I have a set of people (friends and family) who I always send postcards to (at least once a year from some trip). rarely, i will send cards to colleagues or other staff. Most of the time, people love getting these cards.

As someone mentioned above, it could be difficult to find a postoffice in a foreign country.

Got one tip from a recent trip: In Spain, the Tobacco shops sell stamps. And they are in every street corner! Open late too!

Aha, will try... Thanks!

Yup, that should work in Italy as well.

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I do the same for many folks when on a trip... I'd typically send off 15-20 cards, sometimes more then once and I'll tend to cheat w/ content as well :p

It can be a bit tedious to write that many...

Fun way to stay in touch with family, friends & other FTers ;)

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Sure was weird to buy them there... Thankfully my friend I was visiting knew the trick ;) (writing postcards on the train seems like a good idea, but rocks a bit too much :( )

Fun to send my first int'l postcards ^

I send postcards and love receiving them too.

Although people may not mention spotting that cards have been posted from back home, I bet they notice. I certainly do and TBH, it devalues the experience. It is worth going the extra mile to find stamps and sometimes it adds to the adventure. Amongst the hardest places I have been to find stamps (i.e. the ones where they are only sold from the single main post office which is never open): Mozambique, Cambodia, Lebanon, Turkey.

Postcards are fun. I try to send out a dozen or so whenever I go on a trip. Since I am lazy I print out the addresses on labels and then I just have to stick them on the postcard and write a small note.

If you ever climb Mount Fuji, be sure to bring some postcards to send. There is a post office at the summit. There is also a large assortment of ink stamps to decorate the cards with at the post office.

For a really special memory, you can mail home a physical object that says something about the location. Not in any packaging, but rather put the address and the stamps on the object itself. For example, when I was in Tonga I sent home a can of corned beef (one of their main food sources). Just wrote the address on top of the cylinder, then put the stamps all the way around on the sides. Also sent it registered mail. Be prepared to spend about 15 minutes convincing the post office staff that you really can send it through the mail.

Our mail carrier showed up one day with a bewildered look on his face and a bunch of forms to sign, saying everyone in the post office had been standing around trying to figure out what this thing was and where it came from. (This is a part of the country where most people have never owned a passport.)

I got the idea from someone who had on a shelf a large coconut which was sent through military mail about 30 years ago by his dad.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Ri9fUkM176s/TL...U/IMG_2397.JPG

As far as I know, people haven't mentioned noticing the postcard's stamp was from the US or if they did, they didn't care enough to mention it. They did care enough to say they enjoyed receiving it. :) To you it devalues the experience. To others they're happy that I thought enough of them to pick out a postcard, write & send it. To each their own on what's important. Shrug...

And my guess is I send out more postcards than the average person (40-80 at a time when I do send them), so with the exchange rate of Euro/GBP/US, it's more expensive for me to mail them from Europe or UK. If I mailed them from overseas the number of people receiving them would drop significantly. In the US I can basically send 4/$1. So I pay the extra to buy the postcards overseas w/ exchange rate, but save on the postage by sending them from the US. Works for me & so far no complaints from family & friends.

Cheers.

Postcards getting hard to find?
 

Yes, I realize I am resurrecting a very old thread. But I have noticed in the last couple of years that I do not see postcards displayed when traveling like I used to. Even when actively looking for them, sometimes they are just not to be found. I still mail some, but also like to get them more to commemorate where I have been and what I saw. I have my pictures, but the postcard versions are often better. I was there on a cloudy, rainy day, but the postcard shows blue skies and sunshine with no annoying people in the foreground :D. Or the cathedral/castle/abbey is undergoing restoration with lots of scaffolding but the postcard shows the attraction without the clutter. A view from above is also nice for a large site (but hard to get without access to a helicopter or balloon)..

I found this from 2019, and that was before the world shut down. I am sure that also contributed to a further decline in postcard production and availability.
"Just a few decades ago, more than 20 million postcards were sold each year around the world, but now it has decreased by almost 75% to just 5 million. Many publishers are closing or decreasing their production to respond to the decline in demand."

It seems like another relic of travel days gone by is slowly fading away. I think that most people now would rather just message/email/text an image from their phone. However, I am not most people.

I still find and buy postcards during travel, as my older uncle doesn’t use internet. I definitely struggle to actually write and mail him a postcard; finally mailed one last week from Palm Springs that I bought in December. Now to mail one from Kuau’i from February…

I have NOT yet struggled to buy a postcard which probably means that I’m in the areas catering to tourists :-)

mostly I whine about the cost. I’m stuck in the 5/10/20 for a dollar era and now they can cost $0.50 apiece !!!!

Locking this very ancient thread . Please start a new/timely thread re: postcards, is you wish to continue discussion.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator