Area Man Sitting On 42 Percent Return From Single Forever Stamp Refuses To Mail Anything

LANSING, MI — Local man Dale Prewitt, 54, confirmed Monday that the single Forever stamp he bought in 2019 for 55 cents is now worth 78, a 42 percent return he said "no mutual fund in this county can touch," and that he will not be using it for postage under any circumstances.

Prewitt checks the stamp's value each morning before coffee, usually by visiting the post office website and reading the current rate aloud to his wife. He keeps the stamp on a velvet pad in the kitchen, where he examines it with a jeweler's loupe he bought for the purpose. He said he has never needed the loupe.

"Everybody told me to put money in the market," said Prewitt, who owns no other investments. "I put 55 cents in a stamp and it's up 23. Run those numbers. I'll wait."

The stamp has not been licked, handled without tweezers, or exposed to direct sunlight. Prewitt said he is holding out for the next rate increase, which he describes as "the catalyst." Asked what he would do if the rate fell, he stared at the reporter for eleven seconds and said it has never fallen.

The household has since stopped sending mail altogether. Prewitt's wife, Carol, said she now pays bills online and mailed her sister's birthday card from a drugstore with a stamp she bought herself. "He asked me to buy it in a different city so it wouldn't be near his," she said.

Last week, a carrier on Prewitt's route stopped at the house to deliver a package and was asked whether the Postal Service planned to "do anything about the rates." The carrier said that was above his pay grade. Prewitt wrote this down.

Prewitt has moved the stamp to a safe-deposit box at his bank, which charges 5 a year. He considers the fee "a cost of doing business" and has not calculated it against the 23 cents of gains.

"Mr. Prewitt comes in monthly to look at it," said Gary Okafor, a branch manager who has worked at the bank for 19 years. "I've asked him twice if he'd like to use it for anything. He said that's what they want him to do."

Prewitt's friend Rob Haskell, who owns five Forever stamps and has mailed all of them, said he feels "financially stupid but spiritually fine."

At press time, Prewitt was reportedly considering a second stamp, but said he was waiting for it to dip.