Postcards from North Korea

Is this more a time saving exercise or is it not possible to send post cards when you are in NK? Just seems at £5 a pop if I'm sending a couple or more I may as well post them myself when there. Or have I not got a hang of the business idea?

Isn't that also part of the fun of a post card, spinning the rack, finding one, hand writing it (which we seldom do nowadays) and getting to look at some foreign stamps and admire?
 
Kol said:
Is this more a time saving exercise or is it not possible to send post cards when you are in NK? Just seems at £5 a pop if I'm sending a couple or more I may as well post them myself when there. Or have I not got a hang of the business idea?

Isn't that also part of the fun of a post card, spinning the rack, finding one, hand writing it (which we seldom do nowadays) and getting to look at some foreign stamps and admire?
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Yeah time and cost saving. It's not the cheapest country in the world to visit and I'm hoping there are people who would pay £7 for the novelty of a postcard from there (The only other person I've found doing it charges $28) but would not want to spend in the region of £2,000 for a trip to North Korea (Once you factor in the tour, flights and visa for China etc.)

We are going to expand it to include Iraq, Iran and Somaliland as well, places that people either would not like to visit or would find difficult to visit.
 
Interesting business idea, the real trick would be to get a network local people in a number of interesting places setup and pay them a share to write and post the cards.

The biggest issue I can see is the overhead of checking the custom messages people request. I can imagine that especially in North Korea it would be very easy to write something 'funny' that could get the sender & your business in a lot of trouble with the state.
 
'Oh wow, a postcard from NK! When did you go there?!'

'I didn't I paid £7 to send that to you.'

'Ah.'

Good luck with it, bit it seems more of a novelty than anything
 
Siliconslave said:
Interesting business idea, the real trick would be to get a network local people in a number of interesting places setup and pay them a share to write and post the cards.
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That's the idea for some of the other places, we've got contacts in Iraq and Iran and the like so will be cheaper and easier. Turkmenistan and NK will always be the trickier ones.

For anyone interested the payment is now working! :D Had one go through so far.
 
the-evaluator said:
I can't see a way to cancel the transactions so won't try again until these 2 have either been cancelled by Paypal or have gone through successfully. I only want 1 but 2 wouldn't be the end of the world so no biggie if they both go through.
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All sorted I think. It looks like 1 has gone through and 1 was refused, not sure if that was by you or Paypal.

Does your Paypal account show that you've received a total of £7 from me?
 
the-evaluator said:
All sorted I think. It looks like 1 has gone through and 1 was refused, not sure if that was by you or Paypal.

Does your Paypal account show that you've received a total of £7 from me?
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At the minute it is still showing both payments as refused :/ It all seems to be working for new orders though as I've had a couple come through now.
 
well I don't think it will be a very scalable business for a start... maybe you'll make a few quid maybe you'll make a few hundred each year... I wouldn't risk doing anything unconventional over there, it is one thing to visit a place like that as a tourist it is another thing to start behaving in an unusual way... and sending potentially a couple of hundred post cards in batches will be unusual

I don't know if you've occasionally seen stories about innocent plane spotters being detained in foreign countries at airports or airshows because the foreign officials don't know that plane spotters exist, don't understand British eccentrics and assume right away that they're spies? Why, they think, would anyone simply want to look at planes for the sake of it.

Well someone sending a batch of blank or custom post cards is another thing that could quite easily be confusing and hard to understand - could easily see a North Korean official being confused at the thought of people paying to be sent postcards and given the paranoid nature of that state + their willingness to lock up westerners in the past you could easily end up becoming another news story. Unlike some random African country locking up plane spotters UK diplomats will be less able to help you too.

Mr Badger said:
I didn't know microdots were still so popular.
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though he's joking I'd wager that if this did take off and you dumped a bunch of blank or generic post cards off at the NK post office they might well be thinking the same thing :D
 
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Boycey0211 said:
'Oh wow, a postcard from NK! When did you go there?!'

'I didn't I paid £7 to send that to you.'

'Ah.'

Good luck with it, bit it seems more of a novelty than anything
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most people who receive post cards aren't the people who have been to the place the postcard is from... you generally send them to friends not to yourself no?

or maybe you bring back some for yourself too if you suck at taking your own photographs
 
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I don't get it, why would people want a postcard unless you've been there, in which case send it yourself.
Although probably make some pocket change out if it fir very little work.
 
I think this is a great idea. My mate who lives in Oz used to be obsessed with North Korea so sending him a postcard from there seems like a funny little joke. Order incoming when I confirm his address
 
MickeyFinns said:
At the minute it is still showing both payments as refused :/ It all seems to be working for new orders though as I've had a couple come through now.
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This is all quite confusing. I had an email yesterday evening saying that the payment had completed (I'll forward it to you) but when I log into the Paypal website it shows them both as pending.
 
psd99 said:
you'll get killed by the north Korean postman pat! lol
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First time in awhile I've had a good chuckle thanks for that!

Glaucus said:
I don't get it, why would people want a postcard unless you've been there, in which case send it yourself.
Although probably make some pocket change out if it fir very little work.
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Make some nice artwork, I'd be sh**ing myself if I was in NK :(
 
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MickeyFinns said:
Bit of an odd one this and I am prepared to get a bit of flak for the idea :p

I'm about to visit North Korea next week and have a friend who travels their many times a year for work. Last time I visited four years ago I had quite a few friends and family ask to be sent a postcard.

This has got me thinking about whether there is a business idea there i.e. setting up a website charging x for a postcard from North Korea and having scheduled postings for when my friend is there.

So what do people think, stupid idea? For it to be viable it would cost £5 or so for a blank post card or more for one with a message written on it...
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What places are next?
Somalia, Raqqa and the centre of the sun?
 
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