Proxy mail to defeat mailing restrictions

I am planning to send and receive a postcard to and from a country that I cannot send to (nor can they send to me). I am certain that someone on the other side would be interested to have a card from my side of the border. Call it an act of peace, or rebellion.
What I need besides the final recipient, is someone who will act as a proxy:
I write a postcard with stamps and no address (I’ll see if I can get it cancelled at the post office). I put that card in an envelope addressed to the proxy. The proxy will then proceed to mail my card to its final destination.
As a reward (at least from my side) the proxy gets two cards from my country. The cards can be sent in the envelope or as a separate card.

Do you think this could work?

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In principle, this is a good idea…

…but the card cannot be sent from another country with the stamps from Lebanon.
And it doesn’t work without an address either.
So you have to write the address on the card in any case, but your proxy has to stick the stamps from their country on it.

But you still have to ask the recipient if they agree that you give their address to another person.

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The card will have to be mailed in an envelope from the proxy country too.

This sounds like an interesting idea! I think it would work out if you send the card in an envelope and if the proxy does so too. No idea though if they will cancel the stamps on the card without the address, have you tried that before?

If you need any help with this idea and decide to try it out, I would be ready to help!

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Nice idea :slight_smile:
I’ve actually been doing sth. similar - keeping in touch with pen-friends from countries Polish Post doesn’t (or didn’t) deliver to by sending cards via Germany :slight_smile:
But potential proxies need to know: which countries does Lebanon Post deliver to???

I understood that mazenfakih would like to send regular postcrossing cards to countries that Lebanon Post does not presently deliver to. For that purpose, the proxies would have to draw the addresses in their countries - because in Lebanon, he can only get addresses of members that Lebeon Post does deliver to!

Perfect,
Thank you for the offer to help.

As for cancellation, I will have to try. There should be no problem there.

All I need now is someone from Israel to participate.

Any takers?

Lebanon delivers to all countries except Israel

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Why don’t you send your postcard you wish to send with the stamps and message already on it, into the envelope to your proxy, so then they can take it out of there and send it on from there, as if it was from Lebanon. Or is that what your saying, and I’m just an idiot haha.
Also, if you still need it, I’d be glad to help!

Exactly. I put the card in an envelope addressed to the proxy and the proxy will put the card in another envelope addressed to the final recipient.

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I think this could work. I think it’d be interesting to have a thread to match proxies with those who need one. What do the moderators think?

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He is taking a political stance, the two countries shouldn’t stop their citizens communicating.

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If you wrote an imaginary address with pencil or pen that can be erased and then stamp it? and afterwards take it back and write whatever you want

If you need any more help, I can do so! I know how problematic it is between those two countries… my best friend is Lebanese and dreams to travel to Jerusalem one day in her live (for Easter celeberation) and she can’t, because in her passport there is noted she has been travelling to Lebanon :frowning: She is waiting for a new passport and hopes nobody will notice her (very rural and unknown) place of birth…

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I read somewhere (maybe the old forum) about someone who was travelling in Iraq, wanted to send a card to a friend in Israel. They wrote the Israeli address but put Ireland instead of Israel. The Irish post office redirected it. Apparently this is a known trick.

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In my country, there is a solution, write the address as“ target address via proxy address".The postman will send your postcard to the proxy country first, and then the postman in the proxy country will forward your postcard to your tsrget address.
Of course, this method is rarely used. I don’t know if it can be used in your country. Maybe even if it exists, not many people know it. It’s best to consult the postal manual or ask the postal department.

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Yes, this was reported in a thread in the old forum, and according to the sender it worked. The card was rerouted from Ireland and reached Israel.

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That’s a brilliant idea. But it works only one way.

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@mazenfakih I would be very honored to act as the proxy in both directions. Especially considering my own country’s history. I absolutely love your idea to find a way to send a postcard between two countries that for political reasons refuse to let their citizens communicate! :heart:

If she has German citizenship, she can request a second passport while the first is still valid. Germany has introduced this possibility exactly for such political issues (and for the same reason, Israel never puts a stamp in a passport but gives you a piece of paper as stay permit, valid together with your passport - been there and was very sad that they didn’t even have a stamp, because I really wanted one in my passport).

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In Germany the rule is: If your mail item has an address, they are not allowd to give it back after cancellation, it must be mailed. If there is no address, you get it back after the cancellation. Per the rules they must put another cancellation into the address area (so you can’t enter an address later and create a “fake mailed item”), but if you ask nicely usually you can get it without that additional cancellation.