Postcrossing Blog

Over the years, we have noticed that the favourite part of Postcrossing varies from postcrosser to postcrosser: some prefer the sending, others the receiving, and many love both. So, we thought a poll would be an interesting way to have an overview of these preferences.

Thus, without delay, here are the final results from 11369 votes.

The winner is clearly that sending and receiving are both enjoyed equally! Or, perhaps, it is just hard to choose between one or the other. Making someone’s day with a surprise on their mailbox can be a lot of fun, but at the same time, being the one surprised can be pretty neat as well. So choosing between the two is not easy at all. Looking at just the sending and the receiving options, the receiving one seems to have the lead.

For this poll however, we wanted to go a bit further with the results. We know many of you love statistics, so we did some more digging into the data. We were curious to see if the preference between sending and receiving changes from country to country? Here’s what we found out from analysing the data from the countries with more than 50 votes.

First, the short answer: it does vary from country to country and by quite a bit! In many countries the preference is for the receiving (just like the global average shows), but there are exceptions too!

Starting with the countries which do prefer receiving to sending, these are the ones where the difference (sending vs receiving) is most expressive: Turkey (38% vs 5%), Taiwan (26% vs 6%), Portugal (29% vs 9%) and China (25% vs 5%).

However, we were surprised to find that there are also a few countries which do not follow the global average results and, in fact, actually prefer sending postcards than to receiving them! The top 5 countries where this happens: Australia (24% vs 11%), Japan (27% vs 14%), Austria (24% vs 11%), Canada (22% vs 13%) and Finland (21% vs 13%)!

It is important to note that, the clear winner on this poll, both globally and per country was the option in which both sending and receiving are both enjoyed equally! Still, for us it was interesting to find out these differences which the global results didn’t quite tell.

What about you — what did you vote and why? Leave a comment and let us know!

Salut everyone!

Today we’d like to tell you about a group of enthusiastic postcrossers from Romania and Moldova who have recently come together in Chișinău to celebrate their hobby. Being from neighbouring countries with many traditions and a language in common (not to mention a hobby!), it just made sense for them to cross the border and meet… and also to try to make Postcrossing more popular in Moldova.

In order to do this, they organised a collaborative exhibition and a meetup, which took place in Moldova’s main post office on July 29th. It was a huge success! Here are some pictures from this event:

The stands around the post office were filled with postcards either sent to the exhibition by other postcrossers, or from the collections of the postcrossers in attendance, who took the opportunity to showcase some of their favourite postcards and tell interesting postal stories. For instance, did you know that a lot of postcards to Moldova are sent to Maldives by mistake?

It was a busy day in the post office, as it was the last day of the month and many people were around to pay their bills. Many of them saw the exhibition while waiting, curiously checking out what this big group of people were doing around the table. The postcrossers were a busy bunch: together, they sent over 600 postcards to all around the world, bearing a special cancellation mark that Moldova Post did specifically for the occasion. Even the national news station came to check out what all the commotion was about!

Bravo, everyone! A big thank you to Olga (aka Elyna333) and Mihnea (aka MihneaR) for organising the meeting, to Moldova Post for letting them use the space, to the UFRM (The Philatelic Union of Moldova) for letting them use their stands, and last but not least, to everyone who participated and helped put together such an inspiring event!

Grüetzi!

Today we’re happy to share some good news from the land of cheese and chocolate! 🇨🇭  Swiss Post is going to launch 3 new Postcrossing-themed stamps later this year! Have a look:

Can you guess which stamp should be used on a postcard sent to Switzerland, Europe or the rest of the world?

The trio of fun stamps was drawn by cartoonist Max Spring, whose style will be familiar to many as his illustrations often appear in newspapers, stamps and other publications. He did a wonderful job on these, and we’re sure they’ll be a highlight on any postcard traveling from Switzerland!

Though the stamps will only be launched on September 7th, they’re already available online for pre-order on Swiss Post’s shop. While you wait for September to use them, keep an eye on the forum and meetup page, as a meeting is in the works to celebrate the stamp launch! 😊

The Indonesian Postcrossing stamp was issued last week, and a few meetups took place around the country to celebrate both their new stamps and Postcrossing’s birthday. We have pictures to share with you!

Here are the local postcrossers in Bandung…

…in Jakarta…

…in Semarang…

…in Surabaya…

… and in Yogyakarta!

Looks like a great day was had by all, and there was even geplak and gethuk, some typical Indonesian treats! 😍 Pretty stamps, postcards and “cake”… sounds like the recipe for a perfect birthday celebration!

Ever heard of Postcrossing Ambassadors? They’re members who go the extra mile to spread the word about the project to help it grow, writing articles on newspapers or magazines, giving interviews to TV stations or organizing events to popularize the hobby, among many other remarkable contributions.

Jifeng (aka shijifeng) from China, is one of our most enthusiastic ambassadors, and this summer he was involved in the organization of a huge art exhibition + event that is all about postcards and Postcrossing!

“Postrip — Post a word, mark the world” is the name of this fantastic exhibition that is currently being shown in Shanghai, celebrating postcards as a way of connecting the world, sharing memories and creating travel mementos. The exhibition features postcards, sketches, souvenirs and travel journals from five local postcrossers (arlynab, shijifeng, SuzyLiu, uranusreborn, wangjiayimike). Their items were beautifully put together in displays, which were then surrounded by their testimonials, as well as explanations on how Postcrossing works.

Have a look:

Isn’t it just stunning? The care and attention to detail on these walls and displays is awe-inspiring.

Pulling off something like this would be enough to make anyone proud… but Jifeng decided to push it a bit further, and used the occasion of the exhibition to organize also a meetup, postcard fair and set of talks about Postcrossing, in which the five postcrossers who participated in the exhibition were invited to tell the stories behind the postcards they chose to display.

As an added bonus, a special themed postcard was printed, and Shanghai Post even created a cancellation mark for the occasion so that postcrossers could send their commemorative cards with it. The event took place this past Saturday (July 15th), and judging by the photos, it was a huge success!

Hurray! 🎉 Though the event is now over, you can still visit the exhibition until September 24th, on Shanghai Mass Art Centre (125 Guyi Rd, Xuhui Qu, Shanghai). If you’re in the area, don’t miss it!

Our huge thank you to Jifeng for doing all of this — but also to arlynab, SuzyLiu, uranusreborn and wangjiayimike for their collaboration both in the event and the exhibition. It sounds like a brilliant team effort, and we hope it will inspire other postcrossers to follow their lead! 😊