Author Topic: How to mail to and from your country  (Read 19685 times)

Offline Inked botanicals

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #15 on: May 05, 2015, 05:50:28 PM »
How about craft decorations on the envelopes? Those rubber stamps that looks like antique postage, those saying "first class" and those stickers with planes that say "air Mail", "urgent" and that sort of stuff, even vintage canceled stamps or those envelopes with blue and red decorations. Are those things allowed anywhere or can cause trouble? Any thoughts on that?
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Offline schin

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #16 on: May 05, 2015, 06:40:46 PM »
How about craft decorations on the envelopes? Those rubber stamps that looks like antique postage, those saying "first class" and those stickers with planes that say "air Mail", "urgent" and that sort of stuff, even vintage canceled stamps or those envelopes with blue and red decorations. Are those things allowed anywhere or can cause trouble? Any thoughts on that?

I brought one of those decorated envelopes with URGENT and postmarks to the post office, and the lady at the counter hated them, lol! She said it's like fraud and warned me it'll get sent back.. but I insisted anyway and it mailed fine, sheesh. Another time I brought the same kind of envelope to a different guy at the post office and he couldn't care less, just stamped it and moved on. I think as long as it is placed far away from the actual stamp and is not meant to look exactly like the real thing, it should be fine... these days I just drop those in the postbox so I don't have to deal with cranky post office workers..
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Offline Kim C.

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #17 on: May 05, 2015, 07:40:46 PM »
Thanks, Schin, for starting this thread!  Extremely informative and advice for those of us getting back into snail mail and participating in the exchanges. 

Offline prasad

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #18 on: May 06, 2015, 01:57:18 AM »
Great Post Schin,
I have  come across just 3 Indians (living in India  :) )on this forum, but will give my 2 Rupees worth.

The one thing we are quite proud of, is the Indian postal, at least within India.  They deliver to the smallest possible village way out in the unknown, as long as the address is correct. 

The only issue as such, is lack of proper street names and house numbers.  Street names keep changing depending on the latest political party in power and whom they want to honour.  All the beautiful old names are now converted to quite horrible names.

So just copy the address EXACTLY as mentioned by an Indian, as it will often have references to Landmarks in it.  Eg. House 45, Next to Aditya Hospital, Opp. P&G Jewellers  :)
To be safe, we often write our telephone numbers also on it, so that the courier guys can call to find out where the house is.

But the format is primarily
Name
House details (including landmarks)
Street name
Area
City - Pincode (6 digit)
State
Country

As long as the Pincode is correct, the State can be omitted.
The most crucial thing is the Pincode, and even if the House cannot be traced the letter lies in the local Post Office if the Pincode is correct and one can collect it from there.

Rates are ridiculously cheap for Indian mail. Domestic letters up to 20 gms are about $0.08 and $0.08 for each 20gms extra  :)
International letters are about $0.47 up to 500gms  :) and you have to pay an additional $0.90 if you want an Acknowledgement of delivery.  No tracking facility on this though.  (I guess that would be asking for too much)

The one sad part, at least as far as this forum goes, is that the address cannot be in calligraphy.  Most postmen don't bother taking the time to try to read the address.  There is just way too many letters flooding a post office.  If they are not able to immediately and easily read it,  the letter goes in a bin :)

Can decorate the envelope as needed, but the address needs to be plain.  It's not worth taking the chance of loosing a letter from you guys, just for that.

-Prasad
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Offline schin

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #19 on: May 06, 2015, 02:44:03 AM »
Hey Prasad... do all our FF exchanges arrive to you safely? I recall sending you a letter with a pretty flourished address some time ago..
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Offline prasad

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2015, 05:33:27 AM »
Hey Prasad... do all our FF exchanges arrive to you safely? I recall sending you a letter with a pretty flourished address some time ago..

Hi Schin,
I've just been in one exchange so far (Ransom Note) and had mentioned not to Flourish the address.  I did receive all but 1 of them.  Received a couple from Spain and the US for  the Inspiring quote (side) exchange too.  But all unflourished.

I have not received the letter you sent me :( :(  :'( :'(
Need to go Kill Bill on the postmen here
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Offline handmadeletters

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #21 on: May 06, 2015, 09:20:20 AM »
Janice, I've seen your Instagram photos and been mightily impressed by your creative innovations.  I think this one may be my favorite, though.  It's delicate and flowing, with negative space and large shapes to balance the fine, rhythmic lines of the calligraphy (especially the repeating downstrokes of this style).  I love this idea.  I think the fact that it didn't make it past the USPS may be proof that you made something interesting.

Matthew, thank you so much for your kind comments! I feel torn about it. I don't want to incite the ire of our postal system, but if the cost is creative license (and lost mail), then that would be a shame. I think I'm going to be stubborn and just keep keeping on. :)

I've just been in one exchange so far (Ransom Note) and had mentioned not to Flourish the address.  I did receive all but 1 of them.  Received a couple from Spain and the US for  the Inspiring quote (side) exchange too.  But all unflourished.

Prasad, I appreciate that you marked on your exchange comments that addresses should be unflourished (what a great word, btw!). Not that it's the recipient's responsibility to do so, but it was very astute of you to give that heads up. And you're right, the last thing any of us want is for our beautiful letters to be lost in mail purgatory. Hopefully, Schin's letter to you finds its way, or at the very least, back home to Schin.

Offline jeanwilson

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #22 on: May 06, 2015, 11:57:17 AM »
I'm glad Prasad mentioned that script lettering on the address was not a good idea on letters going to India. I have heard from several sources that plain block lettering is the best for mail going to Asian countries. You can write the name beautifully and then put the the name and address underneath in simple block letters. It can be very beautiful. There can be plenty of flourishing in the upper left part of the envelope.
Cursive can be hard to read, if you have never learned it, so it makes sense that people who have learned the roman alphabet may have no idea what the cursive says.
At some point, I will dig through my mail and post some examples of plenty of flourishing, coupled with a very clear address. It's easy to dovetail the two.

Another tip I learned from an Austrian bride who was sending invitations from the USA. She said that US postal workers would often times see *Austria* on the envelope and toss it in the bin going to Australia which meant it took a very long time for the mail to get to Austria. So she asked me to write *Austria, Europe* on the envelopes.












Offline schin

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #23 on: May 06, 2015, 12:33:40 PM »
Learning so much from this thread! From now on I will make an outer envelope with block address for the more complicated Asian mail.. better safe than sorry!
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Offline Karina

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #24 on: May 07, 2015, 12:27:00 AM »
Hey schin, you left out the last line for international mail to the US aka "USA"  :P That's not so much for your postman but ours because I'm pretty sure that's the first step in sorting international mail. Some US states do look like other countries at a quick glance

Prasad - did u receive my inspirational quote mail yet? I wrote ur address in block letters!  :P

Offline Afreen Gaffar

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #25 on: May 07, 2015, 02:34:40 AM »
This thread is SO useful! I'm so glad you started it Schin!  :-*

I think my 'Mimic a master' mails have all gone to nowhereland .... I didnt hear back from anyone in my list, so I am guessing no one got them, so I'll have to work on them again  :'( I tried a little experiment with the envelopes..guess Mr. Computer didnt get it  >:(

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Offline AndyT

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #26 on: May 07, 2015, 04:31:35 AM »
Hey schin, you left out the last line for international mail to the US aka "USA"  :P

I've forgotten to put that on at least once.   :-[  Our postmen must be reasonably geographically aware because nothing's ever gone astray, but now you mention it there's scope for a bad miss with "Indiana" ...

Offline tintenfuchs

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #27 on: May 07, 2015, 10:02:36 AM »
Another tip I learned from an Austrian bride who was sending invitations from the USA. She said that US postal workers would often times see *Austria* on the envelope and toss it in the bin going to Australia which meant it took a very long time for the mail to get to Austria. So she asked me to write *Austria, Europe* on the envelopes.
I've only had one letter get sent back to Lyndsay after about half a year, so maybe that one landed in Australia. Other than that, I got everything just fine. Though sometimes it does take awfully long, while sometimes I get US letters within 1-2 weeks. It's worth a try to add Europe, dearest penpals.
I also recently heard from a very nice young penman from an Asian country that he didn't even know that there was such a country ... ::) I would've thought that the terrible reputation from WWII would've at least made people aware of my country, or maybe Mozart or Red Bull or something ... but yeah ...
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Offline AndyT

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #28 on: May 07, 2015, 12:49:39 PM »
I would've thought that the terrible reputation from WWII would've at least made people aware of my country, or maybe Mozart or Red Bull or something ... but yeah ...

Coffee and cake - that's what I associate with your country, Natascha.  Oh yeah ... and mountains.  :)  Basically the whole of Austria looks like Innsbruck in my parochial little imagination.

Offline tintenfuchs

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Re: How to mail to and from your country
« Reply #29 on: May 07, 2015, 01:01:10 PM »
I would've thought that the terrible reputation from WWII would've at least made people aware of my country, or maybe Mozart or Red Bull or something ... but yeah ...

Coffee and cake - that's what I associate with your country, Natascha.  Oh yeah ... and mountains.  :)  Basically the whole of Austria looks like Innsbruck in my parochial little imagination.

Yay Andy! You're so right. Especially with the coffee. I have yet to meet an Austrian person who can drink coffee from another country (except Italy) without throwing up. :)
Then again, you're pretty close to Austria. :) I love your country, too. Especially the accent and the literature (I have an MA in English lit).

Enough off-topic ;)
Natascha
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