Postcrossing Blog

Although we’ve never met Luzia (aka Luziaceleste) in person, we know she’s a generous postcrosser. Sometimes, she’ll send postcards in advance to participants in meetings across the world… just to say hi and share a bit of the joy of Postcrossing! How nice is that? 😊 To discover more about Luzia, we asked her our usual round of questions:

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

It happened in seconds. A work colleague, next table to mine, mentioned he intended to join the project. I checked it out and registered before him!

Reason is simple: I have been always fascinated by mailing postcards. Every travel in my life has these moments where I shop, write and go after nice stamps before mail them. It a sort of proof that I’ve been on the place, and besides, sharing the experience with dear people is wonderful.

Postcrossing took me a step forward: exchanging postcards is also the exchange of culture and individual points of view.

In the very beginning, I used to send one postcard at a time. After asking for the direction and reading the profile, I searched the best postcard and then sent it. Soon, I realised that storing postcards would be handy, and I slowly asked for more addresses. Now I have two collections: the received postcards and the blank postcards to send. I am constantly being hooked by Postcrossing. Frankly, this an endless world. The more you get into, the more possibilities you discover: decoration, swaps, collections. If you wonder how this is true, go to Postcrossing Forum! I made many virtual friends there, that are not that 'virtual’ after all, as postcards are very physical stuff.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love the Tea Ceremony. Have been practicing for decades. It helps me to understand Japanese aesthetics and ethical views. It is very handy for postcards too: space for writing is minimal comparing to letters. Getting the most out of a few words is an art. And a goal.

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

I store postcards in boxes — not in albums. I love the contact with them, having them on my hands. Periodically, I rearrange the classification. With the growing in my collection, I see sense in ordering them in more refined ways. For instance, the 'heart-themed’ postcards are under sub-classification of 'Nature oriented’. Blank postcard are also stored in boxes according to the theme, to help me find the best postcard. I have no idea how many of each one I store… I don’t mind the figure, I enjoy the fun and the possibilities.

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Some people are enthusiastic when they see my postcards arriving and also the joy I have in sending them. A cousin, a niece, a friend and some people felt motivated… but quit after a while. Attendants in the Post Office are very curious, but language in a barrier in Brazil.

I like to support newbies, to ease their steps, helping them to cope with the difficulties we face at the start. Unfortunately, Brazil is a country with a lack of production of decent postcards, picturing the local scenario.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

The matching point! I love sending a postcard that I know the person will be pleased to receive. It is surprising when we get something that took someone’s time and effort… This is the magic!

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

What a difficult task. It is so unfair to all the other postcards… Let’s say that a good sample of nice postcard I got are:

A tasty, fresh and inspiring heart

A mailbox, on a very peculiar street. This postcard came from a swap with Japan via the forum’s 'stamp related postcard tag’.

A special eye chart!

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

The postcard I got from Tuvalu was a touching one for me. Thinking that the country is in danger talks deeply to my heart.

Of course, we also value the rare… but, I do value every postcard. From time to time, there is a huge number of postcrossers in one country and I send to and get from this country more than others. Still remember when Finland was a frequent country! This is a good opportunity to see personal differences. How people communicate, what they are able to express in their profiles or in the postcards. Every person is a single person, and even further, every postcard is unique.

Have you met any other members in real life?

I dream with meetups. And yes, there was a mini international meetup here some time ago. I was glad to join martinha, vbformig and andreaeiko for a nice chat. Now, we are doing efforts to do more local meetings with postcrossers. Let’s see!

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

I live in a crowded business city, so, every opportunity I have to escape, here I am, ready to get into Nature. Travelling is for me the best way to learn about others, through food, drinks and cultural production (in this order, please) and learn more about myself through relaxing and enjoying life. Travelling is also related to postcards… but this is no longer travel dependent, hahaha!

We all like to look at pretty postcards in each other’s walls… but sometimes the hassle of getting the scanner out or finding the right the cable for the camera is a bit too much work, right? We definitely understand.

Enter the new Google PhotoScan, a very simple “scanning” app which promises to take care of a few of the steps for you, such as removing glare, aligning corners and cropping the extra stuff — all right there on your phone. Have a look:

It’s advertised for photos, but works really well for postcards too, of course! Five clicks and you end up with a great photo of your postcard, trimmed and ready to be uploaded to the site. Pfeww… so much easier than the scanner! 😅

If you a have a smartphone, look for it on your Android or Apple app store!

PS – Thank you Danny (aka wildernesscat) for the tip!

Remember back in July, when the Singapore Philatelic Museum asked everyone’s collaboration with Harry Potter postcards for their newest thematic exhibition? Mishelle Lim from the museum recently wrote back to let us know the responses to this call for postcards were stunning, and that they’ve received almost 100 beautiful postcards — including hand-made ones and some bearing Harry Potter stamps. Woohoo! Ten points to Gryffindor Postcrossing!

The museum is now busy replying to the submissions, but have sent back some photos of the exhibition which opened last month. Have a look:

Merlin’s beard… that looks amazing! We’re always in awe of SPM’s exhibitions — you can tell they work hard on all the details to really take the experience to the next level.

If you’re in the area or planning to visit Singapore in the next few months, “Collecting Magic: From Stamps to Wands” will be open until June 2017.

We really hope you’ve all been good boys and girls this year (and not just the children!), because Santa has most definitely been keeping an eye… Still, if you’d like to plead your case, perhaps a beautifully handwritten letter with some compliments wouldn’t hurt? 😉

We encourage everyone to keep this tradition alive, especially among the little ones. For many, this is their first time writing a letter, and it can be a magical moment of discovery and awe.

To give you a hand in this task, here’s the list of Santa’s addresses around the world:

• Australia
• Austria>
• Belarus
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Canada
• Denmark
• Finland
• Germany
• Ireland
• New Zealand
• Russia
• Slovakia
• Sweden
• United Kingdom
• USA

In many other countries, it’s enough to address your letters to “Santa Claus” (or his name in your language). For instance, in Portugal you mail your letters to “Pai Natal”, and you’ll get a reply.

If Santa’s address for your country isn’t listed above, check with your local post office for more details and let us know in the comments. Happy Holidays, everyone! 🎄

Advent time is here already and the holidays are inching closer by the day… so it’s time to get our yearly campaign with Deutsche Post back online, to make sure your postcards count for a good cause! This will be the fourth year we run this campaign and by now I guess most of you know how it goes, but just in case:

So if you’re in Germany, all you have to do is send postcards, as many as you can! If your December postcards are registered before the end of February 2017, you’ll be contributing to this cause.

Although only postcards sent from Germany count, there’s always a receiver in every postcard exchange — so each time a card from Germany is registered, the recipient will be indirectly contributing to this donation as well!

To make things even more interesting, there will also be some nice prizes for the participants:

• Two €50 vouchers for www.allyouneed.com.
• Three €40 vouchers for Marke Individuell.
• Three post-themed messenger bags from Deutsche Post.

Nice, right? The winners will be picked by Paulo's random number generator in early March 2017, at which point we will also announce the value raised by the German postcrossers to Stiftung Lesen here on the blog. Every year, we’ve been raising a little bit more than the previous year, and last year the total was a very impressive €8,857… but can we do even better this year? 😊

Stiftung Lesen is a German non-profit organization, working to increase literacy in the population, especially among children and adolescents. Their activities include reading clubs and projects to promote the learning of German language by refugee families in the country.

So… what are you waiting for? If you’re in Germany, get your postcards and stamps ready for December! The more cards you send, the more you’ll contribute — and the more chances you’ll have of winning a voucher, stamps or one of those nifty messenger bags! 😍

P.S. – As always, we respect your personal information and will not share it with any company without your explicit permission. The full details of this campaign can be read here (German only).