Postcrossing Blog

Américo is 58 y.o. and lives in Santiago do Cacém, Portugal. He joined short after Postcrossing was born and is now amongst the Top 50 with more than 1400 cards sent. He has favorite cards but above all, he distinguishes the people who send them.

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

I have read about Postcrossing in an online portuguese newspaper just a few days after the project begun and decided to visit it. Just for curiosity…!!! I got hooked by the possibility to receive cards from different people all over the world. From that moment on I became a compulsive postcard collector!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love reading, listening to music, swimming, walking on the beach and surfing the net.

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

This is the mailbox where I post my cards. It’s the only one existing in the very small village of Vale de Água.

The stairs are used to help some people to reach the box because it’s too high (just kidding !!!)

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

Obviously I have my favorites among all cards I have received. However I think I prefer to distinguish those Postcrossers who have tremendous difficulties to get a simple postcard (for a lot of reasons) and send it everytime they get an address.

Happy 2010!

While half of the world has already put away their celebratory hats and champagne cups, some are still stocking on fireworks for another big celebration… the Chinese New Year! On February 14th begins the Year of the Tiger… which means… it’s time for another exhibition at the Singapore Philatelic Museum!

On previous years, these collaborations resulted in amazing exhibitions (Year of the Rat, Year of the Ox) and so, once again, the museum is asking the Postcrossing community for submissions. This time the theme is, of course, tigers! You can mail your postcards and/or stamps featuring these big felines to:

Mishelle at the Philatelic Museum promises to reply to all the cards received till February 10th, so what are you waiting for?

Happy Year of the Tiger! Xin nian kuai le!

Friendship Books (FB’s), penpals, ToyVoyagers and for more than 4 years now… Postcrossing! Ilyani, 26, from Malaysia manages to do all of this. The rest of the time she’s a busy student.

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

Ahh… long story! But short story is, I was bored and doing FB’s swap while finding new penpals. After a while I became more bored and decided to let go all the FB’s, and the person to whom I had sent the FB’s sent me postcards in return. She thought I was collecting postcards, so she gave me the Postcrossing website address to check out. I never saw myself collecting postcards, but I kind of liked receiving them from penpals and all, so I decided to give Postcrossing a try. And after I received my first few postcards just in such a SURPRISE way, I knew I gotta love Postcrossing! :)

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Writing/receiving letters, taking photos, ToyVoyagers! I hosted many ToyVoyagers before, and now I have my own Haris! He has visited Paris, Budapest, Rome and now he’s in Finland! He’ll soon visit Poland and Macedonia, how cool is that? I am still poor to travel to Europe, so in the meantime he’s traveling on my behalf ! :)

I blog my postcards too, I guess that’s one of my latest interesting hobbies :D Soon I’ll be back being a busy student again and I guess I won’t have much time to update it anymore. Or more honestly, cause I can’t bring my postcards to the hostel!

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

This is the place in this whole town that I visit most frequently!! I have never seen the postman personally, can you imagine? I usually see a glimpse of him passing the mailbox in our gate, and that’s all. And the postman is usually wearing black sunglasses so it’s hard to recognize him!

The place I keep postcards – I just load them into a huge box. In fact, two boxes!

And my whole postcards collection can be seen in Flickr.

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

Who says I have a favorite received postcard? I actually have 1000 of favorite received postcards!

Christiane from Germany likes postcards since she was a school girl, but she used to get them only from friends when they travelled. Till the day she found out about Postcrossing…

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

I’ve been addicted to postcards since I was a school girl. I always wanted to write and receive postcards. Unfortunately, I only got postcards from my friends when they were on holidays.

Some years ago, a friend from a forum told me about Postcrossing. I was as keen as mustard right away! Well, I registered the same day and sent out 5 postcards – the first postcards of many, many more. :-)

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I like to go swimming, rock-climbing or hiking. And, as I am a librarian, I love reading, of course! Books are almost as interesting as postcards – they also take you to other places, just like postcards do.

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

Me mailing postcards after a postcrossing meeting in Cologne, December 2008

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

This is an official postcard (PT-38113) that I received from the user postalmada from Portugal. I always appreciate it when users send me library postcards because I know that they are VERY hard to find. Additionally, the library on the postcard is a very beautiful one, so this is one of my favourite received postcards.

"In 1947 a young Czechoslovakian girl called Jitka Samkova painted a colourful picture of children dancing around a maypole in the sunshine. She sent it as a thank you to a newly-created organisation called UNICEF which had provided milk and medicine to the children of her war-ravaged village.

UNICEF – or the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund as it was originally known – was set up after World War II to help children such as Jitka in countries across Europe and the Middle East, and in China. Many children were suffering from hunger and extreme hardship following the war, particularly in the harsh winter of 1946–7. Then, as today, UNICEF supplied these vulnerable children with life-saving supplies of food, blankets and medicine.

Jitka’s cheerful painting was to become famous. In 1949, it was reproduced on the first official UNICEF greeting card. A controversial idea at the time, it was to prove a huge success."

(from the UNICEF site)

Sixty years have passed since their first card was made, and on this “Cards Full of Life” anniversary, UNICEF Poland has launched a campaign to spread 1000 cards around the world – and track their progress as they hop from destination to destination, spreading the word about this wonderful initiative.

And you can be part of it too! There are still 100 cards left to be released, and UNICEF has decided to partner with Postcrossing to get these cards traveling around the world!

Think you can send these postcards on a looooong journey? Leave a comment below! We’ll collect the addresses of the first 100 commenters on this post (only one comment per address please), and send them to UNICEF, who will then mail you your UNICEF card. Remember, these cards have a journey of awareness to fulfill, and you will be responsible for sending them onwards on their trip. Where to? Your choice! Keep them moving, spread the word! :)

PS – Not one of the lucky 100? Don’t worry! You can track any UNICEF card you buy at UNICEF’s shop on their site, and start your own chain!