Postcrossing Blog

In the northern hemisphere, summer is slowly but surely turning into fall. Children are off to school, the air is crisp and colder, and our faint tan is slowly fading away… What did you do this summer? And did you take some nice pictures?

For this weekend’s giveaway, we want you to share your summer memories with us. Post a link in the comments to your best summer photo, a photo you took that simultaneously embodies what the season means to you and that you think would look good on your next batch of MOO postcards!

Our photo would probably be this one, from the Bearpit Karaoke on Mauerpark, where we spent many lovely summer afternoons:

Now show us yours! :)

This giveaway is generously sponsored by MOO, suppliers of lovely printed goods. Three winners will receive a voucher for 20 postcards, to either print their photos or choose from MOO's range of ready-made postcard sets.

Comments will be open until midnight UTC September 25th. Good luck!

PS – Postcrossers in the southern hemisphere, please share your Winter photos!

We know that in big touristic cities (or smaller towns) postcards can get quite expensive, or even hard to find… sometimes all there is left in the local paper shop is a stack of yellowed cards in a corner box.

Fortunately for us, Amazon.com has a great selection of postcard books which will cover your every need! They’re also surprisingly cheap yet very good quality, so we decided that a little roundup was in order. Here are 20 of our favorite postcard sets:

• The Art of Star Wars Comics: 100 Collectible Postcards
• Hi Postcard Book: 30 Postcards
• Wanderlust: 30 Postcards for Insatiable Travelers
• Rex Ray Postcard Book (set of 30 postcards)
• Happy Animal Time: 30 Postcards
• Where’s Waldo? The Phenomenal Postcard Book (set of 30 postcards)

• Pantone Postcard Box: 100 Postcards
• The Art of Vintage DC Comics: 100 Postcards
• Greetings from The Onion: 100 Rectangular Postal Cards
• Postcards from Penguin: One Hundred Book Covers in One Box

• Secret Weapon: 30 Hand-Painted Spam Postcards (Postcard Book)
• The Cutest Sneeze in the World – Postcard Box (set of 30 postcards)
• XOXO: Hugs and Kisses (Postcard Book) (set of 30 postcards)
• If You Don’t Love Books, You’re Going to Love This Book (someecards): 45 Cards for All Occasions, from Extremely Important to Utterly Pointless
• Bunny Suicides (Postcard Book): Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don’t Want to Live Anymore (set of 20 postcards)
• Indexed Postcard Book (set of 30 postcards)
• Vintage Postcards from Vanity Fair: One Hundred Classic Covers, 1913–1936
• Charley Harper: The Animal Kingdom: A Book of Postcards (set of 30 postcards)
• Charley Harper: Birds: A Book of Postcards (set of 30 postcards)
• I Feel a Sin Coming On: 30 Postcards

What a bargain! :) Happy shopping!

I’m sure you’re anxious to hear about the results for the House of St Junior giveaway! Here are Scott and Neil, the inventors of the postframe, drawing the names out of their magic helmet:

And the lucky postcrossers are…

…CamJP, Fiona89 and SecretSquirrel1904!

Congratulations to the 3 winners, and as always, thank you to everyone who participated!

We’ll be back this weekend with another giveaway – stay tuned! :)

martinha (aka Marta) is a very active member on the forum's Portuguese community. Like many of us, she likes UNESCO images and other historical places on her postcards. Here is what she had to say:

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

Back in 2006 a friend send me a text message with the site. He read about it on a magazine. I thought it was one of his silly messages but as i was working in front of the computer i decided to check the site. This sentence caught my attention “It’s a project that allows anyone to receive postcards (real ones, not electronic) from random places in the world.” After a bit of reading I registered, a few days later I sent the first cards and started doing some private trades. That was in September and in November I discovered the forum and then it got serious. Since then I’ve been receiving cards almost everyday.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Apart of collecting cards, I love to take pictures and travelling. These three hobbies are closely related to each other. My last travels were truly influenced by Postcrossing and by the lovely people I got to know these last years due to postcard exchanges.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your post office or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

I have 4 or 5 post offices in my city but this one is the biggest and the one I use the most. Some of the workers already know me, some call me the “stamp girl”; they don’t need to ask want I want, just how many stamps do I need.

This is my not so pretty mailbox but it sure makes me happy every time I find nice cards inside it.

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

I’ve got more than 4000 postcards, choosing a favourite card is impossible, I have too many favorite cards. As you can see on the picture, i truly enjoy beautiful landscapes and architecture. Every time I travel I try to visit historical places with wonderful architecture or breathtaking landscapes. The world is too big and I won’t be able to visit a lot of places; getting cards from places like that is the best and cheapest way to see the world.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love the excitement of opening my mailbox and finding cards; getting an address, reading the profile and finding the perfect card to that person and most of all getting in touch with people around the world. Thanks to Postcrossing I’ve met great friends.

Have you met any other members in real life?

I’ve met a lot of postcrossers from different countries and I know the most active members in the Portuguese community. We’re a great group of friends now and we often have meetings or travel together.
I’ve been to 2 big international meetings, the international one in Zurich last year and the Köln meeting last April. Both were wonderful opportunities to meet postcrossers and make great friends. I’ve also met a few postcrossers that were visiting Portugal.

The winner of last weekend’s PostCarden set was kate101 – thank you to everyone who participated throughout the week!

For this weekend’s giveaway, we’d like to introduce House of St Junior, a small company based in London. It was founded by Scott Sloan and Neil Gillespie, who explain the concept behind the company:

We love artwork, but sometimes we can’t afford it, nevermind get it framed. So we started St.Junior, postable, framed mini-artworks… to help you start your collection!

Scott and Neil invented a genius product which they named the postframe. These consist of special edition postcards, framed in black matte foam and covered with a sheet of shatterproof lightweight perspex. Postframes can be easily mailed just like a normal postcard – ours arrived fast and in perfect condition!

Here’s how it works:

Neat, right? And the best part is, today we have 3 postframes to give away!

For a chance to grab one, visit the House of St Junior’s homepage and leave a comment below telling us what your favorite postframe is! :)

Comments will be open until midnight UTC September 10. Good luck!