Postcrossing Blog

A few years ago, we accidentally heard about a pub in Bournemouth in the UK auspiciously called “60 Million Postcards” and thought “Wouldn’t that be a great place to throw a party when Postcrossing reaches 60 million postcards?!” And then… you know… The pandemic came and everything changed, naturally. We’re a little sad we can’t fulfill this silly plan, but not all is lost — we can still have our traditional milestone guessing game!

If you weren’t around for one of these before, the idea is simple:

Easy, right? Just place a bet for the minute you think lucky postcard number 60,000,000 will be registered according to your own predictions. Feel free to have a look through Postcrossing’s statistics page if that helps, or maybe crack a fortune cookie (or some eggs?) to come up with a good time slot — anything goes!

And naturally, there will be prizes! The postcrosser whose bet is the closest to the exact minute when postcard number 60 million is registered will win a box set of 100 postcards, and the 6 next best guesses (before or after the registering time) will receive a pack of 20–30 postcards each. 🎉 Hurray!

Some rules: each time slot can only be chosen by one single person, so the first person to pick that slot gets to keep it. You can change it at a later stage if you’d like, but only from the available time slots left. The bets will be automatically closed when there are 1000 postcards left to postcard 60,000,000. Check the contest page for more details.

So, give it your best shot… but be sure to do it soon as good slots are usually taken quickly. Keep sending postcards, and good luck everyone!

Submissions for The Graceful Envelope Contest are once again open, so it’s time to talk about the most beautiful mailart contest out there! :) Just look at some of the beautiful envelopes from last year’s contest:

Aren’t they precious? Last year’s theme was “Put a stamp on it!” and there are links to all the winners and honorable mentions on their page. The theme for this year is “Double vision”:

“The 2020 theme is inspired by the year itself. Only once a century does the year double up! On an envelope, capture something that’s double—whatever you see in your personal Double Vision.”

An interesting theme for sure, and we look forward to seeing the results! Rest assured, you don’t need to be a calligraphy master to participate, as works will be judged not just by the calligraphy or your choice of stamps, but by how you interpret the theme as well as how all of the elements work together to convey your message. Participation by little ones is encouraged, and children have their own categories by age groups.

People from all over the world can participate, as long as they do so until March 23, 2020. So you have less than 2 months to work on this creative project and then mail it in — all the rules are explained on the Washington Calligraphers Guild website.

Good luck, everyone!

If picking the most creative postcard images on the 150 Years of Postcards contest was a tough job, choosing three best messages was even harder. All these heartfelt words tugged at our heartstrings and it seemed impossible to put a postcard down, or somehow judge some as “better” than the others… how to choose?!

In the end, the three postcard messages we’ve picked are all different, but special in their own way. So here they are, in no particular order.

Annie from Wisconsin USA, sent a postcard with a very simple message, which neatly sums up our feelings about postcards:

“A postcard is a hug sent through the mail.”

We liked this quote so much that we ended up printing it in a big font and featuring it front and center at the UPU exhibition in Switzerland. The other side of the postcard is a quilted masterpiece, featuring both fabric and stamps (see it here).

Juice sent in a postcard featuring her own handmade design of a tree in Autumn (see it here). She wrote:

“As someone with loosely-settled roots in many places, sending postcards gives me a chance to spend precious moments with friends, family and acquaintances across the world. I cherish the opportunity each card gives me to pass a little time with another person, across geographic and temporal boundaries, and I find the transformations each card undergoes in the mail, along with the new light each card is illuminated by in the hands and eyes of its recipient, almost inexplicably magical. In today’s world, it is perhaps more important than ever to attend to how and what we communicate. Postcards provide refreshing ways to share feelings, ideas, and time not only with words but also with images, physical objects, and embedded love.”

Well said! We also often think of postcards as time that we spend with someone far away, and imagine our words being held in that person’s hands, bearing the marks of a long journey across the world.

And last but not least, Claus from Germany sent a postcard showing an illustration of a mail carrier in Hamburg (see it here), with beautiful stamps. On it, he wrote a short but delightful poem about postcards:

"Postcard!

A picture
A thought or two
A stamp
A touch of paper
The beauty of it all.

Out in the open
Close to the heart.

Memories in the making
Memories to keep.

Please, Mr. Postman, come again soon!"

Congratulations to the three winners, who will each receive a box of 100 postcards as their prize!

Next week, we’ll bring you some more highlights from the nice postcards that have landed in our mailbox for the 150 years of postcards celebrations.

By the way, would you like to try guessing how many postcards were received? 😊 Leave a comment below with your estimate (a number between 500 and 2000), and next week we’ll reveal the grand total and send a little something to whoever gets the closest guess first, without going over it. Good luck!

Can you imagine the avalanche of happy mail that landed on Postcrossing’s mailbox for the 150th anniversary of postcards? 😅 It was *a loooot* of postcards, each of them unique and special in their own way, and all filled with excitement for this historical milestone.

Admiring and reading through all this lovely mail was an overwhelming task which took way longer than we had anticipated, and picking just a few postcards to award in the categories of most creative postcards and best message was a really tough job. But we had a mission, so after many days rearranging postcards on our desks, here is our choice for the top three creative cards sent to the 150th anniversary contest (in no particular order).

The postcard above came to us from Antonia in the United Kingdom. She hand-painted and crafted this card showing an old British postbox with postcards inside. Photos don’t do justice to this card though, because you can’t tell that the mailbox is covered in transparent film, allowing you to peek at the postcards floating inside. One of them is even a mini-replica of the postcard itself!

The backside is equally nice… despite Royal Mail’s mutilation of the stamps 🙄. Antonia writes that she learnt how to read and write late in her childhood, and that the prospect of writing used to fill her with dread, but that this changed through writing letters and postcards, and that she has finally found her voice. What a wonderful message, in a truly exquisite postcard.

Next, we have a postcard from Indonesia, sent by Cherlita who is a design student:

The illustration is simply gorgeous, and we love the stamp and postmark details that work together to resemble a maxicard. The actual stamps used to mail the postcard are on the reverse side, and they’re personalized stamps using the same image as the front of the card — neat!

Cherlita has a charming handwriting, and she writes about how postcards can take us in a “small, physical form” to our loved ones, strengthening our bonds with them.

And last but not least, Franziska from Germany crafted the most unusual postcard.

One side of the postcard looks like a normal postcard, with a beautiful message about how much her young sons Tim Mikesch and Tom Lukas enjoy sending and receiving postcards. When you turn the postcard around though… magic!

The reverse of the card resembles a German postbox, and what could be hiding inside? Postcards, of course! Lots of mini-postcards of the children’s favorites cards, as well as happy moments the family has shared featuring postcards. How sweet is that?! Each card is lovingly written and stamped, and a mini-treasure on its own.

So there you have it, these are the three winners in the most creative category for the 150th anniversary contest, each of which will receive a box of 100 postcards. Hurray!

As you can probably imagine, there are many, many more postcards that we want to show you because you guys truly outdid yourselves in this call for postcards. So we hope to feature more special postcards on our social media as well as here in the blog in the coming weeks.

Next task though should be picking the best messages… wish us luck! 😅

🎉 Hurraaaaaay! 🎉 We did it everyone! We reached the big 50 million, and we couldn’t be prouder of all of you for delivering us to this milestone with your avalanche of postcards these past 13 years!

Did you know that if we put all these postcards together side by side (assuming they’re all regular size), we would get a line connecting New York to Moscow? Yup! And all the distance they’ve traveled would put us way beyond the Solar System at this point… though still very far from Alpha Centauri, the next big thing in space. Maybe by the time we reach it, they’ll have a post office there! 🤔

Anyway, I know you’re all waiting to discover which postcard was the lucky one, so here it goes:

Postcard number 50,000,000 (IL-60207) was sent by nostase in Israel on 29 November 2018, and registered today at 19:13:01 (UTC) by RassDim in Russia!

The postcrosser with the most accurate aim was Isacle, whose guess was spot on! Well done, your new box of 100 photo postcards is on its way.

But we’re not done here yet — there are loads more prizes to give away! The other fourteen lucky postcrossers who came the closest to the right time were pele32, Admiral_Penguin, vasilcho, stokana, uintaterium, Mari-Pyon, makeuplover, ingunciks, Washisaur, RinClare, estromberg, Alexiel-chan, raraelli and starrynight1111 — great job! You will each receive a set of nice postcards as well.

And last but not least, the sender and the recipient of this special card will also receive a pack of 50 postcards, to celebrate their good luck. Hurray!

We encourage you to enjoy your contributions to this historical milestone by eating one celebratory cookie (or 50!) and sending some postcards on this very special day. Thank you so much to our team of volunteers, to all the supporters and ambassadors, and last but not least, to every single one of you, for believing in this project and keeping the world’s mailboxes filled with smiles. 😊 Onwards to Alpha Centauri!