Postcrossing Blog

Have you ever helped out with a stamp appeal? We’ve highlighted a few of these initiatives before, because it’s something a lot of postcrossers are able to do — if you’ve been storing up used stamps waiting for something like this, then now’s your opportunity!

This time, new member StampLady let us know about the Bone Cancer Research Trust Stamp Appeal. The Bone Cancer Research Trust are a British charity dedicated to helping tackle primary bone cancers via research, providing information, raising awareness and offering support to those affected.

How can used stamps help, though? Well, once they reach BCRT, they sort them into categories and then sell them in bulk by weight. They get sold to collectors and dealers, and some special stamps also get sold by auction. In this way, the stamps are used to raise money by reusing all those old stamps which for many people no longer have a purpose. They’re able to use all kinds of stamps, no matter where they come from, whether they’re British stamps or from other countries, and no matter what the actual face value of the stamp is.

You can contribute any stamps you have by collecting up your stamps (they suggest cutting them out and leaving a 1cm border around them) and then once you have a bundle, you can send them to:

BCRT Stamp Appeal
20 Bowers Road
Benfleet
Essex
SS7 5PZ
UNITED KINGDOM

If you’d like to read more about the appeal, check out their info page! You can also read more about the work of the Bone Cancer Research Trust on their website.

You might be wondering where the Little Mail Carriers went after their magical cruise in the Bermudas last year! The little guys jumped over the water to Mexico city, where exciting adventures awaited them… but then the pandemic hit and everyone big and small had to shelter and keep safe. When things reopened though, they donned their tiny homemade masks, and went out to explore a very special place in the capital city of Mexico: the Palacio Postal, or Postal Palace. Here’s what they wrote back:

Hola everyone! 👋 Postcrosser Rose (aka Rousita) is our host for what was supposed to be a short stop in Mexico city earlier last year, but ended up being a long adventure! When she invited us over, she mentioned a “palace for all postal services”, and we were immediately intrigued and eager to check it out… wouldn’t you be?

The history of this place goes back to the beginning of the 20^th century, when there was an important increase of demand of all postal services in the country. The President of Mexico was Porfirio Diaz, who was inclined towards European style architecture, so in 1900 his government decided to build a large building, close to the main plaza of the city, called Zócalo.

He appointed Adamo Boari, an Italian engineer, as the head designer and the first stone was set in 1902. As part of the crew was also Gonzalo Garita, Mexican engineer, who oversaw the design of the metal structure that sustains the building. It was inaugurated on February 17, 1907, just three years before the Revolution war started in Mexico.

The building was designed to be functional, but at the same time, very beautiful. The architectural style is Spanish Gothic Revival (Plateresco), with a lot of other styles mixed in, in a wonderfully eclectic mixture. One of the most beautiful sites is the main staircase, made of steel. It was crafted in Florence, Italy by Fonderia Pignone and assembled all in site. All public activities take place on the first floor and the postmaster’s office is on the second floor.

We were surprised about the height and elegance of halls and offices, the library and the postmaster’s office. It’s really impressive that this building has continued to work as a post office, after a century. Probably one of the most beautiful post offices in the world, and it has even been featured in several postcards and stamps over the years!

Now that Mexico Post has resumed operations, it’s time for us to jump to our next destination. Stay tuned for more adventures coming soon!

Thank you Rose for giving the little guys a tour of this majestic post office, and to her partner, Dr. Martin Checa-Artasu, for taking such nice photos and letting us use them in the post! 😍

If your post office is especially neat, or you’d like to host the Little Mail Carriers and show them around your town, let us know in the comments below. We’re always looking for new hosts and interesting things to see — bonus points if they’re postal-themed!

You know when you enter a stationery shop and your eyes go wide in delight, as if you were stepping into a magical kingdom full of treasures? With so many physical shops closed these days, it’s hard to replicate this feeling… but now and then I get the same thrill of excitement while browsing a shop online, and Stationery Heaven is one of those places!

Nina, who is a postcrosser herself, stocks her online shop with so many kawaii stationery — from letter-writing sets, to washi tapes, stickers, greeting cards… and of course, lots and lots of postcards!

Stationery Heaven has been advertising in Postcrossing for many years now, so you might have already stumbled on their exquisite selection of postcards, featuring tons of familiar illustrators and brand names, like Edition Tausendschön, Art Unlimited, Lali Riddles, Tushita… even postcard books and sets on different topics! Whether you’re interested in art, transportation, reading or mailboxes, there’s really something for everyone’s taste.

And now, for the best part! Stationery Heaven is offering a mix pack of 10 postcards to 5 lucky postcrossers! 🎉 Pretty neat, right?

For a chance to receive one of these packs of postcards, visit the website and leave a comment below, telling us which postcard (or series of postcards) is your favorite of all! Sounds like deceptively simple task, but be warned — you will lose yourself in the middle of a postcard wonderland…

Here it is, the day we’ve all been waiting for — it’s time to wrap up the 8th edition of our Cards for Literacy campaign with Deutsche Post, and finally reveal the results from 2020! Sooooo many postcrossers have once more enthusiastically embraced the challenge, and dutifully written as many postcards as they could. Those postcards were really flying out in all directions!

I know you’re all curious to know the final results, so here goes:

Hurraaaaaaaay! 🎉🎉🎉 This is the best result we’ve ever had in the Postcards for Literacy campaign, breaking the previous record by over €1500 — brilliant! We’re so, so proud of all the German members, for joining this good cause and rallying together to make their postcards extra meaningful last December. It’s been really heartwarming to see.

Even if you’re not in Germany, if you’ve received some postcards from there in the past few months, then it’s likely that you too have taken part in this campaign and contributed to this achievement — well done!

We’d like to take a momento to express our gratitude to Deutsche Post as well, for continuing this long-standing collaboration with Postcrossing and renewing their commitment to improve literacy in Germany, year after year. I think we all appreciate the opportunity of being able to do something good with our postcards, especially in such a difficult year as 2020. 😊

So, all that is left to do now is for Paulo to run his script to choose the winners of this year’s prizes. If you’re in Germany and participated in this campaign, keep an eye on your email — you might be the lucky winner of some shiny custom stamps or a new messenger bag.

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just  suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

March’s writing prompt is about bridges… big or small, sturdy or wobbly, they keep us connected over rivers, valleys or other obstacles. Do you have bridges that are special to you, or which you’d like to visit?

Personally, a couple of bridges come to mind. I don’t really have a favourite bridge for architectural reasons, or because they’re particularly beautiful or in beautiful places. For me, as soon as you say “bridge” I think about the bridge over the Taff in Cardiff, which you cross immediately after passing Cardiff Castle and the Animal Wall (pictured! Image is by Keith Edkins) on the left. It’s really close to where my nan lived, so it’s familiar from years and years of visiting my grandparents. Cross that bridge in the other direction, and I’m walking to a second-hand bookshop, Waterstones, the library… It’s home, even though I haven’t lived in Cardiff for a while now.

I can’t really think of any bridges up here in South Yorkshire, but there are quite a few bridges in Cardiff, where my family are from, that I have nostalgic feelings about. Most of them are small bridges in a park, over streams which my grandad would have to (try to) stop me jumping into…

How about you? In your postcards this month, you can write about your favourite bridges, bridges you want to see, famous bridges in your country… and you can let us know here in the comments, too!