Originally Posted by InIndiana
May I humbly suggest taking longer trips and mailing the postcards earlier? Month long vacations should take care of the problem.
All of my postcards have eventually made it to the destination. I do recall that a bunch of postcards I mailed from the Prague Castle took a very long time to get to the States--on the order of two months, but this was three or four years ago. A similar mailing in March this year took only a week or so.
What I find most interesting are the price differentials in mailing postcards. Germany is incredibly expensive not just to the States, but internally. It stands out sharply compared to the Netherlands or Czech Republic, in my mind. The US has the least expensive internal rates and are not that bad to Europe ($0.74). US to Canada rates though (I was told $0.55 recently) seem a bit steep considering the physcial distance involved.
Switzerland, at CHF 1,80 (about US $1.44) beats Germany's E 1, (about US $1.28). The U.S. certainly is a good value.
Another annoying feature is that many countries are now selling tourist-oriented "anywhere" stamps for postcards, which do not exhibit a value. That takes some of the fun out of it. South Africa, UK, and Switzerland are examples of this phenomenon.
And, one year in Italy, I received 3 different quotes for the postcard rate to North America from 3 post offices...but all the cards arrived anyway!