I was only told by a postal worker at USPS that the little sailboat postcard stamps could only be used for domestic postcards and only for cards sized 4x6 or smaller 
Perhaps it is not possible to use multiple of these like one would for regular first class/forever stampsā¦
2 Likes
I have received loads of cards with three postcard stamps like this. I suppose itās simply ignorance on the part of the German post.
5 Likes
Hmā¦ I guess it all depends on the goodwill of the postal worker on dutyā¦
1 Like
My mailbox horror story is that my mailbox has been, for the most part, devoid of the cards that were sent to me between April to June. Iāve received cards from July to October but the cards that were sent to me earlier have seemingly disappeared into the void. I talked to my local post officeās postmaster about it and they told me that before they took over the position in July, the mailmen marked most of cityās unregistered mail as āreturn to senderā, so I donāt know if my cards have been āreturned to senderā, thrown away, or stuck in a corner of the post office somewhere waiting to be sent to me
2 Likes
Someone I went to school with put a lit firework in the postbox and blew it up.
2 Likes
I feel this one. I do like that they have āOur sincere apologiesā. Thanks for sharing this.
2 Likes
Iām not sure if this is a āproperā horror story, but being Australian means checking the mailbox for spiders whenever I look for mail 
13 Likes
Those sailboat stamps are fine to send internationally as well. I use them too. As far as I know, here in the USA, any combination of stamps is acceptable, as long as the $ amount is correct for mailing internationally (currently $1.50). I use a variety of different stamps for mailing, including those, no problems.
If they were fake or counterfeit, the mail wouldnāt have reached you, as mentioned. And for insufficient postage, the USPS either returns it to sender if a return address is available, or they require the missing amount from the recipient if they are in the USA. Iāve not heard of an international recipient card with insufficient postage being charged. Very odd.
5 Likes
How curious! Iāll ask next time I go in, as I have never heard that. However, I have experienced conflicting information from different postal workers at different locations 
2 Likes
Btw, since I just saw this topic again, hereās my mailbox horror story.
Over the summer I mailed out a group of official postcards, and a few cards to friends, that all went missing, in several different mail batches over the course of a couple weeks. Over 15 postcards and cards went missing (not remembering the exact number right now), but all from the same post office. I was cat sitting for a friend, and mailed all the lost cards from the US post office in her neighborhood. Since I had successfully mailed there in the past, I thought it was a reliable for mailing. During the same time period, I was still mailing postcards from other USPS locations in the city, and those cards were registered as normal.
I keep track of my sent PC cards in a notebook, writing where and when I mail my postcards, so I knew the exact details for the mailing location. Cards sent to personal friends and family were also lost, but I donāt usually write those down.
I waited until after the cards expired, and gradually sent replacement cards as time and money allowed. Many of my recipients are in Germany, I knew the average time for cards is normally 2-3 weeks.
All the replacement cards to Germany (and other countries) arrived and were registered in the average time frame.
A frustrating experience. I even went inside to talk to a USPS staff person about the missing cards, showed them my notes, but she insisted they did not lose any, and it must have happened at the airport or something.
3 Likes
Thatās awful, how is that even possible? Sorry you experienced that.
My mailbox horror story happened when I was doing a graduate student exchange in Germany.
I was not a postcrosser at a time, but I mailed my family and friends back home. I also bought several things online.
I was living at an apartment building, and all residents have their own mailbox near the entrance. I checked my mailbox after I came home from the lab.
One day, as I walked to the train station, I found a package with my name and address written on it (it was teared open), just inside the fence of someoneās house. I knocked and welcomed by an elderly German man who couldnāt speak English. He called his granddaughter who could speak English. After I explained what I found, I also asked her to look around the garden, maybe the inside of the package (a book I ordered), is there somewhere. She was really helpful and she found the book, and gave it to me with the rest of the package. She said she had no idea how a package addressed to me ended up at her grandparents house garden, already teared open.
I said itās not her fault nor her grandparents fault, and told her that I am grateful for her help.
Maybe it was stolen from my mailbox?
Obviously, someone opened it, looked at whatās inside, threw it away, and it landed at a house near my apartment building, on the way to the train station. 
5 Likes
Not a mailbox horror story, more of a mailbox confusion storyā¦ 
While I was in Rome, I decided to send 5 postcards. I saw a sign at a convenience store, that they were selling stamps. I was quite surprised how expensive they were, quite a lot more than what I read on the Internet. They also didnāt look like official stamps to me, like those issued at the post office. ( I donāt know a lot about stamps, but this time Iām pretty sure) But I was in a rush, so I bought them anyway. There was a little red plastic mailbox outside, and a sign, to only mail mail with those stamps there. But mine were still at home and I had seen those little red boxes in other places near tourist hotspots, so I thought itād be fine to send them in another place. That was 2 months ago, and until now, none of these cards have arrived, and one of those was to Germany which shouldnāt take longer than 2 weeks. Was it my fault for putting them in the wrong mailbox? Surely there canāt exist stamps that you can only mail at one single location in a city? ā¦ And Iām still confused, how there can be stamps not issued by the official post office? I never heard of this before. At which point do they join the official mail to reach their destination?
2 Likes
These sound like ātourist stampsā and theyāre a right rip off. Here in the UK, I think theyāre called Universal Mail. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the stateās mail operator, in our case Royal Mail. Theyāre run by a private company and all the post using these stamps gets sent to somewhere extremely unlikely for sorting. I have a feeling the ones from the UK go to the Philippines. And they take their time. From other people who have been caught out by these, I get the impression that youāll be lucky if the mail arrives within a year. As I said, a rip off.
6 Likes
Oh wow, I didnāt know this, thank you for explaining. I had a bad feeling anyway. But then there still is a chance of them being delivered, even if very late, which is good news.
1 Like
Wow I have never heard of that before, I guess you were truly meant to find it.
What is even more nefarious is that Universal Mail has a contract with Royal Mail that allows one to use UM stamps at Royal Mail pillar boxes. Royal Mail culls them out and leaves them with Universal Mail for whatever they want to do with them. I am sure this fools a lot of people into thinking it is legitimate. I have heard of locals making this mistake.
5 Likes
Was the card marked in any way? Foreign postage due would be a large āTā or āTaxeā applied by the origin country.
1 Like
No nothing like thatā¦ It wasnāt cancelled either. I guess it will remain a mysteryā¦
Thatās a horror story for me 
1 Like