How long have postcards been taking to get from the US to Germany or Russia?

Postcrossing General Topics
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I’ve recently registered, and sent my first two postcards to those countries. About when can I expect them to be received?

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Hi, postcards to & from Germany are quite quick - anywhere from 4 to 10 days, most often for me a week from Canada. Depends also on your postal service & remember the cuts that have been made in the last year to USPS.

Postcards to Russia take a while - anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks I’ve found.

If you search for members in the USA, Texas & Austin that you can check on their walls to see how long cards take to get from Austin to other countries.
https://www.postcrossing.com/search/users

Good luck & welcome to Postcrossing!

P.S. filling out your profile & including some ideas of what cards you would like to receive helps those who are sending you cards

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In Russia, postcards come from America quickly, recently in two weeks. But they go from Russia to America for months or do not reach at all:(

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Welcome! I’m also new to Postcrossing; I only joined last week after learning of this site through the Airport Mailboxes website.

Funny you say this - the first two international postcards I sent were both to Russia and Germany. I’m not expecting them to arrive quickly, even under optimal conditions. At the time of this writing, I’m still waiting for all three postcards I sent (one is to here in the USA where I am) to be registered.

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Under optimal conditions, you will be surprised about Germany. Mail often gets there in about the same time it gets across the US. Russia, less so. :laughing:

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With a couple of years and cards under my belt, I think the pandemic has slowed mail a bit. Germany comes in at about 14 days now (some slower, some faster), Russia at least a month, especially if it’s a smaller city far away from Moscow or St. Petersburg.
I also noticed cards travel faster if sent from the east coast - so I don’t know how long cards take to get outside of the country vs over the ocean.
German mail is known to be very efficient.

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I’m very new to Postcrossing so I only have a handful of cards to base my experiences on.

US-Germany

  • Sent avg. travel: 7 days.
  • Received avg. travel: 18 days

US-Russia

  • Sent avg. travel: 19 days
  • Received avg. travel: n/a

And I currently have one traveling to Russia for 26 days (I hope it’s not lost!).

I always send out my postcards the day of drawing and register them the same day I receive them. I’m also on the East Coast, not sure if that makes a significant difference in travel time.

Edit: Whoops, missed @sannah82’s comment about mail from the East Coast being faster. I wonder if it’s because we’re closer to NY? I think most international mail is processed at the USPS hub there.

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I wouldn’t even start worrying about Russia until at least 50 days (and that’s pre-pandemic/mail disruptions).

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Thank you! I guess I’ll have to be patient :slight_smile:

Fingers crossed that my postcards arrive soon because I’ve already hit my current limit

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Ah, welcome to team “obsessing over travelling postcards and checking daily to see if they get registered so I can send a new one” hehe

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I am originally from New York City; I can attest that it is a nexus point for lots of domestic and foreign mail.

I don’t live there anymore; I now live in North Dakota, towards the center of North America so that will affect travel times.

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It is absolutely unpredictable
some postcards from USA reach me within 2 weeks and some travel for 2 months

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I can send many more than I want to send, and I still obsess about the travelling ones :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I guess like everybody else I really dislike lost mail, but there is not much we can do about it :smiley:

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I now have 9 cards travelling for more than 19 days. That’s out of the 13 cards I’ve sent most recently. Frustrating… I’ve noticed a real slowdown this fall, more than in spring and summer. All are to Europe except for one to the UAE,

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I have one that’s been traveling to Finland for 26 days, is that normal? I just learned that there have been thefts from public collection boxes in my area in the past few years, so I’m worrying that maybe it never even got picked up. Apparently people will attach something sticky to a string and “fish” mail out of the boxes, hoping to get a check or card with money.

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I have received two cards from the States sent in November. One took 17 days, another 33 days. (Cards sent in April-May took 70 - 120 days!) Finnish mail services said that mail going to the USA may be delayed for weeks, because shipping volume is currently high, but flying capacity for mail and freight shippings is reduced. So I would not be surprised if mail from the USA were delayed for the same reasons.

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Thanks for the reassurance!

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Good afternoon! I live in Russia. In December, postcards from Germany reach me in 15 days, from Holland in 14 days, from Spain and Italy in 18-21 days, from the United States in about 25 days.

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Well, my card to Finland finally arrived!

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