Postcrossing Blog

We’ve mentioned #xtremephilately and #xtremedeltiology on the blog before — they’re those pictures you take when you put a stamp or postcard in front of the place featured on them. Like these:

But here’s something extra cool: piXPost is a new app that allows you to put those stamp and postcard pictures (as well as pictures of postboxes, post offices and events) on the map, to share with others! Graham Beck (from Youtube channel Exploring Stamps) shows you what it’s all about:

I’ve been taking pictures of postboxes and postcards for a loooong time now, mostly for fun, and I know lots of you do this as well. But now we can share them among us and with other postal lovers around the world, to let everyone know where these special places are! Ever since signing up, I find myself going out of my way to photograph even more postboxes, post offices, stamps and postcards everywhere. I can’t help it — I want them aaaaall on the map! And I can definitely see myself checking the app before traveling, to plan my trip around the local postal highlights. 😍

There are a few gamification aspects of the app that work really well too. First of all, you can “claim” a postbox by being the first person to pin it on the global map with a photo. That will make you “XP1” — explorer number 1! But there are also tons of fun badges to collect, for pinning a certain number of items in each category or country. It’s really fun to collect these… and a little addictive too, I must say.

piXPost is free and available on the App Store for iOS devices or on Google Play for Android ones. We hope lots of you will give it a go, so that the map gets full to the brim with fun spots for future postal adventures!

You know how sometimes you see photos in which a postcard is put in front of the place where its picture was taken? Like this:

Sometimes the image on the postcard was taken many years ago, and now the surroundings look different and buildings have changed… but you can still kind of see where that image used to fit, like a magic window looking into the past! Lately, I’ve seen more and more of this type of images popping up on social media, featuring both postcards and stamps, with the respective hashtags #xtremedeltiology and #xtremephilately. I find them brilliant! 😍

Graham Beck (from Youtube channel Exploring Stamps) started using the #xtremephilately hashtag back in 2017, and described it as a way to “take stamps out of their cozy albums and showcase them in the real world for everyone to see via social media”. More recently, he has made a wonderful video about exploring Atlantic City through its postcards:

So how can you join the fun? Just pick a stamp or a postcard, and take a picture of it near a relevant place! If a building or monument is featured, it can be in the place where it stands (or used to stand), but sometimes you can also be more metaphorical about it and make an obscure connection. Then all you have to do is share it on social media, or on the forum topics for this kind of stamps and postcard pictures.

It’s a great way to learn more about our postcards and stamps, and the perfect excuse to get out there and share those special items (and the hobbies associated with them) with the world. We’d love to see the places you explore and what you learn about them!

Sometime ago, I noticed people posting photos of their cute postboxes on Twitter, under the hashtag #PostboxSaturday, and I immediately wanted in too! :D Saturday is my favourite postcard-writing day, and a visit to the postbox is part of the weekend ritual. Turns out Dinah, from the wonderful Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society, started the whole #PostboxSaturday movement with this tweet:

She says she almost deleted it at the time, but we’re really glad she didn’t, because on Saturday our social feeds are now overflowing with postbox loveliness. 😍 Surely, there isn’t a better way to start the weekend!

She later wrote on her website:

“I’ve always loved the romance of a postbox but a postbox in a rural or remote or picturesque setting really does pull on my heart strings. Perhaps it’s the result of reading Rosamund Pilcher novels, or years spent on trips to the mountains, or working in the outdoors, and of course the backdrop of always writing letters that collided to make #PostboxSaturday, but it’s just the loveliest feeling being transported off to a little red postbox some place else. Maybe even more so these days.”

So your mission, if you wish to accept it, is to take a photo of your postbox and share it with others on social media this Saturday, using the hashtag #PostboxSaturday! Bonus points if you’re mailing some postcards too. 📮

Let’s spread some postal charm around, and make sure that postboxes from all around the world are featured in this nice initiative!

This holiday-themed post comes a bit late in the season, but the idea was so nice that we didn’t want it to go unreported!

Late last year, Gabi (aka Paulinchen60) from Germany, had an idea to decorate her shop with a garland made of Christmas cards, written with many greetings from all over the world. She made a bet with a colleague, who was sceptical that she could receive 100 postcards for the garland…

So Gabi posted a thread on the forum, asking for help to reach this goal… for each card received that had an address, she promised to send one back. And lo and behold, a few weeks later, the mailbox at her shop was flooded with Christmas greetings! The response was amazing and she ended up receiving over 200 cards, thus winning the bet! :)

Gabi sent us a few photos:

Every day, Gabi and her co-workers would receive a batch of postcards from the hands of the postwoman.

Here are Gabi, Katrin and Beate, the 3 co-workers in front of the shop, showing off their lovely Christmas cards!

Setting up the garland…

And here is the end result! Pretty, isn’t it?

Gabi tells us the customers were thrilled by the sight of the garland, and had fun trying to read the cards in several languages (with moderate success!).

Well done, Gabi! To see more of the garland, and the postcards that they’ve received, check out Gabi’s gallery.