Postcards

Old Sep 26th, 2015, 06:34 AM
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Amy
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Postcards

In the past, I would send +/- 100 postcards on a trip. Lately, however, I've run into postcards not being readily available, but I don't know if that's a function of the times and technology ("If I'm not in the picture using my selfie stick, it doesn't exist") or of the places I've been in recent years (i.e. Armenia, Russia, Colombia.)

What have you found in your travels in Europe recently? Or have you not noticed, since you don't send them yourself? I can remember being swamped with postcard and guidebook sellers on my first trip to Italy, but that was back in the Stone Age or thereabouts, so it doesn't count.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 06:49 AM
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I now only send post cards to a few to people who either collect them or really enjoy them (several elderly friends/relatives, and a a few children who think its a kick getting 'real mail' of their own). I haven't had any problem finding postcards to send
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 07:03 AM
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You can still find postcards at kiosks and bookstores in France, Spain and Portugal. You can even buy the International Herald, if you want to spend the cash on something that comes free witht the NYT app.

There is a store, Laketoki Presse in Saint-Jean-De-Luz, at the corner of Place Ferdinand Foch and Blvd Victory Hugo, that carries a few postcards, along with a great selection of guides and Michelin maps.

But I haven't actually sent a post card in years. Will have to think about that the next time we're in the store.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 07:05 AM
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Postcards everywhere in Italy, old fashioned touristy ones and new hip ones. In fact, was just noticing some today in the village store where I buy fruits and veg. We even still have mailboxes in Italy. And you can buy stamps at the tobacco shop.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 07:17 AM
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I love sending postcards, I just love the pictures. I always send one to myself, also, along with the others as it's a nice reminder of my trip after I get home, and it also lets me know when the others might have gotten them.


I have never been in any place traveling where one could not find postcards, they are extremely common in any area where a tourist might be (which is any major city, central area). I guess they might not have them in some small village that would not be on any route where a tourist could even be passing by, but I don't know where that would be--nowhere in my travels (to Europe or Mexico or Canada, or the US). I am from a very small town in mid-Ohio, no place tourists go, and even there, you'd find postcards at the drugstore and large gas stops for the general area.

What is the big problem is finding mailboxes and buying the stamps, in my experience, not buying postcards.

I don't even know 100 people, to be honest, at least not personally, so I only send about 10 to closest friends/relatives. I think sending postcards is a bit of an effort, which is why I find most people (and me) really appreciate it. I remember my niece telling me that when I sent her one from Spain with a donkey or it or something, her toddler daughter carried it around with her for several days, she liked it so much. I thought that was cute. And I know my elderly relatives who don't get out much really enjoy getting them, I think it is a kindness to send them to people like that. When my aunt died, her daughter told me how much she had enjoyed getting my cards from my travels over the years as none of her other nieces/nephews had done that.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 07:46 AM
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You know, it is possible to take a photo (or a video) of some beautiful sight or quirky sign or what ever and email that. The picture doesn't have to include the sender. I find that more personal than just picking a postcard off the rack.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 07:51 AM
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I find that more personal than just picking a postcard off the rack.like receiving postcards.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 08:10 AM
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Hmm, you can send a picture that doesn't include the sender? What a good idea.

I do email a list of people (and later send a photo link to the edited photos) but there are two reasons that I still send postcards: I have some elderly relatives who aren't computer linked and I like the osmosis learning that takes place when real mail with a real stamp from another country arrives at my students' homes.

In Armenia, I actually had the stamps before getting the post cards, and ended up giving the stamps to a local Armenian church. (Lovely stained glass in Yerevan post office.)

Oh, and I have a mailbox about two blocks away from my home, even though I don't live in Italy.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 10:43 AM
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I sometimes buy postcards for myself. Professional photos can be so much better than those made by us amateurs. Have a whole box of them. Am thinking of using them as Christmas cards. There used to be wonderful stamps, esp. put out by France, but don't know about this now. Plus, it's very expensive to send cards now. Can't imagine sending 100 cards. At times I have bought cards but then have sent them from home, but now postage has gone up radically so don't do that. My wee, off-the-map village in Spain recently offered cards so I bought them and sent them out to others who had lived there. According to our P.O. mail boxes are disappearing because kids (or others) are throwing all sorts of disgusting stuff in them. I mail everything at post offices, not boxes.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 11:43 AM
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I have hundreds of postcards from all of our travels. The postcards showcase the place in the perfect light at the perfect time of day/year. I love rifling through them and reminiscing.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 12:01 PM
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Tons of postcards in Rome last week. I believe we also saw some in Positano but I don't send them anymore...finding stamps is usually more trouble than I will go to.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 12:34 PM
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I love sending (and receiving) postcards, but @ approx $1.75 postage to send, I limit myself to 6-7 on a trip. I was dismayed last fall in Switzerland to find that postcards were VERY hard to find except at the most touristed sites and peaks.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 12:51 PM
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Whilst I don't usually send postcards, except occasionally to the grandsons, I do look at them. No shortage of them in France last week.
I received one from my ex DIL, from Norway, today.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 02:20 PM
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I find that if you ask the small souvenir shops selling postcards, some of them sell stamps. Sometimes it's hard to notice a regular post office. I'm surprised it was hard to find them in Switzerland, it's a big profit item for small vendors.

They don't cost US$1.75 to send to US from any place I've been in Europe. They do cost more than in the US, of course, they cost about 1.2 euro now from France. In Spain, it was about .90 euro last year, as I recall. Switzerland is very expensive if it's about 1.6 euro (which isn't a surprise, I guess, for them, but I thought it was more like 1.5 euro). I was in Prague a few months ago and it only cost 18 CZK there (about .7 euro). But that's really such a minor cost to me when you are spending several euro on a cup of coffee, and I don't buy people anything, either, as gifts. If you sent 100, it definitely would add up, though.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 03:06 PM
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Stamps (airmail to the US) cost me 1.90 CHF per card last October. At today's (better) exchange, that equals $1.94 postage to send a single postcard. And this was not an anomaly. The year before, a stamp for a POSTCARD cost CHF 1.60. And yes, they were bought in a post office, and I do speak German, so that was not an error.
I do tend to travel "off the beaten path" so no postcards were found in Solothurn, Romont, Zofingen, Schuepfheim, Neuchatel or even Biel. Yes of course in Gruyeres, Bern and Luzern. But the other destinations I've named are popular with European tourists or have a 'locally famous' sight, so I still expected the ubiquitous kiosks to have a few, but no.
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Old Sep 26th, 2015, 04:51 PM
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I always sent post cards to my mother whilst traveling - at least 2 a week. When she died aged 93 I found she had kept all of them.
I send them to my grandchildren - just 1 or 2 a trip .
$2.70 to send one out of Australia !!!
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Old Sep 27th, 2015, 03:24 AM
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I usually send one to my mother -- she does not have a computer, so I can't email her photos. And also to DH's mum, even though she does have a computer -- she still likes to get them. We may send one or two others on occasion, but generally don't bother.

Mokka, I have found Solothurn postcards. I also found one in Romont, at the castle with the glass museum, as I recall.
And yes, stamps from CH to the U.S. are expensive, so be glad you aren't sending Christmas cards every year ;-)
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Old Sep 27th, 2015, 03:26 AM
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Note: finding an open post office can be tedious, so for any post cards from Switzerland, I usually mail them from our local post office when we get home.
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Old Sep 27th, 2015, 03:59 AM
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Tobacco shops are required to sell postage stamps, as one of the conditions for their monopoly on the sale of tax stamps (marche da bollo). However, they're required to buy them in advance, and most don't like to sell them. Stamps are used less and less, obviously, so they end up with lots of unsold inventory. Many of them carry only one denomination, or delay forever replenishing their stock when it runs out.

In large tourist cities, tobacco stores are selling instead a sort of pseudo stamp for a private delivery service called GPS. These cost considerably more than postal stamps and the seller takes a nice cut. The postcards have to be deposited in a special box; they're shipped in bulk to a third country (one with cheap postage stamps) where they get stamped and put in the mail. Tripadvisor forums are full of complaints about postcards taking months to arrive, or not arriving at all. A lot of the buyers didn't realize the stamps weren't postal stamps.

If you really need stamps and can't find the real ones, you can always get them at a post office.
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Old Sep 27th, 2015, 04:00 AM
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I should have made it clear that my above post applied only to Italy.
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