Postcrossing Blog

We often get emails from more enthusiastic postcrossers, asking why there aren’t more members in exotic locations – like South America or Africa! Well, we’d love to have more members in all the countries… but it turns out, a lot of the things we take for granted in some countries are not a given in many other places out there.

I was thinking about these issues the other day, when an email from Darío popped on our inbox. Darío (aka dariomartinezb) lives in the Dominican Republic, and he told us the story of how hard it is for people there to do Postcrossing… and how he managed to solve this problem in his town! It’s a really heartwarming story that I thought we should share with you. Here’s Darío:

The problem with Postcrossing in my country is that the Dominican postal service suffers from huge disadvantages: slow delivery times, frequent misplaced or lost mail, damages to mail delivered and so on. When users started to join, they had to wait over two months to get their first postcards after they got registered some of the sent ones. This disappointed many people and they complained at me for that.

Then I talked to my mailman (we became friends last year) and he explained some sad things. When the postal service receives a card for someone that never had received anything before, they waited until a second or third correspondence arrived and then deliver the bunch. Why? Many reasons: the mailman didn’t know the address, the place was too far away, or simply they didn’t consider a postcard to be that urgent. I tell you, that shocked me!

My mailman suggested that I rent a P. O. Box and shared with friends. The mail is delivered daily to P. O. Boxes and there are no restrictions on sharing the address. So, I decided to become myself a mailman to my friends. And now people are enjoying Postcrossing more than ever! A friend and I pick up the mail everyday and distribute to their owners.

This has been the only way to make this enjoyable to many people. Last year in January the Dominican Republic was stuck in the early DO-200… We are now approaching DO-1000! I know that’s not much, but we are just getting started! :)

Isn’t that fantastic? Hurray for Darío (left) and Ramón (right), on their way to deliver today’s batch of postcards! :)

We know many Postcrossers take their yearly break in the upcoming weeks, to relax and visit new places.

If you are one of them and you’ll be away from your home or school address for a while, don’t forget to switch your account to the Inactive status in advance — you can do that easily just by editing your Postcrossing account. This will tell Postcrossing not to give your address to any other members while you are away. You can still send some postcards if you’d like, but you won’t be sent any until you’re ready to receive them.

When you’re back, all you need to do is to switch your account back to Active and you’ll be in business again! Rest assured, all your due postcards will then be sent your way.

Oh, and don’t forget to re-stock with postcards from the places where you’ll be spending your days away!

Bon voyage!

Willa (aka PostcardPerfect) is an enthusiastic postcrosser from the Philippines. She does Postcrossing with her two sons, and enjoys shopping for postcards everywhere she goes! :)

Here is what she had to say to our interview questions:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I discovered Postcrossing through a blog called Postcards From Miss Igorota, owned by a fellow Filipino who lives in New Jersey, USA. At the time, she was offering to send a free postcard for those who wanted to received one and I was so curious and delighted when I received her postcard.

I followed the Postcrossing link there, signed up and sent my first 5 postcards. Later I found out that another blogger whose blog I frequently visited, was one of my recipients and I was so happy when I saw my postcard on her blog (you can see it here)! Since then, sending and receiving postcards became part of my daily life.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Since I’ve been in two countries already, I can share photos of both post offices where I’ve sent my postcards from. Here’s the one in Canada:

And my current post office in the Philippines:

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

This is a tough question and I’m sure a lot of postcrossers would agree. It is really hard to pick a favorite and even I we do, it takes a lot of thinking and convincing and sorting! :)

But ok, my most favorites are Gotochi from Japan, which I think are quite special. It says so much about the Japanese culture – and I know how hard to get these postcards is, because they can only be bought from their place of origin. I’m so thankful that I have a friend in Japan, Clarissa, who sends Gotochi cards to me from time to time whenever she’s on a family vacation.

Another favorite is the Royal Couple, Will & Kate. I wasn’t a fan of royalty at all, until I saw how beautiful they are! When I was in Canada, I followed everything about their engagement and wedding and everything else. Not to mention their wedding date falls on the same date as my birthday :D. I just thought that they are the most beautiful couple in the world, and maybe someday, I might be able to meet or just to see them in person! (wishful thinking! :D)

Then there’s Mickey Mouse, just to satisfy the kid in me. :)

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Quite a few actually! I’ve helped my two sons, aged 8 and 12, sign up on the website, because they decided they wanted to received postcards of their own. And then lots of my fellow bloggers got curious when I shared my sent and received Postcrossing cards on Facebook, so they ended up signing up as well.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

First thing that comes to mind is… shopping! I mean, who doesn’t love shopping? Really! :D Whenever I go, I always look for a bookstore, hoping to find some good postcards.

There’s also the friendship of course – who would’ve thought that good and kind people still outnumbered the not-so-nice ones!

And lastly, seeing different places, discovering cultures and history, learning about other people who live on the other part of the globe, and to find out that all of us have one thing in common… that we love postcards! :D

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Definitely!!! Like Norfolk Island for example, I did not know they were a country! :D And Dracula’s Castles from Romania never failed to amazed me! Oh… how about Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova or Croatia? There are so many of them I want to see. My bucket list of the places to visit just keep growing each day I received a postcard from a “new” country!

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes! When I moved back here to the Philippines in October 2011, I help organized the first meet up and we’ve been doing them ever since. Our last meet up was on April 05, 2014, and just like on all the previous meetings, none of us wanted to go home early because there are so many postcard and stamp related stories to tell. And every after meet up, we all realize we need more time! :D

Hurray! The Guernsey Postcrossing stamp has just launched today and is now making its way around the world to many happy mailboxes!

In order to celebrate the event, postcrossers from the island and abroad got together today to send their first cards with the shiny new stamp. Guernsey Post kindly prepared a room for the eager postcrossers, who wrote and stamped to their heart’s content…

… and ate the delicious cake a talented baker at the post office did for us! Isn’t it gorgeous?

The local newspaper and TV channel were also in attendance, and so we hope that a few islanders will find out about the project in the media tomorrow and decide to join!

And here’s Michael (aka GIBSONMS) with the stamp! Michael was the enthusiastic postcrosser who approached Guernsey Post with the idea for a stamp.

Our big thank you to him for his initiative and to Dawn Gallienne at Guernsey Post, for deeming Postcrossing worthy of this honor. We really appreciate it!

It was a great day! Happy Postcrossing, everyone! :)

PS – If you’re interested, the stamp, postcard, and postcard+stamp+cancellation mark combos can be purchased online at the Guernsey Stamps website.

PostEurop is once again hosting their yearly competition to choose the best EUROPA stamp of the year!

Have you seen the new stamps yet? The theme for 2014 is National Musical Instruments, and each country has the chance to showcase their musical heritage. Here are some of them:

Aren’t they great? From street organs to stone harps, bagpipes, horns, saxophones, flutes, drums… The European musical traditions are all present and very well represented, so we predict that this year’s competition will be a tight race!

Have you picked your favorite yet? It’s up to us to elect the stamp of the year – so head over to the competition page, cast your vote… and may the best stamp win!

P.S. – We’re always curious to know… which one did you pick?