Postcrossing Blog

Good news, everyone!

MOO, our favorite printing company, has gracefully offered to sponsor a monthly contest here on Postcrossing. So from now on, every month, we’ll host a little competition and let you showcase your talent and imagination!

So, without further ado, this month’s theme is… video!

As you know, Postcrossing can be a bit tricky to explain to new users… so we’d like to enlist your help!

So your assignement is to make a short & sweet video that explains how Postcrossing works.
Then, submit it to YouTube (or your favourite video sharing site) and share the link in the blog comments. Use your imagination & have fun! :)

In 2 weeks (May 28th) we’ll review the results and choose our favorite – and if that’s you, a pack of MOO's fantastic postcards will be all yours!

PS – Got a fantastic idea for another contest? We’d love to hear it!

Daniel 46 y.o. from Montevideo, Uruguay, discovered Postcrossing in 2007 in a local newspaper. The postcards help him discover our wonderful world and he treasures his “postfriends”.

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

I, a true tiger and Sagittarius, passionate reader and traveler, read about the Postcrossing project in the June 2007 issue of El Observador, a local newspaper. I saw the immediate possibility of increasing the exchange of postcards with new and far away friends.

Although all postcards are good, advertising postcards caught my attention because they let me know all about this wonderful world. Postcrossing opened a huge window of opportunity to learn about distant and interesting places and more about people. Contacts made through Postcrossing or my blog, broadened my opportunity for exchanges and today I have many active “postfriends” that maintain my passion for travel without “traveling”.

A handwritten postcard with stamps is a time devoted especially to another person, perhaps at home, in front of the fireplace or in the square under the Spring sun. Postcrossing integrates the family because all the family celebrates when there are postcards to be found in the mailbox!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Read everything, drawing, photograph, enjoy the outdoors. A coffee or a good tannat wine in front of the fireplace is enough to celebrate life with family and friends.

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

The postcards are separated by country, always at hand for the friends, the family and me, at any time to cover the whole table and the world. Each new country is a new party.

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

All cards are attractive because they are sent with love. But three-dimensional postcards stand out, especially the postcard that arrived from Germany thanks to Smila – DE-282465.

My best postcard is a reminder of a trip to Milan, Italy in 2002, with four of them can build a postcard cube.

If you follow the news, you probably have heard about the Icelandic volcano that recently caused a major disruption on Europe’s air traffic. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano (don’t worry, we don’t know how to properly pronounce that either) caused huge delays on passengers hoping to fly on the days after its eruption on April 14th.

But why is this relevant here? Because not only passengers got grounded – cargo flights too, and this obviously included mail delivery services; any mail arriving or leaving the affected parts of Europe got delayed. But how much did this really affect the postal services? We couldn’t find any hard data on it, so we decided to measure it ourselves and share it with you.

Below you can see a graph of number of Postcrossing postcards received per week of 2010.

Postcards received per week (2010)

It’s easy to spot when the Eyjafjallajökull did its thing, isn’t it? We estimate a 26% hiccup on mail delivery because of the volcano. Quite amazing how powerful nature can be.

However, the good news is: mail delivery is back again to its normal speed, judging by last week’s numbers. It’s quite possible that postcards traveling to more far away places might still be affected by this, but the worse part seems to be over, so keep posting! :)

The Postcrossing meetups continue occur all over the world; Spain, Brazil, Italy, Netherlands, USA, Israel, Switzerland, Portugal, Canada, Germany – the list just doesn’t stop!

To keep you all updated on the next meetups, here’s the list of the upcoming ones:

1st May

UK, London

15th May

Canada, Niagara Falls
Russia, Moscow

22nd May

Australia, Brisbane

29th May

Netherlands, Leeuwarden

19th June

Germany, Leipzig

26th June

Netherlands, Den Bosch

27th June

U.S.A., San Francisco

3rd July

Poland, Wroclaw (Breslau)

For the latest about meetups, just check the forum – there’s always more meetups being organized!

And as a teaser, here are photos and links of some of the latest ones:

Meetup in Madrid, Spain


Meetup in Rome, Italy


Meetup in Tel-Aviv, Israel


Meetup in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Tamara, a nurse from British Columbia, Canada, collects many things including postcards. She sees Postcrossing as an extension of her caring personality.

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

I had been active on other postcard sites prior to the genesis of Postcrossing. It was on the xpostcardx site that Megan Herring told me of Postcrossing. I found Postcrossing to be exactly what I needed to satisfy my postcard hobby.

I got hooked once I joined the forum, where there is a plethora of opportunity to exchange both ideas and postcards. Being in a caring profession (nurse) I am a “giver” by nature and Postcrossing has become my outlet for sharing. The ongoing round-robins and tags help nourish my Postcrossing relationships through the personalized touch of snail mail. I often flavor an envelope with a surprise from someone’s “favorites”. For me, participating in Postcrossing is just an extension of my job: it involves my reaching out to others and extending friendship. It gives me satisfaction. Postcrossing has become my favorite pastime.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Aside from wilderness hiking and beachcombing, I am a union steward and mentor for nursing students. These activities have me travelling out of town where I scan the hotels and shops for postcards. I love gourmet cooking and collecting. I am a natural collector. My kitchen has hundreds of advertising tins and I also collect political pinback buttons, dolls, and ornamental eggs. Postcrossing is great for us collectors.

The dolls are one of my hobbies (collecting).

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

CABLECAR is the name of the neighborhood I live in. This is the kiosk where I pickup my snail mail.

The building with the emblem is Kitimat’s Canada Post outlet, where I purchase stamps and get my parcels sent from.

The van is the vehicle that delivers the mail.

The album on the fireplace mantel shows my European map cards collection.

The wire wreath hangs in the window of my dining room. This is how I display my seasonal postcards (ie Halloween).

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

This is the postcard that made my soul sing! I received it early on when I first joned the forum. It depicts gingerbread figures. My first glance stirred long forgotten memories. Since I love to cook, it was the perfect card for me. I had it professionally framed and matted so I could afford it a permanent and central spot in my kitchen. Thanks to the dear Finnish postcrosser who chose this one for me.

The gingerbread postcard is my extra special one, and has a place of honor in my kitchen.