The fist time I received a card with a “missent” stamp mark on it was when I got BE-653853. It was from Belgium to Brazil, missent to Belize - at first I didn’t understand the stamp mark (the back of the card is all colorful and beautifully drawn) and just thought “what’s ‘Belize’ doing here?” - but ok, at least it was missent to somewhere in America, although a little to the north.
Today I got a direct swap postcard from the UK which was missent to Thailand (!) I found it really interesting because it’s a long way from Brazil.
I kinda like to find out about those adventures cards go through when traveling to us. So I’m thinking, have you ever got a card that was missent? What was the most distant place from the actual destination?
I did have some missent cards before but just this week I got a postcard that was missent to Armenia before it reached me!
It was sent from the USA in August, arrived in Yerevan at the end of September and was sent back to me on September 30th. It has the arrival postmark from Yerevan and also a glued small sheet of paper with another postmark, some code and my city’s name.
I have no idea what it was doing in Armenia in the first place (my address is very clear) but I’m glad it reached me safely in the end
Wow, I didn’t know there are actual stamp marks for this - I’ve read several stories in this thread of people sending cards on to their original destination that got stuck together with their own somehow.
Fascinating all the ways postcards journeys happen eh?
I’ve actually seen those stories and they’re amazing! But I think those cards were somehow delivered to the wrong person (and they kindly re-sended it) while these with the stamp mark just arrived in the wrong country and the post office itself re-sended it, ergo the stamp mark.
There was one time that I got two other postcards stuck to mine–one intended for Russia and the other was supposed to go to Germany. I ended up sticking those two cards into envelopes and mailing an extra postcard to the people they were intended to go to. I’m still not quite sure if they got to their real destinations, but I did get a thank you from the original sender (who was from Taiwan).
I sent once registered letter to Australia. Postal clerk was making sure it’s Australia. Missent to Austria (which meant I paid much less). Austrian post wrote they return it to sender (as I haven’t paid enough postage), but they sent it to Australia instead. It took about two more weeks.
I know this is probably very common missent. But it made me bit sad as the clerk directly asked me where it is going! The person I was sending it to was already nervous about being cheated from my side.
I read that a few have mentioned MISSENT TO THAILAND. I have received a few postcards with this missent cancelled on the postcard. Makes me think that missent to a different country the intended country written on the address happens more often but perhaps only certain countries like Thailand would cancel a MISSENT on the postcard. For example, if a postcard is accidentally delivered to Malaysia and Pos Malaysia redirected the postcard, I doubt Pos Malaysia will bother to cancel a MISSENT - only my speculation. Otherwise, there will be reports of MISSENT TO MALAYSIA on postcards. Anyone has received a postcard with MISSENT TO MALAYSIA - I am curious.
I think my grandma received an envelope from our US relatives missent to Malaysia actually! Not sure and I think that envelope is already shredded and used for some beautiful postcard for sure
You’ve a point, it can be annoying to the sender specially when the receiver is waiting for it. Recently I received a swap card from Jordan that traveled for more than a year - I had completely forgotten about it, but in the first couple months it did cross my mind if the sender had indeed sent it. And when you as the sender did your part it’s terrible to know the other person is doubting you.
Not mentioning that Austria is Rakousko in Czech, and Australia is Austrálie. That is a huge difference, so I guess it was some system error (I had address printed out, correctly)
That’s why I prefer to take pictures of a written and stamped card, so a person can know for certain I’ve sent the card, if they wish me to. Though if I sent something to a country for which it usually takes a short time for my card to arrive to and it just doesn’t, I of course send a new card. (Countries that may take a long time, I always wait a bit longer before doing that.)
I think all the wayward cards that end up in Thailand and Malaysia do so because they wish to go on one last vacation before settling down at their final destination. That’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.
@Martin-CZE:
Martin: This is going to Australia.
Postal clerk: Australia, right?
Martin: Australia.
Postal clerk: [sends to Austria]
(I’m sorry for laughing; I think we’ve all had a few experiences like this. )
I actually think that she just confirmed wrong country in the PC system and that barcode was loaded as “going to Austria”. It wasn’t much funny experience, as my partner was nervous as nothing was shown in Australian tracking till it crossed the border.
I once got a card from the USA with a rubber stamp “Misrouted Jakarta”. Well, that is Indonesia and not really on track to Germany, where I live.
However, the sender was very talkative and wrote in the bar code area and even on the address side, so (s)he had drawn a circle around my address to highlight it, obviously that was not enough.
Now, it took a long time, but it arrived.
A card comes from Macau. It’s sent to me, in the USA.
It was sent to the Philippines.
Nowhere on the card was the word ‘Philippines’ or anything close to it!
Anyway it got to me months later, and I shared what happened with the sender in Macau.
I think I have one or two received cards that took a vacation before ending in my house. But a more common thing is postcards that go to other city in Portugal, because numbers in the postal code were misunderstood.
Another strange thing was a postcard that arrived here in a short time, with my address all correct except it said France instead of Portugal! How it arrived here I don’t know!
on mine there’s only the “missent” mark.
)
