Postcrossing Blog

Stories about the Postcrossing community and the postal world

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Need an idea for a Valentine’s day present to the love of your life? Does he or she like postcards too?

We have just stumbled upon the perfect little gift: the postcup!
Postcups are lovely mugs that have a heart or message engraved on one side. On the other side you can customize them with your own message – as if they were a postcard :)

Isn’t that sweet? They’re handmade by Etsy user baileydoesntbark, and you can get them in her shop.

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Over the past weeks we have received a lot of feedback from the Postcrossing members for what kind of statistics they would like to see. While we can’t possible implement everything that was requested (or the system would be too complex to both use and make) we collected what were the most requested items and started working on it.

Today I’m happy to announce that we have the new user statistics ready for you to give it a try! Each account has its own personal statistics that reflect its account data.

user statistics graph

You can access your own stats using the left menu on 'My stats’. Please keep in mind this is work in progress so if you find any problems, be sure to tell us so we can fix it as soon as possible.

As usual, please let us know what you think!

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We have just reached another great milestone! For the first time, a Postcrossing member received his 1000th postcard! Congratulations Wyando! That’s a very impressive mark and we couldn’t be happier about helping with such.

We asked Wyando to share with everyone how this experience has been for him, which he kindly accepted:

Woha! 1000 postcards received. This is really incredible…

End July 2005 it all started. I remember I was on vacation in Stockholm checking on my mails and in the bookcrossing forum they mentioned this new site, where you could send and get postcards to and from all over the world. Fascinated, I thought, and switched over to that new website, curious to know how this would worked. And before I realized what I was doing, I already had signed up and got my first 3 addresses…

And now, almost 3,5 years later, I must admit, that it’s still fun. Although, there was a time, where I’ve been thinking of quitting anyway, due those inactive accounts and cards which never arrived their targets (even sending them twice or more cards!). Waiting for addresses has always been very though those days. But then the new rule of multiple addresses came up and this is the best thing what could have been done. More postcards on the way so that even if some of them expire, it does not affect your habits in sending a new card on the way…

Although one of the habits that has been changed by this new rule: I’ve started to create my own sets of postcards created by some pictures I shoot myself on my city. So called (numbered) Limited Editions. Till now I have 5 sets created of each 100 cards and the next set is in preparation (cat lovers will love that one for sure ;) . At least I hope this way to have something special (and from the reactions I’ve got, it seems to be), even if I often don’t know to write something interesting in my cacography ;)

Receiving cards on the other side starts slowly to become an everyday surprise (BTW, not only for me, but also for our secretary, who is getting the mails first – I use my works address to get those cards). It is a nice distraction from the daily job and each card is so unique, different. It would be hard to decide, which ones of those 1000 I prefer. Of course, all wolves cards are high price, but really, every card I get is interesting somehow. Besides, mostly there are also nice stamps to look at. Nevertheless, I have to admit, that one card I’ve got is really very special. Earlier this year, I got a card sent from Norway. It was a limited Edition postcard from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. And although my profile mentioning I like Pink Floyd, The Wall is one of my favorite albums (and film) so you can guess what this card meant to me. Thanks again, Joey!

From time to time I’ve been asked, what do I do with all those cards. Well, first they stay a while at work (and there I’ll pick some kind of “card of the week”). Since we now have that beautiful function of uploading cards to this website, I’ll try to scan them in between. After that while, I’ll take them home and store them in a big box for now. Now and then, I flip through the cards. And to be honest, I still don’t know what’s the best way to categorize them…

What’s next?
Well, keeping up with the cards as long as this whole addicting hobby is fun :) Receiving wonderful cards which makes me smile (either by the picture or what is written) and hoping that the cards I’m sending will create pleasure. And to scan and upload the cards I’ve received in the last years – that already will be a hell of job (and sure take its time).

Thanks Paulo for this wonderful idea!
Thanks Paulo & the DevTeam for this wonderful Website!
Thanks all participants in sending postcards all over the world.

Wyando

P.S. Some of you may know me due the Personalized Statistics.
For those interested in my 1000 cards statistics, I’ve created a snapshot here.

Once again, congratulations Wyando! We hope you receive many more! As a bonus, here are a couple of photos of Wyando’s busy mailbox:

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A bit all over the world, postcrossers like to get together to share their experiences and meet others from the same area. And, of course, to write and exchange some postcards!

San Francisco had its first meetup last Dec. 30th, and Kyo Suayan made a really nice little video about it you can see on Facebook.

Never participated in a Postcrossing meetup? Thinking about organizing one in your area? Then check this forum section with the upcoming events!

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While lost on the streets of Singapore a few months ago, we stumbled upon the Singapore Philatelic Museum. Naturally curious of all postal things, we decided to visit!

A tour of the museum provides a fresh insight of the culture and history of Singapore, not only through stamps and correspondence, but also using really interesting interactive displays. There were several exhibitions on display and one about the year of the rat in the Chinese zodiac attracted our attention.

Titled “A Rat’s tale”, it promised “insights into the lives of these commonly misunderstood creatures and discover how rats have made their way into history, literature, and even pop culture”.



We made our way through the games, and then in the middle of the room, we checked out some rat/mouse themed postcards. And as we started to read the postcards, something sounded funny… Most of them mentioned a swap, and some even had familiar names on them like Mount_rushmore, Swan, fragility, aina77 and orange_juice_drinker… Wait, these were sent by postcrossers!!

And then Paulo hit his head and said “But of course! The mouse exhibition!”

You see, about this time last year we were contacted by Mishelle at the Philatelic Museum asking help about setting up this exhibition. We had already forgotten all about it when we entered the museum, and had quite a surprise! And a lot of you participated, as the number of postcards showed:





Thank you everybody, thank you Mishelle for being so nice and setting up this exhibition!

Now, the “Year of the Ox” is approaching in the chinese calendar so… who wants to take part in the next exhibition?

Update: This exhibition is opening soon, so this activity is now closed. Thank you to everybody who sent postcards to the Singapore Philatelic Museum, pictures are coming soon :)

PS – If you celebrate Christmas, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas!