Man buys 19,512 stamps

CAMP HILL, Pa. – A guy walks into a post office and buys $8,000 worth of stamps.

Sounds like the start of a joke, but there’s no punch line.

Someone walked into the post office in Camp Hill, Pa., the other day and bought $8,000 worth of Forever stamps.

The Forever stamp had its debut last month. If you buy one, you can use it now and forever – no matter where the cost of a stamp soars.

“It’s not really designed to be an investment,” said Mark Hnasko, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in central Pennsylvania.

In fact, when the Postal Service unveiled the stamp in Philadelphia on April 12, it focused on convenience, not savings.

The Forever stamp, which features a likeness of the Liberty Bell, brings “freedom and independence from using 1- and 2-cent stamps for mailing letters when stamp prices change in the future,” the Postal Service said in a statement.

Note: That’s WHEN prices change, not IF.

Hnasko said the new stamps have been popular, but, in this case, “that’s really a rare occurrence for somebody to buy that many.”

And just how many is that many?

Dropping $8,000 at the post office gets 19,512 Forever stamps and a couple of pennies in change.

The stamps are sold in sheets of 20, not rolls. That makes them ideal for individuals and less attractive for businesses, said John Schlotter, the postmaster at Camp Hill.

But even an $8,000 sale couldn’t deplete the stock at Camp Hill.

“We have plenty, and we have plenty of 2-cent stamps,” Schlotter said.

Those who buy the Forever stamps will never have to queue up for extra postage.