Postcrossing Blog

Hurray! 🎉 It’s Postcrossing’s birthday! 🎉

On this day 14 years ago, Paulo typed a command on his computer, and just like that, the Postcrossing adventure had started. Fast forward fourteen years and nearly 53 million of postcards later, we now have many happy mailboxes filled to the brim, and smiles all around. As Uncle Alex used to say, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is”.

On this day, we are feeling especially warm and fuzzy inside, so please forgive our sappiness. We’d like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone of you out there, who joined us on this journey.

Thank you for your trust in this big idea, for every postcard that you send to a grandparent, or a child, or a stranger that you don’t know much about. We firmly believe that all these postcards, small as they might be, have an important role to play in helping us see our common ground, while simultaneously broadening our horizons.

Thank you to our forum moderators as well, and to everyone who puts in the time to help postcrossers on the forum. Thank you to our Ambassadors, for coming up with new ways to spread the word. And thank you to all our supporters as well! You keep our servers running, and the project moving forward.

Thank you also for the many messages of support that we receive every day, through your emails, comments, tweets and posts, testimonials or postcards. Your words of encouragement and joy are what fuels us to keep going. Thank you, thank you, thank you. ❤️

Our fresh year that starts today is going to be an exciting one, as we’ve been busy working on some big projects behind-the-scenes. So stay tuned for some good news soon!

Thank you everyone for your comments on Postcrossing’s anniversary post — your kindness and thoughtful words were the highlight of our day!

Quite a few meetups took place all around the world on Postcrossing’s birthday last weekend, and we were so emotional watching all the videos and photos, we decided to share some with you.

In Tofte and Filtvet (two small coastal towns along the Oslo fjord in Norway), a large meetup took place that included participants from all over Europe. Together, they’ve wished Postcrossing a good anniversary by singing the “Happy Birthday” song in their own languages… what a nice idea! We cannot stop smiling when we watch this video. I hadn’t even realized that the song had a different tune in some languages, and was delighted to discover that it sounds just as festive in Greek or Norwegian!

In Portugal, a birthday meetup in July has already become a tradition. This year’s meeting took place in Setúbal (a town famous for its dolphins) and it featured a cute birthday cake. Gracinha, one of the participants, had just celebrated her own birthday last week, so the participants also included her name on the cake, and sneakily prepared a big card and gifts to offer her during the meetup. She loved the surprise!

Isn’t that just wonderful?

Across the world in Indonesia, the Postcrossing community came together to organize a postcard exhibition and meeting at the Plaza Semanggi mall in Jakarta. Looks like a good time was had by everyone at the event which stretched for several days and included live music and even a doodling workshop! You can see tons of more photos on their Instagram page.

Hurray! People coming together and making new friends could not be more in the spirit of this project, so we’re delighted to see so many happy faces on these photos and videos. 😍 If you’d like to participate in one in the future, don’t forget to check the Postcrossing meetups calendar now and then, to keep updated on new events taking place in your area.

Hurray! 🎉 It’s Postcrossing’s 13th anniversary!

Thirteen years ago today was the start of this great adventure that keeps connecting the world through postcards. It’s been a great ride so far, not without its ups and downs, but always a fulfilling and learning experience. On this special day, we’d like to say thank you to all of you out there who still take pleasure in sending postcards to strangers, trusting that this small gesture will make their days a little better. Thank you for believing in this idea, and for coming along for the ride — we wouldn’t have made it without you!

Sometime ago we went back to Braga and took a photo of the balcony where everything started, in a student’s house next to the university. Paulo points it out:

It’s still there, now housing different students and being witness to their adventures. May theirs be as grand as this one has been so far! 😊

Twelve years ago today, Postcrossing was opened to the whole world… so today it’s our own Postcrossingversary! 🎉 Hurray!

Connecting the world might not be an easy job, but we firmly believe it is an evermore important one. We’re thankful to every single one of our members who believe in this idea too, looking beyond borders, religions and politics to simply connect with other human beings out there, one postcard at a time.

And to make this special day even more special, we have great news! Indonesia Post is releasing 3 new Postcrossing-themed stamps today! Here they are, in all their colourful glory:

Pretty cool, right? Meetups are being organised around Indonesia to celebrate the event this weekend — if you’re the area, head over to the forum for more information. We look forward to seeing these pretty stamps on postcards from Indonesia!

And now, it’s time to enjoy this milestone — do join us in this celebration, send a postcard (or 12!) and have a slice of cake! 🎂 Happy birthday Postcrossingversary, Postcrossing!

Hurray! July 14th is Postcrossing’s anniversary and we couldn’t be happier! Eleven years of connecting the world, one postcard at a time… feels great!

Postcrossing is not just a platform or a bit of code on a server. What makes this project great is definitely its community… which means YOU! Every single one of you, that perhaps looked at this idea with suspicion in the beginning but decided to jump in anyway and give it a go. All of you who ensure the world’s mailboxes are filled with smiles and kind words. Those of you who help each other in the forum, who organize and attend meetups, who send us tips and ideas, who send thousands of postcards to lovely ladies on their birthday. We’re thankful for your trust, support and enthusiasm in the past 11 years. Long live Postcrossing!

A couple of postal operators neatly lined up their Postcrossing-themed stamp launches to mark the occasion, so today, Poland and Guernsey see new stamps come to life!

Polish Post drew inspiration on the theme of traveling through postcards, and re-imagined a “postcrossers’ suitcase”… which naturally has a mailbox on the side!

To celebrate the stamp launch, Polish Post is holding several events in Wrocław. Among the activities, there will be a free tour of the Post and Telecommunication Museum in Wrocław, a competition with some prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy the new stamp and even receive a special cancellation mark.

Today is also the day two new stamps from Guernsey Post make their debut! International postage is being updated, and the stamps (for Europe and Rest of the World) reflect this change. Guernsey Post’s new stamps were drawn by Sue Hamon and aim to share the island’s rich flora and fauna with the world through the postcards they’ll be traveling in.

Guernsey Post is also launching a set of related products along with the stamp, on their online shop, including first day covers and maxicards.

So, happy birthday Postcrossing! Now it’s time to blow those candles and grab a piece of cake while we write some postcards — do join us! :)

PS – Speaking of stamps, the German Postcrossing community has been trying for years to convince their Finance Ministry that a Postcrossing-themed stamp would be a good idea… with little success so far. As Germany is the country with most postcards sent in the project, we think they deserve it. So if you have an extra card, give them a hand in turning this dream into reality!