Postcrossing Blog

Andy (or Duplevista) is 52 and lives in Southampton in the UK. He is known for being very interested in anything related with buses and is specially keen on squared postcards. Here’s what he has to share with us.

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

I was a member of various postcard e-groups and a Norwegian guy that I swapped with told me about Postcrossing. After just sending officials for a short while I discovered the forum button – then I was really hooked!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I am interested in all forms of public transport, especially buses and spend as much of my spare time visiting places and logging the details of the vehicles seen to record on my database. Strange as it may seem, its a great excuse for visiting new places!

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

The part of the front room that I laughingly call my office, where the majority of my postcard stuff is.

As the post office that I use the most is just a small part of a newsagents, I decided to send a picture of one of the delivery vans to be different.

Where most of my cards and envelopes get posted. It is an older box with GR indicating it was new in the reign of King George VI. Unusual in the fact it is built into a freestanding brick structure.

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

This was sent to me as a RAS by aj-person from Finland. I have developed a great love of Square shaped postcards.

This was given to me by MissMaple after the Art Unlimited meeting when I raided her doubles box!

Have you met any other members in real life?

I am lucky enough to have met quite a few, the first that I met was lovely ElSol from Russia. Since then I have met those at the London Meeting, and the meeting in Alkmaar at Art Unlimited. I have formed a lasting friendship with MissMaple and Thaddee_Calisson especially, amongst many others.

Our prolific Finnish users have just reached the remarkable milestone of 1 million sent postcards, making Finland the first country to reach into postcards IDs with 7 digits! Hoorray!

Well done, Finnish Postcrossers! :)

Update! The postcard FI-1000000 was already registered! It was sent by MsMoney to ClubPenguin-Nicholas in the U.K.!

Today we would like to share with you two easy ways to make the most of the power of a postcard in brighting someone’s day. In particular, of those who might need it the most.

Post Pals Post Pals is a website ran by a group of volunteers that allows anyone to send postcards/letters/parcels to very sick children. Sending a cheerful post is a very simple and easy way to give this children something to look forward to when they are often isolated and suffering.

The founder of Post Pals is Vikki George who is herself bed-bound for the last seven years due to suffer from ME. Instead of loosing her hope, she spends her time helping sick children through her Post Pals.

Here’s a video that explains it further.

We find this to be a great cause and a good example of how a simple postcard can make a big difference.

Children welfare stamps organisation Kinderpostzegels

Kinderpostzegels is organization based (but not specific to) the Netherlands with the same goal of helping children, but through the use of stamps. Here’s what Lilian Visscher from Kinderpostzegels shared about it with us:

Stichting Kinderpostzegels Nederland (Kinderpostzegels) is a children’s charity with the slogan: 'for children, by children’. The annual Children’s Welfare Stamps Campaign, with 200.000 children selling stamps and postcards to 2 million people is a striking example of this, forming the organisation’s showpiece. In this campaign, children help other children. Kinderpostzegels uses the proceeds to support projects focusing primarily on children. Kinderpostzegels believes it is important to involve children as much as possible in the projects.

Kinderpostzegels believes that all children are entitled to develop their individual talents and abilities. They are one of the most vulnerable groups in society and sometimes need extra help and protection.

Kinderpostzegels is an independent organisation, which means it is not tied to governments or economic or political movements.Kinderpostzegels raises and allocates funds for the benefit of children in the Netherlands as well as outside this country.

The postcrossers from Holland can help children who need extra help and protection, by sending their postcards with a children’s welfare stamp. There are two ways: they can order stamps online from our website or they can make up their postcard with children’s welfare stamp online on www.postmijnkaart.nl.

This means that whenever you are sending (for example) a Postcrossing postcard, you can be helping children just by using their stamps. Neat, uh?

So, two easy ways to help children through postcards. Do you know others? Share them in the comments so that others know about them too!

You know the expression “an image is worth a thousand words”? Postcards do tell a lot about themselves just from the pictures, but what if they could tell you more by listening to them? That’s right, what if you could listen to a postcard? Impossible? We thought so too… until now.

They are known as Polish sound postcards (or Polish Flexi-Disc Postcards) and they existed in the 1960's in Poland initially as a way to give access to western pop music.

But how’s that possible you may be thinking? The trick is that those were not regular postcards but slightly bigger and squared. On the front, there was a photo as any other postcard, but on the back, it had an engraved recording that you could play in a traditional record player. You could even record your own personal message at the beginning of it. Neat, uh?!

To lean more about them, check this video of Mat Schulz, an Australian currently living in Poland that collects these sound postcards.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be produced anymore (and almost no one has a record player these days) but it seems it’s still possible to find some in Poland in flea markets or in collectors shops.

Do you know any place that sells them? Then let us know in the comments!

Yvonne is a 64 y.o. grandmother in the U.S.A. and goes by FloridaGirl in Postcrossing. She has a soft spot for postcards with maps and nature, as you can easily see in her favourites. Here’s what she has to share with us.

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

I had saw that someone mentioned swapping postcards in another site. I went searching for where a site would be to do that. I found Postcrossing. What got me hooked was not just the official part of Postcrossing but also the Postcrossing forum when I discovered private swaps and saw that there were so many wonderful cards of places I’ve never seen. The people in the forum were so nice and I started to make friends. Also the cards spurred me to research places that were on the cards. I couldn’t just look at a photo and find it interesting, if it wasn’t clear to me what or where it was, I wanted to find out.
I do continue to do the official Postcrossing exchanges.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love maps, rocks, bookmarks and for years I made quilts but I had to stop quilting. That’s when Postcrossing started. I have maps from many places in the US and some other countries (road maps) and have 5 world Atlases.

I also have a collection of rocks that my parents, other family members or I have found; and, some that I bought, for example, petrified wood from Brasil.

My children have been giving me bookmarks for years, since I read so much. I’ve gotten beautiful bookmarks from other postcrossers.

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

That is me at my mailbox in front of my house.

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

My favorite of the animals are wild cats. This is a great card for the tenderness shown by the lions and the fact that I received it as a get well card from a postcrosser who I’ve gotten to know.

I’ve come to love the beauty of the Julian Alps in Slovenia. This just one that showns how beautiful they are.

The Japanese have a beautiful way of showing off their cherry trees.

This one shows olive trees with wild poppies blooming around them. It is one that I think is especially pretty.