Before the U.S. Postal Service announced its stamp-price increase, State College post office employees took a gamble. And lost.

"We stored up 30,000 5-cent stamps because we thought obviously it's going to be 30 (cents)," said Mike Herr, a campus post office employee who is also known as Mike the Mailman.

"Yeah, when they proposed (a 5-cent increase) we stocked up," said Ted Seitz, Herr's co-worker.

The post offices at Calder Way and 237 S. Fraser St. also hoarded 5-cent stamps after the postal service last year asked for a 5-cent increase in its first-class rate. But the new rate, which took effect yesterday, is 29 cents for the first ounce and 23 cents for each additional ounce. The postal workers were surprised. And they weren't the only ones.

"I think it's stupid to raise it to 29 and not to 30," Robert Neal (graduate-theatre) said as he mailed his bills at the Calder Way post office Friday. "Now I have to walk around with all these pennies in my pocket. Just why 29?"

"When it went up from 22 to 25 cents there was less complaints than when it went up from 20 to 22 cents," Seitz said. "People like things that end in zero for some reason."

The clerks answered many questions about the rate change: What is the price to mail a letter to England? How many 4-cent stamps $3 will buy? When will prettier stamps arrive?

But, Why 29? was the most frequently asked question.

The U.S. Postal Service operates on a break-even mandate, said Deb Johnson, supervisor of window services at the Fraser Street post office. The postal service expects to earn more revenue from bulk mail this year than last, keeping the rate at 29 cents.

Mike the Mailman was sure to inform questioners that airmail is actually cheaper, as the price for all airmail went down one penny, from $1.35 to $1.34. Also, express mail is now charged a flat-rate instead of by weight, so mailing a brick would cost the same amount as sending a feather, Mike the Mailman added.

But students were not calmed.

"(Rates) shouldn't have gone up," Megan Farrell (junior-English) said as she struggled to find the right change. "This is a pain. I have to get all of these stupid 4-cent stamps."

Special "F" stamps featuring a flower are available at post offices to cover the new rate until official 29-cent stamps are printed. Stamps worth 4 cents are also available so people can use their 25-cent stamps.

April 1988 marked the last rate hike, from 22 cents to 25 cents.

The cost of transportation and employee wages will consitute much of the hike, costing the average American about $8 more this year.

Seitz and Herr posted a survey when the postal service announced the rate change. With 25 cents, 29 cents, 30 cents or a dollar as options, people checked 29-cent stamps as infrequently as dollar stamps.

"They don't seem to care if their phone bill goes up, or if their tab down at the Rathskeller goes up, but don't raise the price of stamps," Seitz said.