Stamp Price to Hit 42 Cents on Monday

First hike under a new law makes USPS more 'business-like'

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted May 10, 2008 2:17 PM CDT

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Stamp Price to Hit 42 Cents on Monday — Parcels are automatically sorted at the United States Postal Service Leslie N. Shaw Sr. Processing and Distribution Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

There’s a run on the post office today as Americans snap up first class stamps before they cost a penny more on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports. If the 42-cent price seems insignificant, just think of Netflix, which sends and receives nearly 2 million parcels a day, and pays both ways.

Small businesses and Christmas card senders are also stocking up, but regular folks should take notice: The price hike is the first under a new law that allows the USPS to raise prices on “competitive products” like Express mail as it sees fit. “The idea of the new law was that we would be a more business-like operation," one official said. (More USPS stories.)

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