more calendars, you can beat them at their own game. There are only 14 possible calendars (January 1 falling on Sunday through Saturday, for both regular years and leap years), so it is quite possible to re-use your old calendars.

2023 starts on a Sunday, as did 1911. So rather than spending your money on a new calendar, just print out this perfectly good 1911 calendar, taken from the 1911 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

The book is full of other interesting information, such as the 1911 postal rates:

The distinction between the 1 cent and the 2 cent letter rate is that the 1 cent rate is the “drop letter” rate. It covers letters brought to the post office to be delivered to a customer who picks them up at the same office. But if the office has either local delivery or rural delivery, or if it’s sent to another post office, then the 2 cent rate applies.

The book also contains a description of the 1910 appearance of Halley’s Comet, which I was able to see (albeit barely) in 1986.

Absolutely, Mr. Pitney? Positively, Mr. Bowes.

Arthur Pitney filed a patent application for the first postage meter in 1901, but it wasn’t until he teamed up with Walter Bowes in 1920 that the concept caught on.

The December 1921 issue of Popular Science, featured this image of a postage meter imprint, and the accompanying article starts by asking readers, “have you received a piece of ‘metered mail’ yet?” Apparently, many had not yet received one, but the magazine successfully predicted that they would before long, since “the newly invented postage meter is being adopted by many large companies to speed up their outgoing mail.”

Pitney Bowes Model M. Wikipedia image.

The magazine shows a Pitney-Bowes Model M postage meter, which had received the seal of approval from the U.S. Post Office on September 1, 1920, and which was named in 1986 an “International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark” by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

If you’re like me, you now have this song running through your head. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the 1983 commercial version, but here’s the original from 1922:

We Own the World’s Most Valuable Stamp

We are proud to announce that we are now the owner* of the most valuable stamp in the world, the 1856 British Guiana One Cent Magenta. Prior to our purchase, the most recent sale was for $8.3 million. We, of course, paid a slight premium when we made our purchase this week.

The unassuming scrap of paper rolled off the presses of a newspaper printer in Guiana in 1856, along with a set of four cent stamps. The postmaster had been expecting a delivery of engraved stamps from England, but the shipment was much smaller than expected. Faced with a need for stamps, he contracted the job to a local printer. The one cent stamp was used for only newspapers, and apparently only one example has survived. A Scottish schoolboy found it in his uncle’s papers in 1873, and sold it for six shillings to a collector. Five years later, that collector sold his collection for £120. That collection found its way into a Berlin museum, and was taken by France as war reparations at the end of World War I.

The stamp was sold in 1922 for $32,000. At that sale, the buyer reportedly outbid three kings, including George V. It changed hands a few more times before being purchased by John E. du Pont in 1980 for $935,000. The stamp remained locked in a vault while Du Pont went to prison for murder. When he died in prison, the stamp was sold by the estate for $9.4 million in 2014. In June 2021, it was sold again to British stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons for $8.3 million. It is the most valuable stamp in the world, and by weight, it is the most valuable object in the world. This week, Stanley Gibbons made the sale to me.

*- I should clarify that we do not own the entire stamp. Instead, the dealer Stanley Gibbons sold 80,000 shares of the stamp. The stamp is held in trust, and each share owner owns a 1/80,000 undivided interest. It’s essentially the same as owning one share of a company such as Consolidated Widget. In the future, if I desire, I can sell my share to someone else. Under the terms of the trust, if there is an offer to buy the stamp, the offer must be accepted by 60% of the shareholders.

If you wish to buy a share of the stamp, it is currently in what might be called the Initial Public Offering period. You can purchase a share from Stanley Gibbons at the Showpiece.com platform. If you want to see the stamp before buying, it is on currently on public display until December 18 at 399 Strand, London.

How to Use USPS General Delivery

Occasionally, we need to write about very simple concepts, because we have discovered that those simple concepts are at risk of being lost to the ages. For example, you can find on our website instructions on how to make coffee without electricity.

Another simple concept that many people apparently don’t know about is the concept of General Delivery. Did you know that you can receive a letter or package by snail mail, even if you don’t have your own address? You can, and you can do it at almost any Post Office in the United States, or indeed, in the world?

I mailed the letter shown above to myself, but it didn’t come to my home or business. I picked it up at the Post Office in another state where I don’t live, and have no connection. I did this by mailing it to myself at “General Delivery.” I waited a few days, and then picked it up at the Post Office in the town to which I sent it.

Why You Might Need General Delivery

There are many reasons why someone may need to take advantage of the General Delivery service. When I asked the postal clerk, she said that the most common reason was people who were temporarily between addresses and had to receive mail. For example, someone might move out of one apartment but can’t move into their new home for a few days. In the meantime, they might stay in a hotel or stay with friends. If they don’t know exactly where they are going to be staying, but need to receive mail during this time, they can receive mail by General Delivery.

General Delivery is also useful for people who are traveling. For example, many full-time RV’ers take advantage of General Delivery. If you live in an RV, you probably have a permanent address set up somewhere. But if you decide to order something on Amazon, you will want it sent to you on the road. If you know exactly where you will be staying, sometimes you can have it sent to the campground or motel. But if you don’t know exactly where you will be staying, you can take advantage of General Delivery.

General Delivery can also be part of an outdoor experience. For example, hikers hiking a long distance, such as thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail can arrange to have supplies such as food and clothing mailed to them at towns along the trail.

One way to send money to a stranded traveler is to send them a Postal Money Order via General Delivery. They can usually cash the money order right at the Post Office. (For more information on money orders, see my Money Order Basics page.)

If you are ever relocated due to a natural disaster or emergency, General Delivery could be an important way to stay in touch. If you are displaced, you can ask friends to send you needed items or even money by General Delivery to the closest Post Office. After a disaster, the Post Office is often one of the first services to re-emerge. And in outlying areas away from the disaster, it will probably continue to operate without interruption. If you are forced to relocate, then General Delivery can provide you with a needed mailing address.

There might be situations where someone needs to receive mail without the knowledge of their roommates or nosy neighbors. If so, they can arrange to have the item sent by General Delivery. Or, there might be situations where a service is provided only to persons with an address in a certain ZIP code. A General Delivery address might provide that ZIP code. Finally, General Delivery provides a method for homeless persons to receive mail.

In short, any time you need to receive mail but don’t have an address, you can use a General Delivery address.

How and When To Send General Delivery

Practically anything that can be sent by mail can be sent to General Delivery. It can be a letter or a package. To make sure you get it, you’ll need to make sure that the sender follows these instructions carefully.

First of all, they need to figure out when to mail it. There might be exceptions, but you can generally plan on the Post Office holding the item for about two weeks. If they send the item too late, then it won’t arrive in time. But if they send it too early, then it might be returned to the sender before you pick it up.

In my example above, I mailed the letter from Minneapolis, MN, on a Monday. I went to the Post Office to pick it up on Thursday, but it hadn’t arrived. I went back a week later (a total of 10 days after mailing) and it was there. I would recommend planning on it taking about one week, so have them mail it one week before you plan to pick it up.

If the timing is more critical, then it might be best to send the item by Priority Mail or Express Mail. If you mail early enough in the day, then Express Mail is almost always delivered the next day, almost anywhere in the country.

Finding a Post Office

Next, you need to decide on the Post Office at which you will get the letter. Most Post Offices offer General Delivery, but not all of them do. There are exceptions, but in large cities and their suburbs, General Delivery is available only at the main downtown Post Office. For example, I live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. In Minneapolis and suburbs, the ZIP codes begin with 554. In St. Paul and suburbs, the ZIP codes start with 551. In those suburbs with 551 and 554 ZIP codes, General Delivery is available only at the downtown Post Office. You can’t get general delivery at the neighborhood Post Office. This is true in other cities as well. For example, in Chicago, in any area with a 606 ZIP code, the only place to get General Delivery is the main downtown Post Office.

If you live or work downtown, this is great. But going downtown isn’t particularly convenient for many people these days, so if you are in an urban area, the most convenient place to get General Delivery might be an outlying suburb. In general, if the first three digits of the ZIP code are not the same as the main city Post Office, then that Post Office will have General Delivery service. So in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, most of these outlying suburbs have a ZIP code starting with 550. In general, all of these post offices offer general delivery. Since I had to drive a few miles anyway, I decided to send my experimental General Delivery letter to another state, to Hudson, Wisconsin, ZIP code 54016.

In general, small town Post Offices will have General Delivery available. If you are sending something to a larger city, then you will need to check more carefully on which post office to use.

There are exceptions to all of these rules, so before deciding on a Post Office to use, you should look it up on the USPS website. From the main page, select “Find USPS Locations” from the menu. Then, click on the Post Office you are interested in. The hours will be listed. For larger towns, it will be open about 9:00-5:00 Monday through Friday, and Saturday mornings. Almost all Post Offices will be closed on Sunday. In small towns, the hours might be much more limited, such as just a couple of hours in the morning. So before selecting a Post Office, be sure to check that you will be in that town at a time when the Post Office is open.

Then, scroll down to “Services at this Location.” If General Delivery is offered, it will be shown on this list. If it’s not listed, you’ll need to pick another Post Office.

After confirming that the Post Office offers General Delivery service, scroll to the top of the page, where you will see the address of the Post Office. The street address is shown. You’ll obviously need this information later, so that you can find the Post Office to get your letter. The person sending the letter, however, will not need the street address. Instead, they will need the City, State, and first five digits of the ZIP code (but not the last four). So in this example, they will need: HUDSON, WI 54016

Addressing the Letter

Once you have found a Post Office where you can get your item, the sender can address the letter or package. The letter should be addressed with your full name. You will need to show identification when you pick up the letter, so make sure the letter is addressed to your real name, and not a nickname. The second line of the address should be: GENERAL DELIVERY. The third line of the address should be the City, State, and ZIP code. The nine-digit zip code for General Delivery always ends in -9999. So they should include this after the five digit ZIP. So in the example above, the ZIP code is 54016-9999.

Here’s an example of the address. You are sending a letter to John Q. Public, and he will pick it up at the main Post Office in New York City at 421 8th Avenue:

John Q. Public
General Delivery
New York, NY  10001-9999

Make sure the sender includes their return address. If something goes wrong, the letter will be returned to them. Of course, they should make sure to include enough postage, which they can calculate online. If it’s a small item they’re sending, the postage for a letter of up to one ounce is 63 cents (as of April 2023), or one “Forever” stamp. (For information on how to buy stamps, see our Buying Stamps During Quarantine page.)

Picking Up Your Item

After you have given enough time for your letter or package to arrive, you simply go to the Post Office to which it was sent. Just tell the clerk that you are expecting a General Delivery letter or package. They’ll go to the back room, and if it’s arrived, they will bring it out. You will need to show identification. When I picked up my letter, my out-of-state driver’s license was all I needed for ID.

General Delivery in Other Countries

The instructions on this page are specific to the United States, but most other countries offer the same service. So if you are traveling in another country and need to receive mail, you can probably take advantage of this service there. In most other countries, the service is called “Poste Restante”

Other Alternatives

The USPS is not the only way to send items if you don’t have a permanent address. Private delivery services such as UPS and FedEx allow you to pick up packages at fixed locations. However, USPS is still the least expensive. You can send a letter anywhere in the United States for only 55 cents.

And keep in mind that if you are buying an item from Amazon, another alternative is to have it sent to one of their lockers located all over the country.

The USPS official information about General Delivery can be found on their website.

Some links on this website are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after using the link.

1961 Speed Mail

Sixty years ago, the U.S. Post Office tried something that Popular Electronics, in its April 1961 issue, called “Electronic Speed Mail.” The official name for the service was just “Speed Mail,” but it was an early hybrid of electronic mail (or more accurately, facsimile) and snail mail.

The Post Office Department envisioned having centers in 71 cities strategically located across the country. To write a letter that would be delivered the same day, a sender would write the letter on a special form provided by the post office, taking care to write only within the lines. The form was likened to the special “V-Mail” form of World War II, with which letters were microfilmed stateside and delivered to Army Post Offices where they were printed and delivered, or vice versa. In this case, the message form was sealed and deposited into the mails. At the local post office, it was fed in, still sealed, to a facsimile machine. The machine opened the mail, scanned it, and placed it into a sealed container. After the operator was sure that the message had been properly sent, the batch of message forms was destroyed.

The scanned message was then sent via the Echo 1 satellite to the closest post office to the recipient. There, the message was printed and sealed into a window envelope with only the recipient’s address and return address showing. Again, the entire process took place without human eyes seeing the message.

An example of the message blank is shown below. This one bears a message sent from Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield to Vice President Nixon, late in 1960. (Even though the message was sent crosstown in Washington, it was relayed via Chicago to demonstrate the service’s capabilities.)

When the Kennedy Administration took office, newly appointed Postmaster General J. Edward Day (best known for the creation of the ZIP code) was less enamored with the system, and no further efforts were made to promote it. The Western Union Mailgram service (“the impact of a telegram at a fraction of the cost”) was introduced nine years later in 1970, and allowed rapid mail service. Messages were sent by Western Union to the nearest post office, where they were printed and delivered the same day received.

National Postal Museum image.

The USPS Delivers!

We take unwarranted criticism of the U.S. Postal Service very seriously around here. As we reported previously, the Post Office stood ready to serve the nation even after a nuclear war, and during COVID-19 the men and women of the USPS have acted heroically to ensure that the mail goes through. Even when rioters burnt down two post offices in Minneapolis, the Postal Service quickly regrouped to make sure that its customers would continue to receive mail with minimal interruption.

Recently, for political reasons, the USPS has come under intense criticism, the gist of which being that they can’t do anything right. They were allegedly in the process of ripping out all of their sorting machines, and even removing mailboxes. The particular conspiracy theory was that without these sorting machines, they would be unable to deliver millions of ballots. This didn’t make much sense to us, since most ballots in a given locality would all be addressed to the same city or county election office, and wouldn’t require much sorting, by machine or otherwise.

And allegedly, the removal of mailboxes was to prevent voters from sending their ballots. The theory was that a voter would go to a spot where there used to be a mailbox, would see that the mailbox was gone, and then give up in despair. For the theory to work, the voter would have to be too dumb to look for another mailbox, take it to the nearest post office (where they would find a mailbox in the parking lot), give it to their friendly letter carrier, or just take it to the election office themselves. In short, as conspiracy theories go, it wasn’t very plausible, but a lot of people seemed to subscribe to it.

So as an experiment, I decided to test the United States Postal Service. I asked for volunteers on Facebook and NextDoor. I had them send me their address, and I mailed them an honest-to-goodness piece of snail mail. I had ten volunteers, and I asked them to inform me when they received the letter. I mailed the letters from three different locations. Some I mailed from a blue mailbox in front of a local strip mall (one of the boxes that was allegedly being torn out). Some I mailed from the drive-up mailbox in front of my local post office. And some I placed in my own mailbox, and the friendly letter carrier picked them up with the mail.

A small sampling of my letters is shown above. All ten were delivered in a timely fashion. Most of the transit times included a Sunday, but I included it. All ten of the letters were delivered in four days or less. Crosstown letters were delivered in either one or two days (the two day period included a Sunday). I tracked the average speed of each letter (measured by road miles from the center of the two ZIP codes). The slowest traveled an average speed of 0.16 miles per hour (845 feet per hour). That sounds slow, but keep in mind that I dropped it in a box in the afternoon, and there’s no way it could have arrived any earlier than the next day.

The fastest letter got from Minnesota to Maine at an average speed of 19.6 miles per hour. Remember, this included a Sunday, when it presumably didn’t travel at all. It was undoubtedly in multiple trucks during its trip. In my humble opinion, travelling at that speed for a mere 55 cents is an amazing bargain. Letters to Texas and Washington got similar excellent service. The full results are shown in the table below.

All of my letters were addressed by hand, and as my elementary school teachers would attest, my penmanship isn’t the greatest. But the post office managed to sort them. And all of the letters I saw had bar codes printed on them. These would have been printed on the envelopes by an automatic sorting machine, and they are designed to be read by other automatic sorting machines. These, of course, are the automatic sorting machines that the USPS allegedly ripped out and put on the scrap heap. But somehow, my letters all made it through one or more of these allegedly non-existent machines.

In short, the criticism of the USPS is unfounded. As they have done throughout the pandemic, as they have done despite civil unrest, they continue to serve their country proudly.

If you’re wondering about the design on some of the envelopes, I copied the design from a 1944 patriotic cover. (You can see that cover and read more about it at this link.) Just like they do today, during the war, the Post Office Department made sure that they mail went through. I’m sure there were detractors back then, but someone decided to print up some special envelopes to thank their letter carrier for heroic service.

We ought to do the same today. If you haven’t done so recently, thank your letter carrier for his or her hard work. And for the workers behind the scenes, you can invest 55 cents and mail them a thank you card. Just address it to “Postmaster” and your city, state, and ZIP code. I’m sure it will get pinned up to the employee bulletin board. They’ve worked hard to serve you, and they deserve your thanks.

More Sourdough by U.S. Mail

A few months ago, as an experiment, we sent some sourdough starter through the U.S. Mail. We previously posted the results from one recipient. The other sample went to Keith at the Successfully Living Simpler blog, and he posted the results. He claims that he made a “mistake” with the recipe, but I would say that he actually made an “invention” by inadvertently mixing two recipes to make these biscuits.

Early in the pandemic, many people simultaneously decided to take up baking, and yeast became almost impossible to find. But a single package of store-bought yeast has now been used to make bread in three different states. And in my refrigerator, I still have the means to continue making it indefinitely.

Sending Sourdough Yeast by U.S. Mail

Several weeks ago, I wrote about my experiences using sourdough started with commercial yeast. While it’s starting to show up again in supermarkets and it’s apparently now available again on Amazon, yeast is not always available. In a long-term food emergency, that could pose a problem. Flour is inexpensive and plentiful, but in order to turn it into bread, you really need yeast. Fortunately, as I wrote previously, you can grow your own at home. You just need one package of commercial yeast, and you can turn it into an infinite supply.

You can also share your sourdough starter with neighbors. But I wondered whether it was possible to share with people who live further away. I asked for volunteers, and got two. I’ve now heard back from one of them, and it turns out that yes, you can share your yeast with anyone, courtesy of the U.S. Mail.

I spread a thin layer of the sourdough starter, about three inches by three inches, on a piece of parchment paper, and then left it to dry. In a couple of days, I removed it and broke it into two pieces, one for each recipient. I could have just as easily used wax paper, plastic wrap, or even just a plate. After drying, I placed them in plastic sandwich bags, and placed those inside envelopes which I mailed.

My suggestion when they received them was to put it in a glass of sugar water to bring the yeast back to life. Then, use that water in place of some of the water and yeast in a bread recipe.

The loaf of bread shown above was baked by my cousin in Oregon, after she received it in the mail from Minnesota. She did report that the bread didn’t rise as much as expected. But it did rise some, even though it was denser than usual.

This is my experience as well. The yeast that are growing today, the descendants of the ones I started with, aren’t quite as active. It does take longer for bread to rise. But she reported that the bread tasted good.

The other package went to a friend in Alabama. He reported that the yeast survived the trip and came to life when he added sugar water, although I don’t think he’s made any bread with it yet. If he does, I’ll also post the results here as well.

Mail During Quarantine: How to Get Stamps

Quick links:

Buying stamps online
Curbside stamp pickup
Printing postage at home
Other online sources

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

–Herodotus, as carved in stone at the New York Post Office.

The postcard shown above, first issued in 1959, and current for at least two decades thereafter, was a Safety Notification Card (Post Office Department form 810), for use after a civil defense emergency such as a nuclear war. After such an event, the Post Office would be tasked with putting friends and relatives back in touch with one another. On the front of the card, you would write the name and address of those who might be worried about you. On the back, you would sign your name and give the address where you could be reached.

I have no doubt that after Americans emerged from their fallout shelters, the Post Office would use Herculean efforts to deliver these cards, and most of them would go through. The Post Office is one of the things that makes us a country, and thus one of the things over which such a war would have been fought. It’s unthinkable that they would bother with fighting a nuclear war and then decide not to deliver the mail. Under the Constitution, the Congress has the power and duty to establish a Post Office, and a nuclear war doesn’t change that. Neither does a pandemic virus. With very few exceptions, the mails right now continue to flow without interruption during the lockdown. And most of the exceptions come from things outside the control of the U.S. Postal Service. For example, mail service is currently suspended to over a hundred countries, due either to lack of transportation or a shutdown of postal service in the destination country. But the U.S. Postal Service is doing whatever needs to be done to make sure the mail goes through. Even though most international mail has been by air for the past few decades, suspension of flights has prompted the U.S. Postal Service to send mail to Europe by container ship.

In my experience, domestic mail is going through with little delay. I have a forwarding order to have all of my office mail to go to my home, and even forwarded items are arriving, at most, a day or two later than I would have expected them. The postal workers and letter carriers are working hard, and in many cases risking their lives to make sure the mail goes through. Would they have risked their lives delivering post cards across a nuclear battlefield? I have little doubt that they would have. (Say, that might make a good book.)

Much of my work involves getting and sending things in the mail. And with the national emergency, the mail also serves as one of the ways that vital supplies arrive at our house. Yes, some of our food comes by mail.

One practical issue, however, is buying postage. In the pre-COVID time, I had to go to the post office frequently, and when the line was short, I picked up a few weeks’ supply of stamps. Sometimes, I would mail items at the counter, but I would usually just weigh them myself and affix the exact amount of postage required. (If you don’t have a scale, they’re not expensive.) Little has changed in that regard, since I can just leave outgoing mail for the carrier. But getting stamps has become more difficult.

Buying stamps online

At first, I ordered stamps online at the USPS website. Orders are fulfilled at a central location in Kansas City. At first, it worked well, and stamps and stamped envelopes arrived about a week after I ordered them. All denominations are available, and they’re sold at face value with only a small shipping charge. But the most recent order took 2-1/2 weeks. They’re obviously swamped in Kansas City, I was almost out of stamps, and had to come up with another way of getting them. Update: The last few orders have gone smoothly, and the stamps arrive within about 10 days.

Curbside stamp pickup

I did find three sources locally that have curbside pickup. Office Depot has stamps, at face value. You can buy a book of 20 Forever stamps for $11. Unfortunately, the closest one was out of stock, and other stores looked like they had low stocks. Update: Since I originally wrote this, Office Depot is doing an excellent job of keeping stamps in stock. You can usually order online and pick them up curbside the same day. Walgreens also sells stamps at face value. You can order online and pick them up, usually in about an hour, either curbside or at the drive-up window. It looks like CVS has curbside pickup of stamps in some states, although I don’t know if they are being sold at face value.

Printing postage at home

Another great option is OrangeMailer.co which allows you to buy postage online and print it with your printer. I was leery about using them, since I imagined my printer jamming and having to pay again. Fortunately, that is not the case. You can print as many times as necessary until you get it right. Of course, if you use more than one of those prints for postage, you’ll be spending some time in Leavenworth.

To buy postage, you enter the name and address of the recipient, and when you’re done, the website directs you to turn on your printer and print a label with the address, your return address, and the postage meter. For letters, you can print right on the envelope. It took me a couple of tries with my printer settings to get it exactly right. The first few times, it cut off my return address. When I told my printer that it was printing a number 10 envelope, it cut off the return address. But when I lied and told the printer that it was a 4 by 8 sheet of paper, it worked perfectly. Similarly, for small envelopes, I have to tell the printer that it’s a 4 by 6 piece of paper.

I have also mailed one small package, and that works well. You enter the dimensions and weight of the parcel, and it prints a label with the right amount of postage. Of course, we don’t have any labels in the house, but you don’t need any. I used a plain sheet of paper and affixed it to the package with Scotch tape. One advantage for packages is that if a package is over 13 ounces, you can’t use stamps. But printing the postage online is equivalent to taking it to the counter at the Post Office.

The philatelist in me likes using real stamps. And it’s faster to just scribble the address and slap on a stamp. But given the current emergency, OrangeMailer.co is an extremely convenient option. Unlike their largest competitor, there is no monthly charge. You just have to deposit a minimum of $10, enough for 18 First Class letters. You pay the customary postage of 55 cents per letter. They make their 5 cent profit due to the fact that your metered letter is actually going for only 50 cents. That seems reasonable to me.

Other online sources

If you do need actual stamps, two other options appear to be faster than ordering directly from the USPS. You’ll pay more than face value, but not a great deal more. If you combine the purchase with another order, you can get free shipping. You can buy postage stamps on Amazon for only a little over face value. If you do a search for “postage stamps,” click the button for “free shipping by Amazon,” and you’ll see the ones that can be added to another order. As long as the total order is at least $25, there will be no shipping charge.

Walmart also sells stamps online, only slightly above face value, with free two-day shipping with a $35 order.

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