@rudedoodle maybe this info is outdated now? (as of Oct2021, all postcards are £1.70 worldwide)
But what is International Economy? I read the Royal Mail leaflet but it doesn’t go into detail, just saying it’s a service.
Bascially is it:
???
@seaview here is the link to the royal mail page
https://www.royalmail.com/sending/international/international-economy
Economy mail is only available to countries outside Europe and should in principle be delivered via road or sea (and take ages)
I have tested it for the last three months or so and can say that my cards arrive as quickly as with airmail postage.
International economy postcard £1.45
International airmail (Europe) £1.70
PS It was lovely meeting you yesterday!
@Bayrisches-Madl fascinating.
I always assumed that Economy service for sending outside EU, is only for ‘heavier parcels’ as branded on the weblink. I had no idea that letters could go surface too.
I once forgot to put an airmail sticker on mail and it was sent via surface, even though the postage paid was Standard service. That is why I always use Air Mail stickers.
That means I could send an Economy letter to USA paying £1.55, rather than £2.55 ( Max 100g |Max L 24cm x W 16.5cm x D 0.5cm) for service to North America in up to 6 weeks.
Is that why you don’t use air mail stickers, as you are not using Standard but Economy?
It is funny how on that weblink, it can’t even correspond it’s World Zoning to Delivery Aims on the linked webpage
DICTIONARY for Economy (surface mail)
Europe = Western Europe in up to 2 weeks (large letters and bigger only)
Europe = Eastern Europe in up to 5 weeks (large letters and bigger only)
World Zone 1 = South America, Africa and Asia in up to 8 weeks (all letter/mail sizes)
World Zone 2 = Australia (+ Rep. Singapore) in up to 12 weeks (all letter/mail sizes)
World Zone 3 = North America in up to 6 weeks (all letter/mail sizes)
I don’t airmail stickers because the two grumpy ladies at my local post office are rather stingy handing them out! This was long before I discovered economy delivery. Obviously now, when only paying international economy postage, I can’t use them anyway.
The travel times for economy are really not as long as stated on the website, try it out! My cards to China arrived within two weeks this summer
@Bayrisches-Madl the last 3 postcards with CN IDs took over 1 month to send from my location. That was via Airmail.
Perhaps mail from your location is more efficient as I can not understand the discrepancy.
I did send mail to China and it got there in 10 days, but that was a letter not a postcard. The ones you send via Economy, are they postcard or letters mail Sabine?
I agree that getting AirMail stickers is not easy. My local Post Office has 3 Self Service Machines, so now all the stickers are there. I never use the machines on principal.
I go there to get the CN22 custom forms too. But apparently there are two types of CN22, one has 3 black dots in each corner. But I can not recall what the person said was for what. Both are customs (which I need when I send my tea bags).
One is a Custom form with the text missing: ‘International Standard/Economy Services’ (no barcode but has 3 black dot corners)
EDIT: When sending gifts (I assume anything bigger than Large Letter) Untracked items (International Standard and International Economy) should use the customs form that carries a barcode.
https://www.royalmail.com/business/international/guide/electronic-customs-data
I re-checked, it was two weeks to Taiwan (not mainland China) this August. I don’t send enough cards to make it statistically meaningful though.
Maybe I was just lucky? Airmail to Finland took much longer to arrive 
I never send anything other than cards or letters, so I have no experience with customs forms.
The Rugby Union stamps are up for viewing and pre-order on the Royal Mail Shop: Rugby Union | Stamps & Collectibles | Royal Mail Shop
Nice to see lots of Womens Rugby represented, I look forward to using these on my rugby themed postcards.
Does anyone know when they release the designs of this years Christmas stamps?
Well… the Commonwealth Stamps Opinion blog has some low quality images of the stamps… Not entirely impressed. My little post office has received the 1st and 2nd class stamps already (they won’t have the other values at the little post offices).
Thanks for sharing! I see what you mean, they’re ok. They’re not the worst stamp issue, but not my favourite either. I’ll probably still buy some though as I know there are postcrossers who appreciate Christmas stamps.
The Christmas stamps should be released on 2 November @geo_ : 2021 Stamp Calendar and Stocklist
I did see a rumour somewhere that RM weren’t going to release the images of the Christmas stamps until day of issue…
Thank you @chrisbonham11, I had seen that but wondered if they would release images of the designs prior to the 2nd. Although, I guess maybe officially they won’t given what @FairyFoot has read.
I’m struggling to find where I saw the rumour. But we are now less than a fortnight to go for the issue. As I write, the Christmas issue isn’t up on the RM website yet.
Can anyone shed a light on why they might want to do that? Are they worried about fraud/fakes?
Not entirely sure… hype perhaps, but even some departments (e.g. handstamp centre) may not even know… a couple of snippets from the Norvic Philatelics blog.
In years gone by (not so long ago) Royal Mail distributed the stamp calendar at Autumn Stampex but no more. Although they announce the programme to the stamp trade at that event, with details of the first six months, all information is now on strict embargo. [this was taken from Dec. 2016]
To find out more about new issues readers should look at the websites of first day cover producers. Restrictions by Royal Mail Stamps and Collectables mean that cover producers and others can often promote their own products 10 weeks before the issue date .
Those who have standing orders with Royal Mail might be able to work out what values the stamp issue will have… as they will find out how much they are going to be paying!
Might want to keep an eye out on some of the Private FDC producers such as:
https://www.buckinghamcovers.com/index.php
https://www.benhamphilatelic.com/
This how I found out about the Dennis & Gnasher stamps which the RM put up on the day of release. Buckingham Covers put theirs up a week before hand.
Of all the places, the Ocado online shopping app, has images of this years 1st & 2nd Class Christmas stamps avaliable for pre-order.
although the information blurb is still for last year
Christmas 2021 stamps now up on the RM website, but not in the drop-down stamps menu, or on the front page of RM’s site.
