USPS Stamp Prices On The Rise – Historical Prices
Personal Finance
Less than a year after their last rate increase, the US Postal Service is one again raising the price of stamps. Beggining May 12, 2008 the first class rate will rise to 42 cents for a 1 oz letter. More details of the price increase can be found at the USPS website.
If you had purchased the forever stamp at 41 cents, it will still be good after this rate increase. Not sure why anyone would have bought anything other than this after it was released (other than collectors). I guess some people don’t like the look of them, but this just goes to show that its a smart investment rather than having to purchase 1 cents stamps.
Historical Prices
Since 1975 the price of a first class stamp has steadily increased 320% from just 10 cents to the new price of 42 cents. You can see the rise illustrated in the charts below. Historically this is a rather small rate increase (2.44%), however they seem to be happening more frequently over the last 3 years.
| Date | Rate | % Increase |
| 14-Sep-1975 | $0.10 | |
| 31-Dec-1975 | $0.13 | 30.00% |
| 29-May-1978 | $0.15 | 15.38% |
| 22-Mar-1981 | $0.18 | 20.00% |
| 1-Nov-1981 | $0.20 | 11.11% |
| 17-Feb-1985 | $0.22 | 10.00% |
| 3-Apr-1988 | $0.25 | 13.64% |
| 3-Feb-1991 | $0.29 | 16.00% |
| 1-Jan-1995 | $0.32 | 10.34% |
| 10-Jan-1999 | $0.33 | 3.13% |
| 7-Jan-2001 | $0.34 | 3.03% |
| 30-Jun-2002 | $0.37 | 8.82% |
| 8-Jan-2006 | $0.39 | 5.41% |
| 14-May-2007 | $0.41 | 5.13% |
| 12-May-2008 | $0.42 | 2.44% |
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Caroline- If you haven’t already found out, I believe your stamps are “39-centers”. You can check on this site that has pictures and the values of older stamps.
http://www.knottywood-treasures.com/id39.html
I am interested in finding the value of some outdated stamps that do not have the denomination on the stamp or on the booklet. I have a complete book of stamps w/2 blue birds on a branch w/a yellow background. The year, 2006, is printed on the left side of the book so tiny that I had to use a magnifying glass. From a chart in your website showing the price of stamps from certain years, I am assuming these are .39 cent stamps. I would like confirmation of my assumption or a website where I can find the value of these and other outdated postal stamps. I am sure others, would greatly appreciate this type of info as much as I would.
Thank you for any assistance in this matter.
C. Reyna-Davis
Hi Chuck. I’ve used your USPS data and chart as a jumping off point for a tutorial on creating step charts in Excel:
http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/2008/05/23/line-chart-vs-step-chart/