Written: December, 1st, 2023
German stamp cancelled: Difficult to tell! But Russian post cancelled a US stamp I added for decorative purposes / as a nod to where the subject pictured on the card was from on January 11th, 2024
Delivered: January 14th, 2024
On the 21st of December, I sent 3 postcards to the UN offices in Geneva. Two destined to Russia and one addressed back to me (curiosity). As of today, no news from any of them. I’ll update if/when something happens.
I drew addresses while in Germany back on November 4, 2023 but was unable to mail them before returning to the states.
3 of them were destined for postcrossers with Russian addresses. I mailed all of them off to the United Nations in Vienna on November 8th.
The first was DE-13562744 and arrived in 49 days total, so 45 days of travel from me to UN Vienna and onward to Russia.
The second was DE-13562745 and arrived in 59 days total, (55 after I mailed it)
The third is still traveling, it’s been 74 days and the receiver is active, so I assume it will arrive soon. I see that as a win because most of my postcards to Russia before the discontinued service were taking 25 days minimum, but more often closer to 60 days to arrive. Not particularly ideal, but it works. Plus, older United Nations stamps can be found easily in bulk well below face value, making it cheaper to mail postcards. If/when the service disruption ends, I might continue sending postcards to Russia in the same manner because it doesn’t extend the travel time by much.
There are 3 other strategies that I have seen used with some success, the first being sending it to Russia and writing “Via Germany” under it. I would add a German stamp as well to compensate Deutsch Post for their services, but some people don’t do that. The other is mailing it from the USA to Russia directly- it’s not supposed to work, but without adding a return address to it there’s essentially a 50/50 chance whether the USPS sends it to the dead letter office or find a way to get it to Russia anyway, perhaps via UK or Germany. And finally, sending the postcards via the UK. There are two options for this; recruiting a friend in the UK to send postcards to in an envelope and ask them to forward the cards onward to Russia, or sending the postcards to the Royal Mail special postmarks request department. This works similarly to the United Nations route in the sense that the mail is handled entirely by Postal Services, which is a good option for people who do not have a friend in UK or Germany who is able to forward the postcards on their behalf. You just mail the postcards straight to the Royal Mail headquarters with a request for the special postmark being offered and then they will apply the postmark and forward it on to the receiver addressed.
I have some extra international postcard stamps from the UK that I would be happy to volunteer for you to experiment with. In order to keep all other variables of the experiment the same, I can mail the stamps to you. I’d also be happy to volunteer some US international stamps so that you can try the “ignore the restriction and hope they arrive anyway” method. If you are interested, please PM your address!
Mine took a full 45 days after I mailed them off to UN Vienna before they arrived in Russia, it may be a similar situation for the Geneva office. Hopefully soon!
Certainly @Angelthepup22! Feel free to contribute as you wish, whether it be UK stamps or otherwise. My address is in my profile, so fire at will! That’s very kind of you to offer.
I sent a postcard to Russia from the USA via Germany in November it hasn’t arrived yet. Then I sent a card directly to the same person from the USA and she got it in just a few weeks. I have sent a card to Belarus and a letter to Russia direct from USA in December and they haven’t arrived as of yet. My question is does the usps accidentally send it because of a computer error or they just told us not to send mail there but they still deliver.
Thanks for thr info. I can’t say for certain, but my guess is mail just gets out based on region, and from there gets handed off to one of several carriers, or re-routed by some internal process. My understanding per USPS website is that it would either be returned to sender if there’s an identifiable return address and, if not, sent to the dead letter office.
An awful lot seems to be manual processes (i. e , letters addressed to countries with suspended delivery aren’t necessary backed up by contingencies but rather variations in the people doing the day to day work passing things through). Your guess is as good as mine. It would be really nice if we had the perspective of a USPS postie to weigh in on this!
@Alinushka that’s a Russian post postmark. I’d advise you to ask the sender in a private message how they sent the card as opposed to speculation, because I have no clue other than if sent directly, it seems some are being passed along through.
Updated on my experiment…
The first card arrived in Russia today, after 44 days
As for the card I addressed back to myself in the USA, the card had two postmarks on it, giving some details of the inner workings…
21 Dec: … Shipped from USA
12 Jan: … UN Postmark (+22 days)
19 Jan: … Geneva Postmark (+7 days, 29 days total)
26 Jan: … Arrived in US (+7 days, 36 days total)
I edited the main post to capture that I had additional success today via UN Geneva, UN Vienna, USA to Russia “via Germany”, and mailing to Germany address to Russia with DeutchPost stamp. Interestingly all sent on the same day from USA. My best guess is the great equalizer is once in Russia, they tend to sit and wait, and get delivered at once. I could be wrong…
@kissthebeehive Only just now found this thread, but love reading your similar experiments and experiences. Thanks for sharing this. Great stuff!
My success rate in getting cards to Russia and Belarus (think I’m over 20 various cards and envelopes at this point between using Germany and UN Geneva) has still been 100%
I need to get another card off to you, Seriously frustrating that my success rate between Arizona to Michigan has been much less. Between smashed wooded postcard (when my others to Germany and India made it in pristine condition), and my #lockhimup postcard straight up went missing.
Anyways, you inspired me to drop another postcard in mail just addressed directly to @xute to see what happens. What is the worst that happens, gets lost?! Fun times when they make it though! These experiments are always worth it, and my only regrets are not trying to send more.
@Angelthepup22 was generous and kind to offer up some Royal Mail stamps for purposes of sending via UK. Today, an envelope containing several cards (2x Russia, 2x United States) was mailed out to Royal Mail special postmarks in London. I will update below as they are delivered. Since the first stop is from USA to UK via non-postcrossing user, the length of the first leg of the trip will be unknown.
CARD #1: USA to UK to USA DATE SENT: Feb. 26, 2024 DATE RECEIVED:
CARD #2: USA to UK to USA DATE SENT: Feb. 26, 2024 DATE RECEIVED:
CARD #3: USA to UK to Russia DATE SENT: Feb. 26, 2024 DATE RECEIVED:
CARD #4: USA to UK to Russia DATE SENT: Feb. 26, 2024 DATE RECEIVED:
This topic was removed for a bit while we discussed some issues in it, and it’s back now.
I’d like to remind everyone that we don’t want to host discussions about sending postcards “via country X”, in which the postcards don’t have postage to travel from the intermediary country to its destination. Some posts have been removed from the topic because of this — please don’t post these experiments back here.
Sending postcards in envelopes with appropriate stamps to postmarking offices (like the UN) so that they can then forward them onwards is a genius solution though — I wish I had thought about it!
With regard to sending postcards to Russia and just writing “Via Germany” or “Via United Kingdom” by the address, it is necessary to attach postage to compensate the Deutsche Post or Royal Mail for their part in delivering the postcard. If you wish to do this method, make sure to check this forum thread- Prices of stamps for postcards in all countries/territories (wiki) to be sure of the current postage rate for the respective countries. Be sure to add the German/British stamps below the USA stamps so that they aren’t damaged by the USPS postmark.
The easiest way to do this is with the Deutsche Post, you can navigate to this page on their website- https://www.deutschepost.de/en/b/brief_postkarte.html and select the €0.95 option for international postcards. Then you just put in your payment info and can print the stamps out at home, if you print them on normal paper you can use a glue stick to attach them, or you can purchase sticker or shipping label paper from the office supply section of any store, then print on that and stick it on the postcard.
This method allows you to instantly purchase and print the stamps, but you can of course purchase real stamps online and use those too.
My favorite method for purchasing stamps from the Royal Mail is by buying them directly from their official shop on eBay. They have a variety of stamps available at face value and include free shipping to the USA. Royal Mail Stamps on eBay
This page has a ton of different products to navigate, including many that are geared more towards collectors instead of people who just want to buy stamps for postage. In general, the products labeled “presentation pack” or “prestige booklet” are the ones that are as close to face value as possible.
The international postcard rate is £2.20 at the moment, but postage rates are slated to increase later this spring and I’ll update this when they do.
There are 2 products in particular that I like best for these purposes- King Charles III: A New Reign Royal Mail Coronation Stamps Presentation Pack | eBay
This one includes 2 £2.20 stamps (international priority stamp) and 2 1st Class rate stamps (worth £1.25 each, using both of them slightly overpays the international priority rate) Official Royal Mail Christmas 2023 Collectors Sheet | eBay
This one includes several international rate stamps, several 1st class stamps, and several 2nd class stamps as well. 2nd class stamps are worth £0.75 each, so using 3 of them is worth £2.25, which barely overpays the postage rate as well.
You can also purchase Royal Mail stamps on the secondary market, but keep in mind that regular issue definitive stamps that do not have a barcode are no longer valid for postage in the UK, but you can refer to the Royal Mail Stamp Swap Out scheme website for more details on that. Special stamps and Christmas stamps without barcodes are still valid, this image should help.
Stamps like these with either Queen Elizabeth II or King Charles III like these are still valid if they have barcodes-
Using the “Via United Kingdom” method is great if you’re only sending one or two postcards, but if you are sending more than that, it is better to only use Royal Mail stamps on the postcards and put them all in a larger envelope to mail to the Royal Mail special postmark center (info for that is described earlier on this thread) because that way you only have to pay for the US Postage one time, to get it to the Royal Mail postmark center, instead of paying it separately on each postcard mailed.
I hope this makes sense, if you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will be happy to help!
Thanks, all, for this super interesting topic. I would like to try using the UN process and stamps (I am in the US), but I want to make sure I understand the process. Maybe @uconn or others can comment? Is this it:
I purchase UN stamps for either Vienna or Geneva from the UNPA website
I write a postcard to Russia and put the UN Vienna or Geneva stamp on it
I put the stamped postcard in an envelope and mail it (using US international postage) to the Vienna or Geneva location
The Vienna or Geneva UNPA office opens it and mails the postcard to Russia for me
It might be kind of silly to break it down that way, but I just want to be sure I’m understanding
Thank you!
