Postcrossing Blog

Every so often, I review books related to postcards or postal stuff in general on this blog, which is a fact that rapidly everyone in my life is getting to learn! Recently a friend stumbled across an older book they thought I’d surely be amused by: Martin Parr's Boring Postcards USA. I definitely enjoyed looking through it, so here I am to tell the rest of you about it! I’m pretty certain it’s out of print, but there are plenty of copies out there on the second-hand market. I’ve even found a version that seems to have been released in Germany, as Langweilige Postkarten!

Despite the title being “Boring Postcards”, I actually thought when reading it that there were definitely cards that postcrossers I’ve corresponded with would have loved to receive: advertising postcards showing tools, for example! Most of the postcards are super, super mundane: parking lots and highways and hotel rooms… but I can imagine people sending them all the same to show where they’ve actually been, or as a novelty, or for people for whom the landscapes are unfamiliar.

I’ll share a couple of the images with you all, to give you some examples, though the quality of the images won’t be great! I won’t share too many, as the images are pretty much all there is to it, except for some captions… but it’ll give you an idea!

I think the postcards might seem boring on the surface, but there’s definitely an attraction in imagining who might send or receive these, and I’d bet there are collectors who’d love some of these. Do you have any “boring postcards” like these of your own to send?

As ever, I’m eager to hear suggestions for other post-related books to read and review, especially ones which specifically focus on postcards! The best place to let me know is via the forum thread; if you haven’t posted in the forum before, you might need to browse a little bit first to open up all the areas of the forum.

The Little Mail Carriers’ adventure in the Pacific continues! After their first stops, they’re back on the move with their hosts Andry and Maret (aka andry1961 and Cerres), island-hopping through the ocean in search of postcards, post offices and friendly postal people. This time, they’ve landed in Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands — where time does funny things, rain showers are frequent, and the friendly post office is definitely worth a visit!

Our plane left Auckland for the next island on the morning of September 6th. After a three-and-a-half-hour flight, we arrived in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, on September 5th, at 2:30 in the afternoon. It felt like a magical journey back in time to the previous day, without us even realizing it!

The Cook Islands consist of 15 islands. We visited the main island, Rarotonga — an almost perfectly round island surrounded by beautiful azure waters and coral reefs. Snorkeling to observe turtles and colorful fish is as easy as stepping into the water; you don’t even need a boat. The indigenous people here are Polynesians, and the official languages are English and their own version of Māori. Amidst the enchanting natural beauty, there’s an interesting rule: no building on the island can be taller than a palm tree, although the palm trees here were impressively tall.

The Cook Islands were named by the Baltic-German Admiral Adam Johan von Krusenstern (born not far from the point where we started our trip in Estonia) in 1820 in his book Atlas de l’Ocean Pacifique, after British Captain James Cook, who visited the islands in 1770.

The history of the Cook Islands is closely intertwined with England and New Zealand, but since 1965, they have been in free association with New Zealand. Two weeks after our visit, the USA recognized Cook Islands sovereignty and established diplomatic relations. We did also our best in developing these new diplomatic relations and even sent a couple of postcards to the United States!

During our stay, there were heavy rain showers every day, which helped us stay engaged in our favorite activity: preparing postcards for mailing and visiting the post office! All post from here will be sent to Auckland and only then distributed worldwide.

The post office in the capital, Avarua, was a bustling place. Unlike the previous two smaller islands, there were many tourists here, and some of them had postcards in their hands. Most tourists were from New Zealand and Australia. The majority of Cook Islanders also hold New Zealand citizenship. Also local music here was different from the previous islands. In addition to the drums we could hear skillful ukulele players in the evenings in different places. But people with smiles were as welcoming as on the previous days.

In the post office, we made some new friends, and hopefully, some of them will become postcrossers in the future. The post office’s staff, Caroline and Ophelia, greeted us with smiles and helped us get our stamps and took our postcards. We did the cancellation of the postal stamps in the postcards ourselves (with the help of our fellow travelers, of course).

A big thank you to Andry and Maret for taking the Little Mail Carriers along on this wonderful journey, and to Caroline and Ophelia at the Avarua post office for helping all those postcards on their way! Their Pacific adventure isn’t over yet though! Next time, they’ll be heading somewhere even more remote, where mail has quite a journey… Stay tuned! ✈️

Alright — one last blog post about the new USPS Postcrossing stamps, and then we promise to return to our regular program! 🙂

We met so many wonderful people at the Boston 2026 World Expo a couple of weeks ago: postcrossers who came to the daily meetups, collectors, people who work for the postal services and plenty of friendly faces from the wider stamp world. One of those was Graham Beck, from the YouTube channel Exploring Stamps (and also the creator of the piXPost app), who was there with his partner Laura.

It was really nice to finally meet in person after years of watching his videos (and posting stuff on piXPost!). Graham was doing what he does best at the show: chatting with philatelists, filming interesting stamps and postal bits, and capturing the atmosphere of the event. And, despite a very busy schedule, Graham also took the time to include Postcrossing in his coverage — with some glimpses of the First Day of Issue ceremony and our meetup!

So, if you couldn’t make it to Boston (or if you were there and want to relive it for a minute), here’s the video:

Huge thanks to Graham and Laura for having us and for sharing Postcrossing with the world in this way! And to everyone who came to the meetups: thank you! You made the whole week feel extra special. 💙

Keep an eye on Graham’s channel Exploring Stamps for some great postal content, including a series of “show-and-tell” videos where attendees of the show share some really cool items!

The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!

This month’s writing prompt is a fun one! Though I confess it’s a bit of a headscratcher for me, though I did come up with an answer! So if you’re stuck for what to write on your postcards this month, how about this?

I don’t watch a lot of media, even animated media, and while I know cartoon characters I watched when I was a kid, I don’t particularly want to meet Road Runner or Wile E. Coyote, however hilarious they are. That said, as I was musing this one my eyes lit upon a manga I’ve been loving lately, and I remembered that it’s been made into an anime… So that definitely counts, right?

So I’d love to meet the main hero of A Gentle Nobleman’s Vacation Recommendation, Lizel! He’s a nobleman from a fantasy world who ends up travelling accidentally to a different fantasy world, which he treats as a chance to have a fun holiday, making friends and exploring the world… and going to any bookshop he sees! He’s even more of a reader than I am, racing through books at speed, though I think we have similar acquisition tendencies (more books is always better!).

I think I could have a great time hanging out with Lizel: we’d go to a bookshop, grab a whole stack each, and find somewhere comfy to devour and discuss them. Not that I need the excuse: I’d do that anyway!

So now I’ve come up with something, perhaps it’s your turn! Is there a cartoon character you’d love to hang out with? You can share in the comments here, or use it as a prompt when the postcards you send are feeling a little too blank, if you like!

USA postcrossers: the stamps are out! 🎉📮

The new USPS Postcrossing stamps are officially out in the world today, and we’re so happy and excited about them! These ridiculously cool triangles are about to make those postcard corners look extra sharp! 😍

If you’re in Boston, today is the big day: we’ll be at the First Day of Issue ceremony at the Boston 2026 World Expo, and we really hope to see lots of you at the dedication ceremony or at the Postcrossing meetup later. There are meetups happening all throughout the week of the show too, so even if you can’t make it today, you can still drop by on another day to say hi, sign postcards, and enjoy the atmosphere.

We asked the stamps’ illustrator, Jackson Gibbs, a few quick questions about how these stamps came together. His answers were short and sweet, giving us a peek into his process:

How did you go from first sketches to final art?

“I start with an egregious amount of coffee, while simultaneously surfing the web and scribbling in a sketchbook. I do this for a while, maybe days, until something clicks. Then I piece together illustrations like putting together a puzzle or following a recipe.”

Had you ever illustrated a stamp before? Was the small size a challenge?

“I have not. It is definitely a ‘bucket list’ project. The size worked in my favor. I love simplifying and saying the most, with the least.”

How did the collaboration work between you, Antonio Alcalá, and USPS?

“I just did the art, while Antonio did the heavy lifting and back and forth with USPS.”

Do you have a favourite stamp in the set?

“My favorite in the set has to be the Cowgirl and Horse. Being from the desert, that one hits closest to home.”

What’s your relationship with mail?

“I love the mail, and have sent countless postcards from my time traveling around the US in my truck. Although, I had no idea how large the mail community was until this project. It’s special.”

And are you ready to see these travel the world?

“I can’t wait to see the turnout!”

Same, Jackson, same! 😄

We hope everyone in the USA is celebrating with us, by sending a few postcards with these shiny new stamps. Millions of them were printed by USPS, so it’s a matter of time until everyone in Postcrossing makes a “bingo” by receiving all four of them on their incoming postcards!

Here are some photos of the stamp dedication ceremony and meetup in Boston, all by USPS photographer Daniel Afzal: