Hello all, I plan to travel to India later in the year. Do you have any tips of online stores that sell postcards about India? E.g. Iāve received nice ones of typical foods, fauna, textiles, festivals etc from Indian postcrossers. Where could I find some like this? Likewise, do you have any tips of where to get nice commemorative stamps? Do post offices generally hold a good variety or is it best to buy online? Thanks a lot!
And lastly, if you are based in Chennai (especially in Vadaparani) do you know of any shops that sell postcards?
Hi @NatM, in India it is relatively difficult to find postcards. Apart from GPOs (General Post Office), most post offices do not sell picture postcards. And even in GPOs selections are limited and designs are unflattering.
All major cities have GPOs. For commemorative stamps, you can visit their Philatelic Bureau. They usually have good collection. Other post offices only carry definitive stamps. Buying stamps online from India Postās website is a huge task on itself as the user-experience of the website is horrible and also in online you canāt buy single stamps, you can only buy fullsheets and miniature sheets. I recommend visiting Philatelic Bureau in any GPO.
As far as I know, in Chennai a bookstore called Higginbothams sells postcards. You will most likely find photographs postcards by VB Anand there, which are usually some of the most liked postcards from India.
PS: another questionā¦ does India Post allow to send shaped cards in the normal post or is more postage required or does it need to be sent in envelope? Thank you
In india may be you can find nice stamps bjg post offices like selhi or Chennai, and online order will arrive after more than 30 days later, (my last one was average 35 days later), you can contact some local postcrosser who is nice , and you can both exchange cards, and may be share)
I knowā¦ thatās the equivalent of Ā£0.12 per card. Here in the UK, it is 15x more expensive at Ā£1.85 per card ā¦ I shall send lots of cards next time I visit India
What will be the postage charges? According to this link, it should be Rs 20(for 20gms) + the Air surcharge(maximum Rs 9). So the total will be Rs 29 at the highest end.
Yes, 30 rupees postage is enough for an envelope weighing 20gms or less. If you want to send a postcard without an envelope, you can find the rates in this link:
Have cards been making it to China these days? I have four expired cards to China. I see that the people I have sent the cards to have not received cards in a long time, (month plus) so maybe the issue is on the China end. I saw in the postal monitor that India is only sending sea mail to China, but these cards were sent long before that. I send from several different post offices in Mumbai, including the GPO, so I donāt think I am having a local issue.