[Stamps] UK stamps, prices, Royal Mail & Post Office matters

if the customs authorities of that country think so then yes!

The worst offenders for me in the EU are the Italy, Germany & The Netherlands,

Not had a problem with Spain, France, Belgium and Finland,

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Eh , thank you very much guys! @Maddymail @RyanR
I realized that we can only hope for a miracle that we won’t be forced to pay. :pray::pleading_face:
Having asked these questions to our post office and our customs, I received an answer: the post office said that it was the customs’ fault, the customs said that the post office was to blame

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LOL that sounds about right, I really needed a laugh, and that was it! :laughing:

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Shame you’re having such issues in Europe
I’ve been sending envelopes with FDC Etc to India for a couple of years with no problems. I hadn’t even thought about customs.

Hello @MsKatieGeog welcome to PostCrossing & the forum!

I’ve only been here a few months, so I remember how overwhelming it all felt, but everyone is so kind & willing to explain things, so please don’t hesitate to ask!

I’d also recommend Philatelink.co.uk for stamps, they send you a lovely selection of picture stamps and I’ve found they cost me around £1.80-£1.83 per postcard, instead of £2.20. I initially sent all my cards with two standard first class stamps, because we had a stock of them, but thanks to advice on here I now have a stock of pretty stamps to use :blush:

If you’d like me to send you a postcard while you wait for you first card to arrive (I remember how that felt too lol) message me your address, I’d be very happy to,

Emma x

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I have learnt a lot about inactive members, traveling mode and so on.

This year I have sent 11 cards to Taiwan. Absolutely none of these cards has been registered. I just checked the Royal Mail website and Taiwan is not even listed as a country to which mail can be sent. It seems pointless to waste cards and stamps for Taiwan any more.

Saint Petersburg in Russia is just as bad. None of my cards sent there are being registered. I can’t begin to understand why, the members there are receiving mail from other countries. I have tried everything, using plain stamps, extra postage, beautiful stamps, but again I feel as if every card to Saint Petersburg is a waste of time, money and effort. 39 of my 120 (includes 25 expired) travelling cards are currently en route to Russia.

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I have sent four cards to Taiwan this year: 29, 30, 34 and 36 days. Have these Taiwanese members been registering other U. K. cards, just not yours?

Thankyou @Johnk60 for your valuable response! I’m sure I would have more success if I lived in any other country, but no, the accounts to which my Taiwanese cards are travelling, have not registered any cards from the UK, at least not this year. I did notice mapcardcollector, the UK’s #1 member, has had one card registered in Taiwan. He lives in a different area of the UK, which could make a slight difference, but I’m most concerned that Taiwan does not exist according to Royal Mail!

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I’ve successfully sent 9 cards to Taiwan this year. Only one has expired and I know why that has and it will be registered later.

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Phew, I have two on the way there, I was getting worried for a minute! x

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“Taiwan does not exist according to Royal Mail”.

Curious to know what you’re basing this on?

I’ve successfully sent three officials to Taiwan this year in quite respectable transit times.

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“Curious to know what you’re basing this on?”

It´s just a guess: Maybe the Royal Mail website for international shipping? In the drop-down-menu with the different countries, Taiwan is not listed: https://www.royalmail.com/sending/international

Interesting. I’ve never used that page. Thanks for sharing.

But as it’s not on here

https://www.royalmail.com/international-incident-bulletin

as a restricted / suspended destination one can probably assume there is service there. Indeed, myself and others have successfully sent there this year :+1:

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I’m not trying to pick a fight, but I’m curious as to why you think @mapcardcollector has sent only one postcard to Taiwan recently. I’ve checked their account, and they’ve sent all these since April:

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I keep getting Germany and USA addresses I would give anything to send a postcard to Taiwan.

Not quite sure what you are seeing. I followed that link and got this :

The Royal Mail system found Taiwan for me.

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As I said before: It was just a guess or possible explanation, why toucans might have made that statement.
This was not to determine, if the statement was actually true or false.

Maybe you got a different result by looking at the mobile version, because this is the website I can see (with the mentioned drop-down-menu and the missing entry for Taiwan):

The recent entry from @FlyingPenguin is the one I found too. I also looked under China but Taiwan is not listed there also. Certainly in the past my mail did go to Taiwan and obviously some UK postcrossers are having no problem, but I’m finding it so frustrating that my number of expired cards is increasing. I know, I should move to somewhere more sensible, but all my commitments are here, so it’s simply not an option! I will have to let the numbers mount up.

My sincere thanks to all the members who have worked hard to add their input to this post and sharing their experiences!

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Thanks @lastIrishman - I’d be willing to share with you if I could. And I would give anything for an Irish address - it must be years since I sent an official card there! I met Brian (fisherman) at the Postcrossing meeting in London last year who told me there is no postal service from Ireland to Taiwan.

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To @xxxxyyyyzzzz - your screenshot made me look twice until I saw the quoted price - from £2.00 - At first I thought this might be out of date, but on second thoughts this is perhaps surface mail, if that’s a possible option!