Will there be postcards and stamps in 2030's?

That’s a very interesting subject!
At the beginning, I struggled a lot to send postcards from my city. That was
when I discovered I was the only Postcrosser, in an almost 100.000 inhabitants city.

Many workers from the post office didn’t know exactly how to proceed/deal with the mail and stamps at the beginning. (resulting in some letters I made not being able to reach their destinies, because of wrong choices with stamps.). Furthermore, if you want to buy different stamps here, you have to order online, — which makes the price quite high, because of the delivery taxes — or travel to a big city who sells all produced kinds of stamps available, like São Paulo city, — 4 hours by car from Ubatuba — for ex.

That’s a matter that left me thinking for some time. I don’t believe it would be the post office’s fault, nor its workers — since they’re not used to dealing with personal mail anymore.

What I can say is that, since I started postcrossing, the stamps subject has risen in the post office. Sometimes, some workers tell me they’re trying to bring more stamps to the city.
(which is very nice!).
I’m also trying to bring some friends to this habit. Perhaps, if we were able to stimulate people in bigger proportions, maybe it could hold a bigger impact to help extend postcards exchanges, in the long term.

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My son is 13, 7th qrade. Last year they had task in school to write a letter, address it properly, stick real stamp and send it to their teacher :slight_smile:

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Yes, we are all doomed. (But The Postman will save us all).

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So far, the German post has no plans to get rid of stamps.
We do have the discussion occasionally if stamps are still necessary since they need to be cancelled manually and are more labour intensive than scanning a simple code on cards and letters.

However, the German post also make clear that stamps are cultural assets and also very important for philatelists. I don’t think they will change their mind soon.
They are used less, though. We already have the option to pay for the postage online and simply write a code on cards and letters. Up to now, it’s only for mail within Germany, but that might change in the near future.
Of course it’s very unfortunate that many countries want to stop selling stamps at some point. But right now, I think we should focus on sending cards as long as we can and enjoy it. :hugs:

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From where I live (Malaysia) stamps and postage prices seem to not be the big issue because even a person earning minimum wage can pay a postcard’s postage with less than 1 hour of work.

The postal service here prints special stamps but often sell them to normal customers too. My friend who isn’t a postcrosser helped me buy some 30 sen stamps last last week and without specifying, the postal worker gave him the latest stamp issue. The postal service did reduce the number of stamp issues, but that’s after philatelists in Malaysia complaining that there are too many new issues :joy:

However, what I’m concerned is the variety of touristy viewcards available. The rate of new viewcards being produced is extremely low nowadays so there are many postcards here that feature old images with poor image resolution, very unattractive relative to viewcards in Germany for example. We can buy only new postcards but if everyone does that, Postcrossers from other countries may receive the exact same postcard from Malaysia.

Nowadays, the newer postcards are mostly illustrated postcards by independent artists who often sell it at very expensive rates, and they are only available at comic fiestas or art exhibitions. I believe eventually we’ll have to resort to these cards being the norm despite being expensive and niche. That transition will happen when shops sold out their old cards and decided to not import new stock. Another alternative would be self-printed cards

However, I don’t think I have to worry too much because Malaysia is one of the most visited countries on earth. The government can try to encourage postcard producers to create new ones/ tourism department issue their own cards like in 2014 to meet market demand. That is, when old supply runs out.

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Some observations. I always chuckle when proclamations of doom are made about this and that. Decades ago, the big thing was the “paperless” office. Last time I looked, paper is alive and well. Regarding postcards, the doom and gloom started early with photography becoming widespread. The postcard hobby has survived and will continue to survive. It’s not surprising that it is the third most popular hobby in the world.

There is no question that online bill-pay and other services have made mailing certain things obsolete. Moreover, the volume of holiday mailings has dropped dramatically over the years… Letter mail will never completely cease. The amount of letter mail will continue to drop. The unenlightened management of the USPS here doesn’t know how to deal with this except by raising prices every 6 months.

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I collect postcards sent by soldiers during war times and am amazed at how some were delivered. Yes, I think it will survive another decade, and another, and another :slight_smile:

Yes, there will be, long live the postcrossing and Snailmailing:)

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I don’t know the answer to this question, but I hope there will still be postcards and stamps in the future. I wish they can exist forever:3

Yes, I am afraid at some point we will go this route. I think I dread more the death of stamps than the end of letter mail (I think there will be always some method to send small mail since not everything needs to be in parcels - just for the environment’s sake). I think they will introduce online purchasable codes (like we now have for parcels) which would be very ‘convenient for the sender’ or then they will require some printed stickers to make it all uniform in order to keep post running cost-effectively.

In any case, it will be marketed as an improvement and when more people start using those services they can eventually announce the stamps are not selling as they used to be and will no longer be sold and after the day X not accepted anymore.

Yes, it is always good to stay a bit critical. It is said that we overestimate the changes in the short run and underestimate in the long run. So were exactly we are with the stamps and postcards, I am not sure. What I do know is they no longer are any kind of priority for Posti. They are letting them die slowly. How slowly? We shall see.

I think we might see some creative tactics to please the public. Perhaps there will be only Christmas mail. Perhaps mail will be delivered only once a week, then once a month.

I think the biggest problem for Posti is that letter mail is relatively ‘cheap’ but it requires lots of labor. So eventually it might be so expensive people will stop using it anyway. However, I think there will be some product which is smaller than the current minimum parcel but bigger than a postcard. Where those will be delivered (to homes or to automated parcel machines), we shall see. People are already dreaming they would get all of their parcels to the same parcel machines. This can be something which will happen in the future and perhaps our mail will be lumped there too.

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Probably the saddest topic I’ve read yet. The children being born today will miss out on so much. The electronic, instantly accessible society is so lacking in love, life, anticipation and social etiquette.

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That’s good to read! I am 24 and learnt in primary school how to write a letter. The teacher even did a project with us- we signed up on a website from German post where you could find pen pals. Everyone got a pen pal in Germany and we wrote some letters (but most pen friendships didn’t last long). That must have been around 2007.
My sister is only 7 years younger than me and didn’t learn it in school. Or maybe she did, but doesn’t remember because she never really sent mail. Last year she had to send a letter and had to Google where to put the address on the envelope…

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Yes! Digital mail and many things of today’s society is so impersonal.

Thats why postcrossing and letter writing groups are formed.

I feel part of an extended family here on postcrossing.

I saw these recently on social media and blogs.

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At this point, I’m really not sure where things will go. The visible signs are definitely not looking good.

When I started at my current workplace, 15 years ago, we had our own printshop in the house for all the things the company mailed out. In-house mail would be distributed twice a day.
The printshop was closed 6 years ago, and the tiny amount of mail is picked up twice a week directly from the mail department which is now down to 1.5 employees from the original 4 + boss. I can’t even remember when I received the last piece of paper mail at work. Internal communication is 100% digital and I’m one of the dinosaurs who still uses a paper notebook. This week we received a notification that the office supply cupboard would be cleared out because nobody had taken a pen or paper pad in over a year in a department of 140 people.

The Christmas kiosks at the Christmas markets in Munich and Nuremberg for special cancellations did not return after COVID, the philatelic branches of Deutsche Post were moved from city centers to outskirts.

And last week we received two beautiful wedding invitations, one had a metered stamp, the other - for a themed Harry Potter wedding! - had one of the handwritten codes :sob:

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While there may still be postcards & stamps in some countries by 2o3o, the trend seems obvious. With most everyone switching to digital, postal services have to become more and more expensive (the postman still needs to eat, no matter whether he delivers thousands of letters or just two or three!) and thus more and more exclusive…

It saddens me that by the time I retire and have lots of time on my hands for our hobby, snailmail may be either gone or too expensive for pensioners to afford :’(

But the death of snailmail doesn’t bother me only because of our hobby. I think it is downright scary, because of the technical possibilities this opens for the Big Brothers of this world. Electronic correspondence is sooooo easily supervised, without anybody ever knowing who else might be reading. And first of all, you can actually supervise ALL of it - scanning it for certain catch words and phrases… Next time a totalitarian regime takes over, I’d say we’re basically f***ed :confused:

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This topic makes me so sad! I am always upset when I receive a postcard or letter with a code instead of a stamp - stamps are so beautiful and interesting and it takes so much away to just have some code instead.
I have always loved writing postcards and letters. I grew up in the 90s - I’ve never felt that writing handwritten stuff is old-fashioned. I remember my mum writing letters to her friends when I was a kid but I am also always super surprised when my boyfriend asks me „where to write the address“ on a letter.
Maybe writing postcards and collecting stamps will become a „retro“ trend or something…and this will save the stamps from disappearing!

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Thank your everybody for your great comments!

Yes, it is sad indeed. :broken_heart: I hope I am not depressing everybody by starting this thread! :sweat_smile:

On the bright side, people are creative and there will be always be methods to stay connected. I hope (and believe) if and when snail mail is retired, there will be a smaller and cheaper option than the current international parcels. We can still send our cards and letters packed in a tiny parcel/envelope. Of course it won’t be the same but at least there will be a way to stay connected through physical mail. (Quite likely we will have to cut the volume though because of the higher costs.)

Perhaps we can even do some postrcrossing - postcrossing groups could send cards in parcels to different groups in different countries and then locals would distribute the cards to the members. It might be possible only in the bigger cities, but who knows? There can be all kind of solutions we cannot even think of yet. (But, obviously, those would be only for the most enthusiastic.)

Yes, I am the same… Unfortunately it seems likely we will lose the stamps first… And that’s sad. That in itself means a death of postcard to me since it makes no sense to send a card naked if cannot be stamped. I would start using envelopes then.


This all said… I hope everybody has another great week among postcrossing! :heart: Future is unpredictable. Let’s enjoy stamps and postcards while we still can!

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Interesting question…
I don’t think Italy will stop issuing stamps, because there is still a large market with collectors and philatelic enthusiasts.
I also believe that it is possible to use stamps also to send parcels. Surely it is possible for those weighing up to 2 kg, but I have never read any bans even for heavier ones.

But it is a fact that for some years now Poste Italiane has become a sort of bank as well as a postal operator: in every post office you can pay bills, send money, keep a transaction account… and often the counters dedicated to financial are more than those dedicated to correspondence.
And in the meantime the cost of shipping continues to increase and mail delivery is increasingly slow.

The postal banking system has a long and illustrious history, and remains relevant in today’s day and age (underserved communities who don’t have a bank near them comes to mind)

And indeed, kudos to the post office for trying to remain useful to people by offering banking services.
In the US, for example, politicians like Bernie Sanders are trying to get postal banking to be implemented, so that more people will use the USPS and help their bottom line.

Having postal banking can also help unbanked and underbanked people access things like debit and savings accounts, instead of having to rely on predatory high interest payday loans

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The rise of digital communication has certainly impacted traditional letter and postcard sending here in Sri Lanka but it remains to be seen if it will completely replace it. Definitely not in the new future. My post office is quite a bustling place and I think cost stratifying has helped to make it an option to consider. For example, a postcard from one ward of the city to another is 1/7th the price of sending internationally. To the rest of the country is 1/3 the price of sending internationally.
:heart:
And we are slow to embrace change. Franking machines are few and far between and stamps and Ink stamps are the norm. Pen Cancels are not a thing here! :heart_hands:
However, international postage prices have been rising with inflation :dollar: :chart:and the depreciation of the rupee and It’s possible that these postcards may evolve into a niche market for special occasions or as collectibles. The death of postcards could potentially impact Postcrossing practices, but it could also lead to a resurgence in their popularity as people look for unique and tangible ways to connect with others.

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