STS - sending postcards for FREE

[nekesaurio]

do you like sending/receiving postcards from your friends worldwide!?

personally I love to send postcards when I'm abroad and a few years ago a friend told me you could send postcards for free (without stamp) just by writing "student to student" or "STS" where the stamp should be. we argued about that for a long time because I just didn't believe it so I tried it, and I sent her a postcard saying something like "if this really gets to you I'll buy you a beer next time we meet" and... IT DID ARRIVE!!

so I wanted to bust the myth and know if it was simple luck and my postcard slipped in or it truly works, so if any of you wants try it and post from where to where you sent it and whether it did get to its destiny!

my postcard went from Italy to Portugal with "student to student" and indeed, it arrived

 

[Tude]

never heard of that. One of the larger bicycle sites I'm in (for like 15 yrs now) - the group is quite close and do a lot of meet ups and traveling together --- and several times when there's been a sick child or a kid had something happen to them - we've sent post cards from around the country to them. And they loved them - and they were flooded with them. The one kid had a map of the US and he put pins on the state areas where he got the post card. Fun stuff.

 

[nekesaurio]

yeah that's what I mean!!
that's the reason I wanna know how or in which countries it does actually work.

 

[Matt Derrick]

i doubt this works in america, but it's worth trying, worst case scenario is that you get it sent back to you.

an old tactic here in the states was to reverse the return and sending address so the postcard would get 'returned' to where you wanted it to go.

 

[tobepxt]

would be great if most of my friends had mailing addresses. id pay for a stamp if it meant it would get to them.i like sending and receiving letters and stuff, its just seems pretty rare it works in this lifestyle :'(

 

[physics]

Here in the US, there is a way to mail something to someone who doesn't have an address if you can make them aware that it's coming (so that they actually go to the post office), and if you know the town that they're in.

It's called GENERAL DELIVERY.

You fill out the envelope like this:

Firstname Lastname
GENERAL DELIVERY
City, ST ZipCode

And they do prefer that you capitalize the general delivery.

The person you're mailing to will go to the post office counter, present a photo-ID, and ask for their general delivery mail. The post office then goes to find it and give it to them.

If there's more than one post office in town, it's good to send it to the smaller one so that the envelope or whatever is easier for the staff to find. But also, the post office will only hold the mail for 30 days, so it's important that they know to go get it.

 

[Preacher]

Generally, for General Delivery, you need to register for it at the particular Post Office to which it's being delivered..They then know to put it to the side for you and you get the correct mailing info. Plus some post offices don't do general delivery. Mostly just the main post office in smaller to medium cities and towns.

 

[Kim Chee]

Generally, for General Delivery, you need to register for it at the particular Post Office to which it's being delivered..They then know to put it to the side for you and you get the correct mailing info. Plus some post offices don't do general delivery. Mostly just the main post office in smaller to medium cities and towns.

All post offices regardless of size have the same rules and postage rates. Different hours...sure, all else applies.

btw: I like tiny post offices.

 

[Preacher]

All post offices regardless of size have the same rules and postage rates. Different hours...sure, all else applies.

Just clarified with my Dawg. It's the wanna-be post offices in super markets and such that won't do it. I've always done it in regular post offices in little tiny towns and never had a problem.

 

[jaws]

You can always dumpster dive a stamp off an old envelope and spit glue it onto what your sending.
Real nice info, I am eager to experiment these strategies in the US.

 

[physics]

Generally, for General Delivery, you need to register for it at the particular Post Office to which it's being delivered..They then know to put it to the side for you and you get the correct mailing info. Plus some post offices don't do general delivery. Mostly just the main post office in smaller to medium cities and towns.

I only did it in New Mexico, but I didn't have to register for it at all. Just showed up with an ID...

 

[Preacher]

Cool. Maybe I been doing more then I need to. Thx.