GPS Mail for Postcards (Venice)

I don't have an answer to the stamps, just use a official Italian Post Office.....But those rose guys in Venice, I get that - obnoxious

Google is your friend:
http://tinyurl.com/lxdtsh3

If you want to use the private-mail stamps you bought, then you have to use their mail boxes only. Or you could try again to buy regular PosteItaliane stamps. Discussion of the same company came up in this recent thread. It's unfortunate that their marketing is so pervasive in touristy areas that tourists get confused.

Gps is just a private mail service, why should it be a scam?
The problem is that, being GPS a private company, all tobacconists think that it's must be faster than the state owned service, while it's ten times slower.

It is not a scam. Don't be suspicious of everything that isn't like the US. Use the stamps and put it in the GPS box. It is not you are mailing a $1000 necklace. It is postcards.

I used the GPS stickers for postcards and they arrived in the US in about two weeks. They have to go in the special boxes at the tobacco shop, not regular mailboxes.

Good morning from Venezia! Thank you for all of the answers and clearing up my confusion/concerns!

:-)

We have been in Italy for about a month now and have learned the following about mailing postcards.
We mailed several postcards at the Vatican Post Office over 3 weeks ago, hoping to surprise our friends with these at Easter. We purchased the postcards and stamps at a small shop nearby, walked them a few blocks to the Vatican PO, and even took photos of us dropping them in the Vatican mailbox. To date not one of the post cards have been received. So . . . we suspect that we unknowingly put GPS (or other?) stamps on them and not poste italiane.

We were told they probably got tossed out and will never get mailed.

More research: I don't think GPS mail is a scam, you just need to put postcards with their stamps into their mailboxes. Now that we understand this, we been noticing these maileboxes all over Venice in the little shops where you buy the stamps. GPS mail is a private company, much like DHL or UPS in the United States. If you drop off their mail in a USPS mailbox, the chances of it getting mailed are pretty slim. For postcards over here, it is near zero.

Yesterday, we went to the poste italiane office and purchased postcard stamps for the US at 2.20 euros each. For the other stamps we purchased throughout Italy (and subsequently mailed in various locations) we paid anywhere from 2.25 to 2.50 euros each. We purchased all stamps at various small and tabbacci shops. We dropped all of them into the red poste italiane mailboxes. Since it hasn't been 2 weeks, we're unsure whether THEY will arrive. Again, we didn't realize there were separate mail systems. Live and learn. I'm a little surprised Rick hasn't talked more about this topic though . . .

If you mailed the cards in Vatican City you needed Vatican stamps, not Italian ones.

Much as I love paper post cards, that €2-2.50 per card has turned me toward emailing photos with a note.