Postcrossing Blog

Hurray! July 14th is Postcrossing’s anniversary and we couldn’t be happier! Eleven years of connecting the world, one postcard at a time… feels great!

Postcrossing is not just a platform or a bit of code on a server. What makes this project great is definitely its community… which means YOU! Every single one of you, that perhaps looked at this idea with suspicion in the beginning but decided to jump in anyway and give it a go. All of you who ensure the world’s mailboxes are filled with smiles and kind words. Those of you who help each other in the forum, who organize and attend meetups, who send us tips and ideas, who send thousands of postcards to lovely ladies on their birthday. We’re thankful for your trust, support and enthusiasm in the past 11 years. Long live Postcrossing!

A couple of postal operators neatly lined up their Postcrossing-themed stamp launches to mark the occasion, so today, Poland and Guernsey see new stamps come to life!

Polish Post drew inspiration on the theme of traveling through postcards, and re-imagined a “postcrossers’ suitcase”… which naturally has a mailbox on the side!

To celebrate the stamp launch, Polish Post is holding several events in Wrocław. Among the activities, there will be a free tour of the Post and Telecommunication Museum in Wrocław, a competition with some prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy the new stamp and even receive a special cancellation mark.

Today is also the day two new stamps from Guernsey Post make their debut! International postage is being updated, and the stamps (for Europe and Rest of the World) reflect this change. Guernsey Post’s new stamps were drawn by Sue Hamon and aim to share the island’s rich flora and fauna with the world through the postcards they’ll be traveling in.

Guernsey Post is also launching a set of related products along with the stamp, on their online shop, including first day covers and maxicards.

So, happy birthday Postcrossing! Now it’s time to blow those candles and grab a piece of cake while we write some postcards — do join us! :)

PS – Speaking of stamps, the German Postcrossing community has been trying for years to convince their Finance Ministry that a Postcrossing-themed stamp would be a good idea… with little success so far. As Germany is the country with most postcards sent in the project, we think they deserve it. So if you have an extra card, give them a hand in turning this dream into reality!

You know the expression “an image is worth a thousand words”? Postcards do tell a lot about themselves just from the pictures, but what if they could tell you more by listening to them? That’s right, what if you could listen to a postcard? Impossible? We thought so too… until now.

They are known as Polish sound postcards (or Polish Flexi-Disc Postcards) and they existed in the 1960's in Poland initially as a way to give access to western pop music.

But how’s that possible you may be thinking? The trick is that those were not regular postcards but slightly bigger and squared. On the front, there was a photo as any other postcard, but on the back, it had an engraved recording that you could play in a traditional record player. You could even record your own personal message at the beginning of it. Neat, uh?!

To lean more about them, check this video of Mat Schulz, an Australian currently living in Poland that collects these sound postcards.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be produced anymore (and almost no one has a record player these days) but it seems it’s still possible to find some in Poland in flea markets or in collectors shops.

Do you know any place that sells them? Then let us know in the comments!