Postcrossing Blog

We can help! Postcrossing has a handy tool to find missing or incorrect Postcard IDs!

Many people don’t seem to realize this, and instead post their requests for help on their profiles or Facebook/Twitter, in hopes of reaching the sender… but it’s much quicker and efficient if you ask us! Vicki, our fantastic forum administrator, is an ace at tracking lost postcard IDs, and can usually fix you up in no time! :)

So, what do you need to do to get some help? Just fill up this handy form with as much information as you can and wait. That’s it! The form is linked on the page where you go to register a postcard, on the right side column.

Before you do that though, please note the following:

• Make sure that the postcard is an official Postcrossing postcard and not a thank you postcard or a direct swap.
• You can try to enter the correct Postcard ID many times without consequence. So, why not try a different combination? For instance, sometimes 1's can look like 7's, 3's and 5's can look like 8's, etc. Don’t worry, the Postcrossing system will not let you register a postcard that does not belong to you.
• Note that postcards with postcard IDs over one year old cannot be registered.

If that didn’t fix the problem, then feel free to submit a Unknown ID request. You only need to do this once for each postcard. If you make a mistake, just delete the request on your Received postcards’ page and enter a new one.

Additionally, if you find the Postcard ID and register the postcard before you receive a response, please delete the request. You can delete any request by clicking the delete button for the request on your received postcards list.

By following all the items above, most postcards with missing or unknown Postcard IDs can be registered. Oh, by the way, to reduce the chances that a postcard that you have sent has these problems, be sure to check out our recommendations on where to write the Postcard ID on postcards.

That’s it! Have fun, and pass the word! :)

We usually don’t write much here on the blog about what we do behind the scenes to keep Postcrossing running for you, but keeping your data secure is a priority and something we work hard for.

If you follow the news, you might have heard about a recent internet security problem known as Heartbleed (aka CVE-2014–0160). This bug has affected a significant part of the web by making it vulnerable to expose data that should otherwise be secure.

While we have no evidence that any accounts on Postcrossing have been harmed, within 24h we have patched all our servers and changed our SSL certificates, and so have the vendors of services that we use to bring this website to you.

Nonetheless, and to be extra careful, we recommend that as a precaution you take the time to change your password in Postcrossing and other websites that you use. This is an advice you will probably see in many other websites in the coming days and it is our recommendation as well.

We will continue to do our best to keep your data safe. If you have any questions, just get in touch.

Sometimes, mail has really good timing, don’t you think? It makes us smile at the end of a particularly bad day, or sometimes… it serendipitously put us in touch with the right people at the right time! I’ll let Loli-ts, the recipient of a very timely postcard tell this lovely friendship story:

"This is the story of a postcard and two people… I’m Loli-ts (aka Dolores), living next to Barcelona, in Spain. On February 5, 2014 I received a beautiful view of Prague from azuzanka (aka Zuzana), from Prague in the Czech Republic.

Postcards are magical windows. It’s always a pleasure to see a piece of the world, and to read the handwriting of someone that you have never met, saying warm words and inviting you to look through the window of her or his eyes. So, I was happy to read the message from Zuzana… yes, specially happy this time: she said she was coming to Barcelona just some days later!

When I registered the card, I also invited Zuzana to ask for advice about their visit to Barcelona and, of course, to meet each other when she were here. And yes, we did!

We made a nice walk from their hotel through the Old Town of my city, discovering the spirit of the district, some hidden spots and secrets of story… and specially, we discovered new friends. Postcards and Postcrossing where a main subject of our conversation. And of our photos too!

Thanks to Postcrossing, Ana, Paulo and all the people who work to make possible this great project and so many wonderful experiences as this one was!"

Text: Dolores T. (Loli-ts); Photos: Tomás H., sent by Zuzana A. (azuzanka)

Thank you Loli-ts and azuzanka for sharing your story with us! :)

What about you? Do you have your own Postcrossing story? Do share, we’d love to hear it!

Sometimes we think the Dutchies have all the luck! They have stroopwafles, vla, tulips, scrumptious cheese… and all the best postcard shops, it seems!

We already told you about a few of our favourites, and today we feature another fantastic one: Kaartfanaat!

Kaartfanaat stocks an impressive range of publishers: from Tushita to Aquarupella, from Inkognito to Kartoenfabriek… including all the variations of “Keep calm and…” you can think of! :)

They heard about Postcrossing from some of their customers, and since they know how we all love our postcards, they’ve decided to generously sponsor this weekend’s giveaway with 5 packs of 10 of their best-selling postcards!

To win one of these fantastic sets, visit Kaartfanaat's website and leave a comment below, telling us which postcard (or series) you liked the best! But be prepared… choosing from so much eye-candy will be a hard task! :)

Good luck! Do check back on this post around this time next week for the winners (randomly picked by Paulo’s number generator).

PS – For the duration of this giveaway, Kaartfanaat is also offering a 10% discount on all orders from €10 (excl. shipping). Use the code BLOG during checkout!

Good news! We’ve just received another adventure-filled missive from the Little Mail Carriers… all the way from Ålesund, a coastal town in Norway! Their host Cathrine (aka Norway_girl) showed them all the best sights in town, including the wonderful aquarium, where they got to meet the cuddle-loving wolffishes!

Hello everyone! Earlier this year, we were in Ålesund, Norway. It is called the The Art Nouveau City, as the city was built up in Art Nouveau style after a fire on January 23, 1904.

On our first day, we were taken for a walk at Sunnmøre Museum. Everyone can walk around among the old buildings for free. It was so interesting to see those old wooden houses with grass on the roof!

The original settlement in the area was built 12000 years ago and lasted until the Viking age, about 1000 years ago. In the main building, there were many interesting exhibitions about things like how yarn was colored in the old days, folk costumes, old rooms, tools for typical crafts… It was fascinating!

We did also find a perfect place to watch the mountains. Being close to the sea and see the snow covered mountain tops at the same time is very nice!

While walking in the forest, we meet a man who was cycling there, so we had to try that ourselves too…but it was harder to bicycle on the forest path than on a road! So we decided to just relax on the the view point, where we could sit on a bench and look at the city and the surrounding islands.

A high point of our stay was the visit to Atlanterhavsparken, one of Northern Europe’s largest salt water aquariums, where we got to see many of the creatures that are found in the North Atlantic Ocean! In addition to that, we did also see some tropical fishes, included clown fishes, turtles and really cute Humboldt penguins, which were being hand-fed at the time of our visit! You can see them running for their grub in this cool video that our host filmed! :)

There’s a huge tank in Atlanterhavsparken, called The Atlantic Tank…

… which contains 4 million liters of water and several hundred big fishes of 11 species that live in the North Atlantic Ocean (for instance cod, saithe and wolffish). Every day, a scuba diver hand feeds the fishes in the Atlantic Tank. That was so cool to watch! We were told that the wolffishes are the kindest fishes in the tank… they like to be cuddled! :D

We did also get time to write some postcards, and walked through the city town in search for a mailbox… Oh, here they are! A yellow one for mail to nearby places, and a red one for the rest of the mail!

Then we visited Jugendstilsenteret (The Art Nouveau Style Centre), which tells about the Ålesund fire and the rebuilding of the city. There’s even a time machine there, where we could travel back in time to 1904, to see what the city looked like before the devastating fire.

During our stay, we learned that Norwegians love to be outside, in the nature – so we decided to do like them, and go for a walk at the city mountain Aksla. What a view we got of the city and the surrounding islands!

And what about Norwegian food? Well, we discovered that Norwegians love their bread!. They eat so much bread… for breakfast, lunch and evening meal! And if you’re ever in Norway, remember not to put a second slice of bread on top of the first one – that’s a big no-no!

Here in Norway, they’ve got a brown cheese, a sweet cheese, and they’ve even got a weird device for slicing it! We also got to taste kjøttkaker (meatballs, on the left) and lefse (a soft flatbread, on the right). They were delicious! :D

“Shall we grab some more of that yummy cheese before we leave, Little Paulo?”
“Oh yes please! I never say no to cheese! :D”

Now I’m hungry too! Thank you so much Norway_girl, for this lovely report! The adventure continues…