Postcrossing Blog

A looong time ago, we shared some tips about postcard sets that were available online. They’re cheap, great quality and quite handy when you need a bit of variety… or for when your local bookshop has run out of nice postcards! :)

Lately, we’ve seen a lot of new and exciting editions on the market, which means it’s time for a fresh roundup! The choice is rather overwhelming, so to narrow it down, we decided to focus on reasonably priced boxes of 100 postcards. Here are some of our current favorites that we thought you might like:

• House Industries 100 Postcards
• The Art of Pixar, Volume II: 100 Collectible Postcards
• The Impossible Project Spectrum Collection: 100 Instant-Film Postcards
• Live the Life You Love Postcard Box: 100 Hand-Lettered Postcards

• Sibley Backyard Birding Postcards: 100 Postcards
• Postcards From Puffin: 100 Book Covers in One Box
• Postcards from The New Yorker: One Hundred Covers from Ten Decades
• Paris versus New York Postcard Box: A Tally of Two Cities in 100 Postcards

• From the Desk of Jane Austen: 100 Postcards
• Doctor Who Postcards from Time and Space (our absolute favorite!)
• One Hundred Writers in One Box: Postcards from Penguin Modern Classics
• The Art of Classic Comics: 100 Postcards fom the Fabulous 1950s

Typography goodness, photos, magazine covers, illustration, children and grown-up themes… there’s something for everyone, and they’re a steal! :)

Got any favorites of your own? Do share your tips in the comments!

Hurray! The Belarusian Postcrossing stamp was officially launched and is now out and about! While we haven’t set our eyes on a real specimen yet, postcrossers of all ages met at Minsk’s post office yesterday to use the first stamps and maxicards. Victor sent us some photos of the event:

Brilliant! Victor tells us hundreds of cards were signed and sent, and lots of mailboxes all around the world will be happy soon! :)

Happy Postcrossing!

PS – If you’re curious, you can see many more photos here.

Good news, everyone! On January 2nd, Belpochta (the Postal Operator of Belarus), will launch a new Postcrossing stamp! Talk about starting the New Year with a bang! :)

Here’s what it will look like:

Isn’t it bright and cheerful? Each individual stamp measures 28×30mm and was designed by Inga Turlo.

The Belarusian Postcrossing community will be hosting a meetup on the launch day, which will take place in Minsk’s main post office. Stamps will be bought, and lots of cards will be signed and stamped with the special first day of issue cancellation mark… so if you’re in the area, do join them! :)

We’ve said a couple of times before, but it bears repeating: it’s an incredible distinction for Postcrossing to be featured on a postage stamp. Our heartfelt thank you to Belpochta for deeming the project worthy of such an honor – and of course, to all the postcrossers in Belarus. This stamp wouldn’t be possible without your enthusiasm! :)

Happy holidays everyone… and happy Postcrossing!

andrea209 (aka Andrea) lives in Bielefeld, and is a regular at the Postcrossing Bielefeld meetups. It was there that she first introduced us to her curious hobby: bottle-cap collecting! Her massive collection is now in the tens of thousands specimens, from 147 different countries… very impressive!!

Here is what she had to say:

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

It was a family-meeting around Christmas when my sister and her kids told me about postcrossing. And my sister showed me her first postcards from countries I never expected to get postcards from. So when we come home (it was around midnight) I started my computer and signed up right away.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My husband and I have a very crazy hobby – we collect bottle-caps. Yes, your are right; these little things you find on beer-bottles, soda, pop or something else. You want to know more? Feel free to look at www.asippel.de. As other Postcrosser support our collection we now have bottle caps from Iran and North Korea.

And I love to paint. More than 100 of my sent postcards are painted ones and I’m very happy about every postcrossing-profile which asks for handmade cards.

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

After being a member for some time I find out that I love very colorful cards or paintings by some special artists, like Leonid Afremov (I’m still waiting for my first card) or Victoria Kirdiy. And I love lighthouses and teddy bears. As I received so many gorgeous cards it’s hard to say which one I like most…….

My husband gave me this rack as a birthday present – the perfect place to keep and show my received cards.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman or your postoffice!

This is my favorite mailbox. Just next to the shop where I buy all my stamps.

Have you met any other members in real life?

Oh yes, I have met a lot of other postcrossers and every time it was wonderful. I’ve attended all four International meetups in Bielefeld (the meeting-point is just 2 km from my home), also meetups in Cologne, Münster and Soltau.

Last year I also organized the first meetup for postcrossers from Bielefeld and surroundings. And since we had so much fun we will meet again next spring!

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

Yes, I have, up to now 4 people. My sister-in-law and her sister and also two ladies I met when I stayed at a rehab in 2010. And 3 of them are still active postcrossers!

Some time ago, we stumbled on katilemur's profile and were intrigued by a request which read “draw, please, the Dachshund – is a short-legged, long-bodied dog. It’s easy for drawing, really!”.

We wondered… did she receive a lot of drawn dachshunds on her postcards? Turns out… yes, she did!

From the top-left corner (with permission), drawings by zheka-french, Anja71, flooranna, Lord5005, cami21901, katkarapusalaatti, Bookorama, Ella_Grape and julykachanova.

A lot of drawers seem a bit reserved about their drawing skills, but they still gave it a go! How cool is that? :D

We were curious so we asked Ekaterina… why dachshunds?

“Once I wanted to get something more interesting than just ”greetings from… happy postcrossing". I thought how to encourage people to do little more than they used to. And I’ve decide the simple drawing is what I need. So remained only to choose a theme. It had to be something simple, have the typical features and everyone should know it and the result must be funny… I guess it’s very easy to draw the dachshund for anyone, even if you don’t know how to draw: long body with short legs! I’ve got the dachshund and I like this breed. So my choice was predetermined =)"

Drawing by BenjaminYuxin.

Great work, everyone! :) You can see more lovely dachshunds on katilemur's collection here.