Snail Mail Love: Vintage Stamp Postcards

As well as getting back into the rhythm of stitching and designing stuff, I've also been adding lots of lovely vintage bits and bobs to my shop!

I've been selling vintage things for a couple of years now and I absolutely love it. It's such a joy finding gorgeous and interesting items and then sending them off to their new homes - particularly when customers tell me their purchases are going to be a special gift, or are something they've been looking for for years. 

As the months go by, I'm working out what sells and what doesn't and also what I'm most enjoying selling. I blogged a while back about my new-found obsession with vintage tea towels (I love them so much I've set up an Instagram account devoted to them!), and obviously I'm drawn to all kinds of vintage crafty goodness... but one of the other things I'm really into is vintage stamp postcards.

These cards are known by collectors as "PHQ Cards" - PHQ standing for "Postal Headquarters" because they were originally issued by the Post Office here in the UK (more recently they've been issued by the Royal Mail). 

The Post Office (and later Royal Mail) have been publishing them since the early 1970s: a new set of postcards for each new set of stamps. 

 

I've loved postage stamps since I was a kid and I absolutely adore these postcards. 

They're great for anyone interested in stamps, of course, but they also make fab gifts for people born in the year they were issued, or anyone interested in the theme of the featured set. Pretty much whatever you're interested in Royal Mail have produced stamps connected to that theme!

 

I'm selling sets of totally unused postcards, so you can send a lovely bit of snail mail to your friends. The Christmas and winter-themed sets would make great Christmas cards. 

The cards would also look great framed, either individually if there's a particular stamp design you adore, or as a set. Super affordable vintage art!

Visit my shop to see the postcard sets I currently have available, and do give me a shout if there are any designs in particular that you're interested in as I have plenty more to photograph and list!

Post Office Posters

UPDATE: I'm now sharing my collection of Royal Mail advertising posters over on a dedicated Post Office Posters blog. 

One of the things I'm lucky to have inherited from my grandparents is a collection of old Royal Mail advertising posters, from the days when they ran a village shop and Post Office.

 
If you've been reading my blog for a long time, you might have seen some of these posters before as I had a few of my faves framed and on display in my old flat. I only have wall space for a few of them, though, and I thought it might be nice to have a space to share the whole collection, so...

... I've started a new Instagram account for them: Post Office Posters.

 

I'll gradually be photographing and sharing all the posters over the coming weeks and months, as and when I have time to do so. If you're a stamp nerd like me, are interested in typography or poster design, or just like old stuff then do follow along!

Tracking Airsure Parcels Internationally

I've got a postal tip to share today! If you're not in the UK and/or never send any parcels internationally this post will probably be deathly dull (sorry!). I've been using Royal Mail's "Airsure" service for years and never knew this tip, and when I mentioned it on Twitter a while ago it turned out lots of other people had never heard it either... so I thought I'd share it with you guys in case you find it useful :)

So, when you send a parcel via Airsure (the Royal Mail's trackable Airmail service) you get a reference number for tracking the parcel. You enter the number on the Royal Mail's own website and it tells you that it's entered the system... then that it's left the country... then that it's been handed over to the destination country... and then nothing until the item is delivered.

Screengrab taken from www.royalmail.com

I often send parcels to the USA and they sometimes take 3-4 weeks to arrive. For weeks the only information I'll get out of the Royal Mail's website is that "your parcel has been passed to the overseas postal service for delivery in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA"... which isn't especially helpful information, especially if you've got an anxious customer worried about their order going "missing", or if you've sent something important that you really don't want to get lost.

But! It turns out that if you go to USPS.com and enter the same tracking number the Royal Mail gave you, you can access much more detailed tracking information as the package travels through the USA!

Screengrab taken from www.usps.com

If you click on the image to see it full size you'll see just how much info you get throughout the parcel's journey - once it's cleared customs you're given the zip code at each step of the parcel's travels. So instead of replying to a worried customer saying "it's in your country somewhere!" you can say "it arrived in your State yesterday!" Isn't that great?

I haven't tested it myself, but apparently this also works with other countries you can send Airsure parcels to (so you can just Google their postal service's websites and give it a try). You can also track parcels using this useful website that pulls tracking info from lots of different postal services, allowing you to track a parcel throughout its whole journey all on one site.