 |
|
|
Good Question –Overcharging For Postage Stamps
“Is it legal for stores to sell stamps for more than their face value?” Good question. Reporter: Jeff HerndonEmail Address: jeff.herndon@kake.com |
|
10 Comments 
ok im only 14 so i dont know what a stamp is i know nerds collect them but what are they for i mean if you get a pakage ups brings it pay your bills on line and e mail your frinds and family
sc: Exactly the point. The stores prey on people and call it "convenience". They know a lot of people won't go to the post office if one isn't nearby therefore they charge more than face value. So in that instance there are no other stamps available except for the ones at an increased price. And don't try playing semantics here, you know exactly what I mean.
Ticket resellers prey on desperate fans? What a foolish comment. Tickets are a luxury. We are not talking about kidney transplants here. The ticket resale market is $3 billion a year. There is a large market of willing customers who can not get what they want from Ticketmaster and are perfectly willing to pay a premium for access and convenience. I am always amazed at how totally comfortable we are that all kinds of products are bought and sold at whatever the market will bear without a second thought (calling eBay!), but somehow there is this idiotic stigma around event tickets.
The Post Office sold stamps for a profit. There was a breast cancer stamp that was 10 Cents over the price and supposedly the 10 cents was given to the Susan G Komen foundation. There are stores that charge taxes for newspapers and I refuse to pay that. There are stores that charge tax on gift certificates - the one I remember was Pizza Hut in Mulvane a few years back. I told the cashier that was double taxation because the person that uses the gift certificate pays for tax when they get their meal. I never could convince that cashier. Therefore, I never went back again.
How is this even close to scalping tickets? Ticket scalpers buy hard to get tickets, or tickets to popular games, and prey on people who are desperate to get that ticket since they are the only ones that have them. Stamps on the other hand can be bought at TONS of places, and every place that buys them pays the exact same price for every stamp. Also, there is no limited supply on stamps like with concert tickets. The business is selling a tangible good, and the buyer pays a premium for the convenience. Some people are more than willing to pay a little extra to get all of their shopping done in as few a places as possible. If the nearest post office is not extremely close, paying 10c extra may be cheaper than paying the cost of gas to go the extra distance to the post office! Ever been to a shipping store that charges you more than what UPS or Fedex would charge you? Same concept. You are paying for convenience.
As far as I'm concerned this is no different than scalping concert tickets. BTW: Anyone know when they stopped using stamps as currency? It may have been when the government sold the USPS but there was a time when stores had to accept stamps for payment just like cash.
how dumb are you to pay more for stamps, I would drive to the post office before I'd pay more for stamps somewhere else. dumb dumb dumb
if a store is doing this? i say never shop there again. i would drive out of my way to get stamps. the stamps are to high as it is. the goverment should put a stop to this high price stamp. just wait they will raise the price again.
After she was told the price...She always coulda refused to pay couldn't she have n told them she didn't want it for that price?
I can remember seeing vending machines at the store. Put in a quarter get 10 cent stamp plus a nickel one. Look at a flea market you may find one.