My cards arrived a few days, maybe even two weeks after the invoice. Be patient!
I sent mine same date as you, and I havenāt received anything yet either. But I did this last year, too, and it worked. So Iām fully confident, that I just have to be more patient and that Iāll receive mine eventually
so sad, Iāve been so patient, but this year, none of the the 3 cards, which I sent off to Portugal for the special cancellation, have arrived at their destination (yet) Last year, it was all a lot quicker. Iām still holding a little hope, but itās slowly vanishing! Perhaps the service was too popular this year and they have a backlog?!? Or perhaps they were understaffed because of corona? Anybody else still waiting for theirs to arrive, too? I havenāt even received the invoice yetā¦
Though I guess the possibility for the cards to arrive seem to be smaller and smaller, Iām still waiting as well. I sent four postcards (not with IRC but with Portugal stamps on). One to Germany and three to Taiwan, but none of them arrive so far. Iāve seen a Taiwanese postcrosser who requested the postmark with IRC successfully received his return card with nice cancellation on it in late October / early November. So I think I may do something wrong about the way to request the cancellation or just an unexpected accident happened during the delivery. Anyway, no matter the cards arrived at me or not at the end, itās still a nice experience for me to request special postmark from abroad. : - ) By the way, here is how I prepared the requesting envelope :
So far none of my cards has arrived - neither those of the RR I thought would be a good idea to send this way, neither the ones to my cousin and myself. I will now consider them lost and will check in with the RRās host and prepare to send replacements. Itās really disappointing. Iām just glad I tried this with 4 cards only, so itās only 9.70ā¬ and the cards wasted. I just find it sad that of all envelopes and cards I did send in the days leading up to and on WPD exactly this one, so carefully prepared and addressed, obviously never made it to Portugal (because I canāt imagine that the cards got stuck there at their office, that doesnāt make sense in my mind). Anyway, lesson learnt from my side.
This sounds really disappointing, so Iām going to contact them by email and ask whatās up. Iāll post an update here on the topic when I hear back from them.
Many thanks in advance for your effort & help!
I hope you will succeed in finding your lost cards!
Today I received an envelope from Portugal - containing the philatelic catalogue 2021. Thatās really weird - I sent in 5 cards with IRC and in return received a letter with a bill and a letter with a catalogue.
So now Iāve got to find an idea about what to do with that catalogue after looking at the beautiful stamp images of the previous months
Hi! Thank you for the amazing chance to receive this wonderful cancellation mark!
Are you planning to launch special cancellation for World Postcard Day this year (2022)?
Thank you!
@meiadeleite will there be a special cancellation available this year, too? Or have they stopped doing so because of it not going well last year?
Theyāre still doing it, and this yearās cancellation mark is really nice and once again matches the postcard (you can see it here)ā¦ but I havenāt publicized it as much because Iām a bit afraid of things not working as expected. Mail has been a bit wonky overall, and Iām not sure what went wrong last year, but I feel bad for the people who didnāt receive their due postcards.
But theyāre still offering the service, if youād like to give it a go! I will send them my postcards too, since I wonāt be in Lisbon at the time.
@meiadeleite, India doesnāt issue IRCās anymore, but I would like to get this special cancellation. How can I go about this?
In that case, I would recommend reaching out to a postcrosser in Portugal, so that you can arrange for the stamps to be put on your postcards, before being sent there. Maybe you can make a post on the #communities:portugues section of the forum, and hopefully a postcrosser from there will help you out!
Thanks, can you yourself please help me out?
I might have an idea, also for others that cannot buy IRCās in their country, but Iām not sure it works worldwide: the mailservices in Luxemburg still sell them and they post orders outside their country. I live in the Netherlands and I can order stamps in Luxemburg. Maybe it works for other countries and IRCās, too. Here is the link: Products - Post Philately
Iād be happy to, but unfortunately I wonāt be in the country for awhile. I think youāll find a better match on the Portuguese subforum.
Note that the cancellation mark will only be available until the end of October, so plan accordingly.
Ohk