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Blog > The postcard that started it all is back!

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Some of you might have seen a picture of PT-1, the very first postcard ever sent through Postcrossing — the one that started it all! It’s a blue-skied postcard featuring three majestic lighthouses, sent by Paulo to Ana (that’s me!). As you can imagine, it’s always been a special postcard for us, but the publisher that made them has long closed and so they haven’t been available for many years. We always wished they would come back though…

So, especially for Postcrossing’s 20th anniversary, we took matters into our own hands: we worked out the legal bits, tracked down the original photographer, licensed the photos, and made it happen! 💪

Front and back view of the PT-1 postcard featuring the 20th anniversary Postcrossing logo and blurb.

The front of the card is true to the original one, and the back is designed to celebrate this milestone. And to make it even more special, we added something new too: a sheet of fun cinderella stamps! These aren’t real postage stamps, but they’re great for decorating your postcards on this special year. They feature Postcrossing’s iconic red “P” and a yellow “20”, the anniversary we’re celebrating.

A bundle of lighthouse postcards wrapped with a strip of decorative P20 stamps.

Since it’s the 20th anniversary, each bundle has 20 postcards and a stampsheet with 20 decorative cinderella stamps, all wrapped up with a paper band.

 A few lighthouse postcards with two decorative P20 stamps and a pen. We did a small batch of these, and they have just been added to the Postcrossing shop — so if you’d like to grab one, now’s your chance! Purchases will be limited to one pack per person, and we might print a few more if there’s enough interest. These will all be shipped from Europe.

This is our first time making a physical product from beginning to end (working with printers and suppliers, looking at different papers, thinking about packaging, etc.), and we’re eager to put all this knowledge into new fun things in the future. We hope you like the special anniversary bundle, and that we’ll see a few of these postcards pop up on the postcard walls over the coming months!

Sorry, everyone… We’ve run out already. 😞 We seriously underestimated how popular these would be! We’re preparing more of them, and they should be available on the shop in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you’d like to be notified as soon as they are back, please submit the form on the 20 years page.

60 comments so far

HM, Netherlands

Fabulous!

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Orca_Kid, United Kingdom

Postcrossing stamps! Awesome!

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Seracker, Singapore

So exciting! Order placed! :D

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jjmedusa, United States of America

Wow! This is amazing! Congratulations on putting this all together! :)

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Indreni, United States of America

How beautiful and sweet!! Forever grateful for Postcrossing 💚

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Ozolinji, Latvia

Purchases will be limited to one pack per person or per order? I can make a new order with postcards bundle.

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Trans_Niqabi, United States of America

Love it.

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Mailbird2, United States of America

Cool!

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LeilaKewl, Philippines

Oh, wow! That is so great!
Congratulations again, and thank you for starting Postcrossing!

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Mindee, Finland

How wonderful!!! <3

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Sverige, Sweden

Wow!

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Guny, Switzerland

Done ✅

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mooonie, United States of America

How exciting! I love bringing back designs for anniversaries

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Demmi, Romania

Just Awesome!

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harrickson, United States of America

This is great! Nice work!

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jkbeitz, United States of America

Just placed my order! Can’t wait to send ‘em.

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dollart, Finland

Great chose for first card Paulo 20 years ago. Order made and chose also Tote bag to show off this amazing hobby. Happy anniversary!

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shanx, United States of America

I double love this! Can't wait for mine to arrive and to start seeing them on postcard walls. What a smart way to commemorate.

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AmyOctober, Russia

Aww the anniversary set looks amazing, you did a great job! I'd love to get that postcard ☺️

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flyingmomo, Germany

Awesome and I just placed my order🌝

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upsnana, United States of America

So awesome

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BeckyS, United States of America

I just placed my order. <3

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iamrivascancun, United States of America

Can't wait to get my order!

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batyuk1811, Russia

How interesting! It's great that you printed a postcard and stamps. I really want to buy them!

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stampraider, Canada

I love this a stupid amount. What an epic idea for the anniversary! This card ❣️

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Treasure, Spain

🎂🎈🎉🥳 Thank you for offering this bundle!!!! I already placed an order!!!! 🎂🎈🎉🥳

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CentralTexasRose, United States of America

Love these and the fact that "we worked out the legal bits, tracked down the original photographer, licensed the photos, and made it happen! 💪"
Ordered mine today! Congratulations!!

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Florallle, United Kingdom

SOLD OUT!

Such a shame. It's gone in just a couple of hours.

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meiadeleite, Portugal

@floralle — Indeed... I'm afraid it's super hard to estimate how much the demand will be for something new that you're making. :( But now we have a better idea, and we'll get busy assembling more bundles!

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Florallle, United Kingdom

Oh hurray! Thank you.

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Rajath, India

Looking for a lottery as well from some one to host this card and stamp

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Flippie, Canada

Hiep Hiep Hoera! Congrads!

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zgmazur20, United States of America

we love postcrossing, yay!!

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Aileen93, Germany

Congrats 🍾 And don’t be sorry, the idea was a really nice one but it was clear that it wouldn’t be enough for everyone. Never mind.
We can all see it here on this site 🤩❤️.
Best wishes ❤️

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sedgewick, United States of America

A beautiful card to kick off a beautiful project, which brings so much joy to people around the world! If I haven't said it before, thank you very much for coming up with this idea.

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mezzanine2, Canada

Congratulations on the sell out of your postcard bundle. Hopefully I can order one in the future.

Perhaps a possibility is to take paid in full pre-orders to determine how many to print?

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hulamunki, United States of America

Please hurry and make more! Of course, we all want them!

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shugal, Germany

Indeed, we all want them. :-) And some of us would like to get more than one bundle. Do you know how quickly 20 postcards are written and mailed? ;-) I also understand the difficulty to estimate demand. How about you allow pre-ordering (including up-front payment), so you get the orders and money in already and can then print the amount needed? Most meeting cards are handled that way: First you send in your orders, then the total number of cards determines the price (as using the Postcard logo requires no profit to be made), then they are paid and ordered, and after payment is received the cards are mailed out. Has always worked well for me.

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sonataca, United States of America

Would love to order it. But please don't feel rushed!

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Kamara, United States of America

Any chance you could offer the Cinderella stamps unbundled too?
Thanks for considering the idea. And big thanks for bringing this idea to fruition.
💖

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QBert, United States of America

Well that was fast! It shows how much everyone loves you! Congrats on 20 years. I wish I knew sooner. 😜

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Milatra, Russia

So beautiful card and a nice stamp! 🎉

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animemiz, United States of America

Hopefully you guys get it back soon, unsure why it wouldnt have been better to share the file like World Postcard Day and then we can get to print out our own postcards. the stamps are a nice touch!

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memo_baghdad, Iraq

Postcrossing stamps and Lighthouses postcard! Awesome! how can I place an order?

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orange_memo, United States of America

I love it, that's a great idea Postcrossing Team👍

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JOSEMARIE, Netherlands

And I like to receive one!😃 or two or more!
Great idea, Postcrossing Team!

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Bresser3, United States of America

Well done, great idea. Please consider this my order for a package when ready. Thank you, Bresser 3

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KartenKult, Switzerland

Great idea. Can't wait to hold them in my hands! 😍

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grueneflamingoblumen, Germany

Wooow
The look of the 20year card was amazing.
Please don't worry the cards were already out.
The idea counts.
Thank you, team, that there is something like Postcrossing.

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TheDutchman, Netherlands

Great postcard! I hope I get one or two of these in my mailbox.
On to the next anniversary!

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emotis, United States of America

These are such a great design (and I'm thrilled I was able to order a set before they sold out.) I can't wait to send them out!!

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Talal90Ahmed, Iraq

thanks-----------------

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thisisamit, India

The cards are sold out, so congratulations on that postcrossing team! But if anyone got your hands on that, and is reading this, please send me a card :D

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Tsadida, United States of America

I'm always too late 😂 I'll wait for the restock.

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x_PostcardPerfect_x, United States of America

I got my bundle from the first batch and I can't wait!!!
Thank you so much for this!!!!

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Mandar, India

Fantastic ! 20 years back it all started with one postcard ! So nostalgic and amazing feeling indeed !

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JoePhocaro, China

Marvellous to see this!

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kapari767, Australia

Could someone tell me if they saw the shipping cost to Australia for one set of these?

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HookedonPostcards, Canada

Such a beautiful story that reminds us all of the power of the postcards as a means to send messages of love and care, kindness and joy. Thank you for sharing your own postcard story, Ana and Paulo, as well as for taking the time and putting in the effort to share the love of postcard joy with all of us by creating a 20th anniversary special edition postcard. Feeling the joy here! Thanks for starting this project, and for staying with it for 20 years. I hope that everyone who orders the 20th anniversary Postcrossing cards sends one to you two telling about their own story about joining Postcrossing. :-) Thanks to all in this wonderful community for being a part of life that is calming and sane.

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Tinkatutu, Australia

I managed to order some kapari767 and it cost me 8.87 euros to ship to Oz. That price was shipping with CO2 offset....I think there was a very slightly cheaper option without CO2 offset.

They shipped almost immediately too, and according to my tracking are coming from Riga, Latvia! They've cleared customs and are awaiting international departure. I'm so excited!!!! I know they're not due to arrive down here at the ends of the earth until after the 14th, but a girl can dream! 😉

Thank you for the chance to buy these Ana and Paulo!

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