Markets in everything

Hey, I bet you never expected to see the U.S. Postal Service pop up under this heading. But in fact they have allowed PhotoStamps.com to test their new feature of personalized postage stamps. You can pay $16.99 for a sheet of 20 37-cent postage stamps, designed by you.

So far pictures of babies and families make up two-thirds of the total. Pets are popular too. Unlike with regular stamps, living people can be featured. But nudity, violence, controversial images, and politically partisan stamps are banned (people will quickly develop coded messages). Nor can you use copyright-protected material.

Here is one account, here is another.

When someone sends me a letter with a “MarginalRevolution” stamp, then I’ll be impressed.