Exactly three months ago today we were in Glasgow, and as usual I wrote and sent postcards from that fair city. Some of those cards featured these stamps:
These are commonly sold in tourist stores around the UK and I’ve used them before (including from many locations in England a couple of years ago). But I have since learned that these stamps are not issued by the Royal Mail (England’s official postal service) and are instead owned by a third party who has a dubious reputation when it comes to actually delivering stamped items.
If you use these stamps, apparently the items (which you put into a normal post box) are not delivered by the mail service, but are instead sent to a clearing house ran by the company that issues these stamps. They then send the collected mail in large quantities to another country with cheaper international rates, and mail it from there. According to what I’ve read these countries are usually in SE Asia, and there are significant delays as a result.
As far as I know only one Glasgow postcard using these stamps (and I believe I sent 10) has arrived – to my parents in Oz. The rest of us are waiting, but since it’s been three months I’m starting to wonder if we’ll wait forever…
I once sent my parents a card from Scarborough, England that took over 6 months to arrive but that used Royal Mail. I fear these Glaswegian cards are forgotten in a box somewhere, or perhaps experienced a grimmer fate.
The lesson is: in the UK, no matter how pretty the alternative, only use Royal Mail stamps (look for the queens head on the stamp). Even if your cards do arrive using these imposter stamps, they will likely be long-delayed!
