Postcrossing Blog

… aaaaand it’s done!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to announce that postcard number 20 million (US-2449004) was sent by yenting in the USA on October 7th and registered today at 05:49 (UTC) by funfunbot in Taiwan. Hurray! :D

Both the sender and the receiver will receive a surprise gift from MOO: a pack of 20 postcards for each of them!

Myrcella was the big winner of our guessing game contest, since she correctly guessed the correct minute in which that postcard was registered – bravo! You’ve won a pack of 40 postcards (20 classic, 20 luxe) from MOO + Keri Smith's new postcard book, Everything is connected.

The other four lucky postcrossers who came the closest to the right time were Alina92, Flusz, Eleleo and iphigenia – well done! You’ll all receive a pack of 20 postcards from MOO!

Once again, thank you for continuing to send lovely postcards to strangers across the globe, and for supporting Postcrossing throughout the years. A big thank you as well to our team of volunteers, who keep the project running everyday, and of course to MOO and Keri Smith, who kindly sponsored the contest!

And now… on with the postcard sending! There are plenty of mailboxes worldwide in need of happy days! :)

You know how there’s a cycle to taste? Things that were once deemed trendy often illicit a “What was I thinking?!” reaction 20 years later…

It’s a bit like that with postcards too. There are the timeless ones of course, and then there are those which we look at now and think… interesting. The 50s, 60s and 70s seem to have been particularly fruitful in this kind of quirky specimens.

We call them “bad postcards” – but in a way, they’re also great postcards, unexplainably perfect. They’re funny, quirky and representative of something that someone once thought was beautiful – or at least important enough to be featured on a postcard.

Lon started the BAD POSTCARDS Tumblr to showcase the kitschiest postcards from his collection that he felt shouldn’t be kept in hiding. He’s been at it since April 2010, and his compendium of vintage gems is simply stunning. The themes and variations are seemingly endless, and it’s very hard to pick just a few… here are some of my favourites:

Aren’t they fascinating?

I should warn you though… the site is extremely addictive. Once you start looking at strange food or wacky tourist attractions, you probably won’t be able to stop! :D

Long live bad postcards!

PS – The 20 millionth card’s guessing game is still ongoing! Place your bet! :)

Time flies faster than a postcard with a ton of priority airmail stickers!

Postcard number 20 million might already be on the way to its destination by now… which means, it’s time to open the guessing contest once again! :D

For those who didn’t participate the last times, it goes like this: every member has a chance to bet on the day and time on which they think the postcard number 20 million will be registered. And of course, there are prizes for the best guesses!

The member who guesses the exact minute when postcard number 20 million is registered will win a pack of 40 postcards (20 classic, 20 luxe) from MOO + Keri Smith's fantastic new postcard book – which we’ll be reviewing and giving away soon.

But there’s more! If you’re not the lucky one, you could still win something: each of the 4 next best guesses (before or after the registering time) will also win a pack of 20 postcards from MOO!

Some rules: each time slot can only be chosen by one person, so the first person to pick that slot gets to keep it. You can change it at a later stage, if you want, but only from the available time slots left. We will close the bets when there are 1,500 postcards left to postcard 20,000,000. There are some more rules, which you can see on the contest page.

So… what are you waiting for? Brush up on your math skills or roll your dices… but be fast! Slots can run out quickly! :)

PS – MOO has also created a special page for postcrossers, giving all new customers a 15% discount on their first order. A small percentage of every sale made through that page reverts towards Postcrossing – so with each pack you buy, you’re also helping the project. Win-win! :)

How do you imagine things will look like one hundred years from now? Minority Report-style interfaces? Teleportation? Universal translators? Or perhaps space colonies… It’s hard to make predictions, right?

100 years ago, French artist Villemard did just that, in a magnificent collection of postcards which Vivento brought to our attention some days ago. They provide a delightful glimpse into the imagination of our great-grandparents, and what they thought the future would look like in the year 2000. The postcards are currently owned by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, who suggests they might have been used to accompany food products, similar to Hildebrand’s chocolate packaging.

Some predictions were rather accurate, others… not so much. Take a look:

An operator would sit in its cubicle, while machines would break rocks and assemble a building.

Firemen had wings to better fight fires!

In the school, books were somehow processed in a machine (with a hand-powered crank) and then transmitted to students.

A chemical dinner – it’s funny how a meal was portrayed in a very elaborate and formal setting, even if food had been condensed into pills and could technically be swallowed in 2 seconds…

At the tailor, measurements would be mechanically taken, and a machine would then produce a suit from rolls of fabric.

Interestingly, some things weren’t going to to change all that much in Villemard’s imagination… like fashion sense! :)

The collection consists of 25 postcards, and they’re all fascinating – with lots of flying machines! You can check them out on Tom Wigley’s set on Flickr.

October 9th is World Post Day!

On this date, the world celebrates the hard work and social contributions of all the postal services… so don’t forget to thank your mail carrier for the wonderful job they do! :)

Across the world, post offices are celebrating this special day in many different ways! To help you celebrate with them, we’ve done a little research and compiled all the information we could find in this page:

Check it out to see if your own postal service is doing something special – you might be surprised! If you know of any other activities taking place on this date that we’ve missed, just leave a comment below.

But that’s not all! This year we also wanted to do something special, and so we’ve invited our advertisers to join the celebrations! Many of them accepted the challenge, and created special offers for postcrossers! So if your stock of postcards is running a little low, now would be the perfect time to re-stock… enjoy!

Here they are:

BuyMeCard – 10% discount for all postcards and stickers

Promocode 02ZWIYOF3NUO . Website is in Russian only.

Cardcetera – 15% discount + 4 random customers will get a free pack of cards

Promocode pcmailday2013.

Heidin Korttipaja – 15% discount

Promocode POSTI. Website in Finnish, ships to Finland.

Kaartfanaat – 20% discount on orders above €25

Promocode WPD2013. Website is in English, Dutch and German.

Mark Stempel – 20% discount on all postcards

Promocode WorldPostDay. Website in Russian only.

Minor Postcards – 20% discount, minimum order €10

Promocode wpd13. Website in English and Finnish.

MOO.com – 15% discount on all postcards

No need for promocode – just use the link above.

Natuurlijkefoto.nl – 15% discount

Promocode worldpostday. Website is in English, Dutch and German. Ships to Europe only.

Nederlandse ansichtkaarten – 15% discount on all postcards and postcard sets

Promocode WPD2013. Website in Dutch, ships only to the Netherlands.

Paper Postcards – 15% discount

Promocode WPD2013. Website in Russian only

PostCardPress – 20% discount

No need for promocode – just use the link above. Website in Russian and English.

PostcardShop – 15% discount

Promocode Postcrossing

PostcardWorld.eu – 20% discount + a free extra postcard

Promocode PARTY

Postzegelerop – 20% discount + Vintage Dutch postcardset free

Promocode Post. Website is in Dutch only.

The Postcard Store – 20% discount

Promocode PCSWP20. Ships worldwide, but check details here.

Zazzle – 65% discount on all postcards

Promocode POSTCROSSING.

All these offers will be valid through the end of October 9th (on the westmost timezone). Pretty fantastic, right? Happy World Post Day everyone! :)