The price of a first-class forever stamp will increase from 78 cents to 82 cents beginning July 12. Postal offi cials say the 4-cent increase is to address long-running financial challenges. Officials also say the agency continues to face declining mail volumes while still maintaining service to more than 168 million delivery addresses across the county. Postmaster David Steiner told lawmakers earlier this year, “We’re running out of cash and we have to make tradeoffs.”

The last rate increase was July 13, 2025, when a first-class stamp went from 73 cents to 78 cents, which raised mailing service products prices approximately 7.4%. To put this into perspective, since 2007 the price of a stamp has doubled — from 41 cents to 82 cents. Would it make you feel any better knowing regulators were considering suggesting a price hike of between 12 cents to 17 cents during a congressional hearing in March of this year? Probably not.

One would think after 251 years when Benjamin Franklin was the first post office general, regulators would know how to stop the red ink flow. I’m sure ‘Ole Ben didn’t have to budget for employee benefi ts or lose sleep over a $9.5 billion net loss.

With the rising cost of food, gasoline, prescription drugs and utilities, most of us feel the “running out of cash” crunch and we can relate to having “to make tradeoffs” on where and how to spend our dollars.

Why bother writing and mailing a thank you note, writing a letter in cursive, or sending a sympathy card? It takes more effort and you need to know the person’s physical mailing address. Some statistics note that physical letters are slow, expensive and inconvenient. After all, we’re living in a high-tech world where communication takes place through social media, emails, text messages, Tik-Tok, Instagram and other apps.

Yet, according to the greeting card industry, 80% of consumers say social media cannot replace greeting cards. E-cards sent electronically and mcards sent via mobile devices still represent a small percentage of the total card sales.

Some of us go back further than the 1998 American romantic comedy film starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan “You’ve Got Mail,” and still feel a handwritten note has far more impact. Before modern day technology, generations of people paid bills by mail or actually went in person to pay their telephone or utility bills. Some still do. May dad never had credit cards so there was no need to wait for that bill to arrive in the mailbox. This is the generation of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” so they continue to buy stamps. Good for you!

I appreciate technology. Yet, I still like to send and receive cards and letters via the mail. I so enjoy walking to the mailbox and finding my name and address handwritten on an envelope with the sender’s address in the top left corner. It’s on a higher level than any junk mail. Temperatures permitting, when I get back to the front porch I sit in a rocking chair and enjoy the “gift of words” contained in the card or letter. Physical letters may be slower arriving and more expensive, but the ones who still mail them don’t consider them inconvenient.

To me — as the recipient — cards and letters lift my spirits, put a smile on my face and bring joy to my heart — more so on days when I am feeling down. Likewise, I hope the recipients of my cards and letters have the same impact. I keep many of the cards and letters tucked in a box in my home offi ce. How special are sympathy cards received when my mother, dad and husband passed away. Birthday cards with sentimental expressions are shared in birthday cards from my children, grandchildren and friends. Cards expressing encouragement during an illness reminds me I am not alone in life’s struggles. There’s beauty in cards not captured in an email or text. Cards can be touched, read and saved to be reread — even years later. Cards personally made by the sender take on another level of appreciation.

I, for one, will keep “making tradeoffs” and buying first-class stamps. I may even invest in a roll of forever stamps for future savings. If you receive a card or letter from me, please know you are not an inconvenience and you are definitely worth more to me than 82 cents.

— Southerland, a Taft native, is a columnist and staff writer for the Elk Valley Times.