If you give a present you usually take off any price stickers, but if you mail it the value of the postage is right there in plain sight. Sometimes the postage costs more than the contents, but its a present so you do it anyway and get some comments back about being silly.

For situations like this it should be possible to buy a stamp from a vending machine that just prints a description of the package on the stamp like "89g/USA-UK/Std.Size/Air". For a few cents extra one can choose a nice background that matches the situation.

The post office already prints stamps for special values and there are Internet stamp services, but as far as I know they still show the price.
-- kbecker, Mar 16 2004

(?) USPS nondenominated stamps https://hdusps.esec...*&p_li=&p_topview=1
The US just raised prices from 37c to 39c; apparently, they surprised themselves. (Damn. Just after they came out with 37c Feynman stamps, too!) [jutta, Feb 27 2006]

(?) Forever Stamps http://blogs.usatod...ould_you_buy_a.html
[theircompetitor, May 03 2006]

I have a book of stamps sitting right in front of me with no value printed on them. [marked–for-deletion] Baked.
-- Freefall, Mar 16 2004


Baked
-- Basil2, Mar 16 2004


Can you get a $0.80 stamp for a letter to Europe? I know the USPS prints first class stamps for a transition period whenever they want to raise prices, but they work for first class only. I once even got a heavier letter back that had two of them on it (plus some penny stamps) because the post office couldn't assign them a value in this application.
-- kbecker, Mar 16 2004


forget to put the stamp on - oops, sorry!
-- po, Mar 16 2004


1st Class.
-- gnomethang, Mar 16 2004


Isn't it just a sticker?
-- ato_de, Mar 16 2004


Not baked.[*]

Non-denominated stamps aren't the same thing that [kbecker] is suggesting. Everyone knows (or at least could find out) that an "H" stamp is worth 33 cents. Just multiply it out to figure out the total amount of postage used.

The no-value stamps would work like this:

1) You go to the counter at the local Post Office and pay $15.27 to mail a bouncy ball and a pile of jacks to your second-cousin three-times-removed Sam in Iowa.

2) The Post Office slaps a "Postage Paid in Full" stamp on the box, and sends it on its way.

3) Sam, your gift's recipient, gets the box in the mail. He only sees the "Postage Paid" stamp, and would have no idea it cost you three times the value of the gift to actually send it to him.

[*] Not baked that i'm awake of. Feel free to come up with a link to prove me wrong.
-- flicken, Mar 16 2004


3) unless (shock) he takes it to the post office and demands to know how much it would cost to post.
-- neilp, Feb 27 2006


What flicken said. I've linked to a list of non-denominational stamps, but think this idea is different enough from those to stay. It's definitely something I've wanted when I didn't want my recipients to worry about shipping costs.

The post office could publish a series of such stamps in praise of fictional currencies - Zorkmids, Quatloos, Kalganids, Triganic Pu, etc.
-- jutta, Feb 27 2006



random, halfbakery