You’ve already guessed, from your personal mailbox maybe, that sending image postcards is a dying artwork (and it actually will be an artwork if carried out proper). Years in the past tens of thousands and thousands of them had been despatched worldwide yearly. Today fewer than 5 million are offered, and lots of of those are for souvenirs, not mailing. Blame Instagram, Fb, and Twitter.
I eschew social media, totally on sociopolitical grounds, so as a substitute of impersonal brag posts of my travels, I reveal my whereabouts, and present my peeps I’m pondering of them, by sending postcards.
And never simply any postcards. I store for them with a connoisseur’s eyes. Regardless of the topic, they should be of highest high quality, not the ten for $1 selection.
Why ship them, when a blast on Instagram to everybody you’ve ever met is very easy?
As a result of that’s impersonal. As a result of your friends haven’t acquired one in years. Ship to please them! To shock them! To be completely different from the social media scrum.
And to shock your self, maybe. You’ll encounter individuals you’d in any other case by no means meet and study surprising and amusing issues concerning the nation and metropolis you’re visiting.
Greater than as soon as in France (it’s at all times France for some purpose—maybe a nationwide obsession with thrift) I’ve argued with a postal clerk that it’s OK to purchase two stunning or fascinating stamps and pay a bit extra in postage than a single tedious stamp for the precise required quantity. “However Monsieur is paying an excessive amount of!” she’s going to scold, even when it’s 5 cents extra.
“Let me see if there’s a less expensive method” (futilely searches by huge e-book of stamps, web page after web page, and produces a plain and dowdy merchandise depicting a feminine bust—Marianne, the legendary image of France).
“No! I don’t need cheaper. I would like the gorgeous ones!”
Exasperated Gallic shrug to dismiss completely fou vacationer with nothing higher to do than waste cash.
Don’t get me flawed. Ship 20 and even 10 postcards, and you may be speaking critical money, relying on the place you might be. It’s puzzling how completely different nations cost vastly completely different quantities to ship a postcard abroad. It may value greater than $4 in Switzerland, however pennies in a rustic like Fiji, the place a postmistress greeted me with “Inform me all about your day!” (Fiji isn’t referred to as the world’s happiest nation for nothing) after which really wished to listen to all about my day.
Within the U.Okay. the put up workplace additionally points “figurehead” stamps in lots of denominations, all wanting alike aside from the colour, depicting the bust of the ruling monarch, together with one for the precise quantity required for worldwide postcards. These are unlovely in a very British method. However His Majesty’s P.O. points an enormous vary of beautiful commemorative first-class stamps meant for home use (very similar to our “anytime” stamps in america, they haven’t any denomination). Let’s say one among these cute stamps sells for 45 pence and the going charge for a global postcard is 90 pence. So that you’d put two of those beauts on a card, proper? However a postmistress in Scotland insisted that my items (for that’s what they’re) wouldn’t arrive thus stamped.
Not sure, I despatched a take a look at to myself. It arrived simply tremendous, and on all subsequent visits to the nation I’d use solely the gorgeous stamps.
This similar buzzkill insisted that an irregularly formed postcard of a crimson double-decker bus would require additional postage. Improper once more. These triumphs over postmistresses will be thrilling.
Some postal clerks are extra agreeable than others. Years in the past I introduced my playing cards to a put up workplace close to my favourite resort, the oasis-like Park Hyatt Tokyo, within the Shinjuku district.
“Welcome to the put up workplace!” the lone clerk (I used to be the lone buyer) boomed, in Japanese in fact, so I’m simply guessing actually. Possibly he actually stated don’t slam the door. No translation was required to find out why I used to be there, and he leafed by my unstamped postcards to gauge the suitable postage. Fortunately, he had solely fascinating stamps.
However right here’s the reveal: Relatively than handing the playing cards and stamps again to me after paying, he fastidiously de-perforated them, moistened them, and with complete precision (that is Japan, in any case) affixed them. I used to be fairly shocked, anticipating all the things to be tossed again to me like they do, say, all over the place else.
Postcarders additionally study lots about resort tradition. Some accommodations, like the fantastic Alcron in Prague, will stamp (admittedly, machine stamp) your postcards totally free, as many as you want, which will be fairly a perk in case you’re sending lots. Some accommodations received’t even settle for postcards for mailing, stamped or not. “Visitors blame us if the put up doesn’t arrive” the lugubrious clerk at London’s St. Pancras Renaissance instructed me with out apology.
Go on a visit with think-of-everything Micato Safaris they usually present pretty postcards with pretty stamps totally free and mail them for you. No looking for a mailbox within the Serengeti!
Not that looking for the put up workplace can’t be enjoyable; it may be enlightening. Some put up workplaces are fairly stunning, even majestic, just like the central one in Prague for instance (I declined the free postage on the Alcron, as you possibly can think about). Some will be unimaginable to seek out, like those in Denmark, the place they’ve carried out away with them altogether (an ominous improvement you’d have missed had you not been postcarding).
What to put in writing when you’ve acquired the playing cards and the stamps? Right here’s the factor: Postcards are small. After you affix the stamps and write the tackle, and perhaps add a vibrant blue “Par Avion/Air Mail” sticker for good measure, there’s not a lot room to preach. It’s the thought that counts, actually. Your recipients might be shocked and happy it doesn’t matter what you write. They’ll get it that you just went out of your method, even in your fab vacay, to please them old-school. Your card would be the solely piece of mail they’ll obtain all week that isn’t a solicitation to affix AARP or open a brand new bank card or attempt the menu on the new taqueria. You acquire the cutest playing cards, you selected probably the most colourful stamps, addressed them (I deliver labels already addressed, printed on my pc), after which discovered a mailbox, which is typically the toughest a part of the undertaking.
Attempt to be a bit much less mundane than “Want you had been right here!” however no have to go overboard; you’ve carried out sufficient already. Describe one thing humorous that occurred. “The postmistress gave me a tough time for spending greater than I wanted! However aren’t these stamps dope?” Or “This stamp value $5 and the cardboard $3. That is all you’re getting” are favorites of mine.
Additionally, please don’t use these apps that for a charge will organize your snapshots on the entrance of a card and on the again print your greeting and mail them from the recipient’s nation. They’re cheesy and ugly. My pal Lew does this on a regular basis. No, it’s really not higher than nothing.
OK, you received’t be touring for some time, however so what? Ship a postcard from wherever you might be. It doesn’t should be Paris or Bangkok. Tulsa will do. Chicago will do. Buffalo has good postcards. So does Appleton, Wisconsin. The “like” you’ll get, your recipient’s smile, might be simply as heat.
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