Postcrossing Blog

Ruan from South Africa has an interesting request on his profile: he wants to learn which are the cool (pop&rock) bands in other countries and asks postcrossers to talk about them. We think that’s quite a fun way to learn about music and other cultures, don’t you think?
Here’s what he has to say about his Postcrossing hobby.

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

I first read about Postcrossing in a local stamp collector’s magazine, and then forgot about it. Months later I remembered again, and thought I’d just have a look to see what all the fuss was about. Well, I got 100% addicted straight away! I love the randomness of the project – to hold in my hand an object chosen specifically for me and sent halfway around the world by a stranger; and then to return the favour. It’s great to be able to exchange ideas and information with people you would propably never meet.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I also collect stamps, I have a large music collection, do a bit of gardening, and when the mood grips me, I imagine myself to be an amateur artist.

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

This is the post ofice where I do all my postal bussiness.

This is the posting box where I send all my cards and letters.

And this is the mail collection point where I receive all my mail. I have circled my box.

At first, I kept all my received postcards in a box, sorted by country. We are now busy putting a selection of interesting cards up on a wall in the passage, hoping to have the entire wall covered soon!

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

If I had to try to pick only a few favourites, I’d still end up with almost a hundred! So thanx to all the wonderful people in the Postcrossing community whose thoughtfulness never ceases to surprise me.

Maroussia, a French Postcrosser who lives in China and is collecting postcards since she was 12 years old.

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

I have collected viewcards and had penfriends since age 12, the cards always made me day dream about places I might never see with my own eyes and a penfriend of mine from Sweden (but actually Finnish) thought I would be interested and introduced postcrossing to me. I loved the idea, the mystery of where the next card will come from, and the opportunity to make new friends, to “meet” interesting people. I must say I have NOT been disappointed and I love postcrossing! To my happy surprise, 99% of the cards I have so far received have been good and valuable for my collection, and many came with really great words written on the back!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Yes, I am crazy about cooking and baking, and collecting cookbooks and cookery magazines, recipes. My favourite passtime is trying new recipes. My other “hobby” is history (which I teach along with geography), and reading history books and magazines, also archaeology, learning about people in other times and places, and postcards here come very handy and are a real help. Many cards I received are directly linked to historical events and it is very thrilling.

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

I live in a village 30 km from the city and mail deliveries are not reliable where I live, to say the least. So I receive my letters and cards in that 1–2–12 box in the photo which actually is my husband’s office mail box in the city, where mail is delivered safely.

This is the one I mostly patronize when I have to send things a bit out of the ordinary like packages or registered letters. Otherwise I mostly drop my cards in that post-box in San Li Tun street, but occasionally in other ones. I know the location of about ten convenient mail boxes.

Well they are quite messy, but at least organized by countries. In boxes for the countries from where I have really many like Germany, France, the Czech Republic, the USA, Austria and such. The others are in two chests of drawers, also classified by country. My big hope (when I am retired, maybe) is to put them all in albums, with explanations about the place shown on the card!

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

Hard to tell! There are so many I particularly love either because the picture is really fantastic, or because I love the place or it makes me day dream…

As most Postcrossers, Judit enjoys getting surprises in her mailbox in Belgium. And despite being mom of four, she still finds time for Postcrossing! Here’s what she has to share with us.

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

In June 2006 there was a message by Postcrossing member szirmaik on a Hungarian Forum site. I was curious and checked it out. Since then I’m hooked on Postcrossing. As I don’t get a lot of mail, it’s a nice way to get “unexpected” surprise mail.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My other hobby is cross-stitching which I also started in 2006. Right now, I have little free time because I gave birth to my 4th child in June 2010.

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

This is where I receive mail:

And this is where I send it:

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

Through the years I have received so many beautiful cards that I can’t decide which is the most precious. Some cards tell me about something I’ve never known before. Some of them are what I really like. Some of them show things I’ve never thought of before.

German Postcrosser, Isabelle, had a love for horses before joining and has seen her horse postcard collection grow through the kindness of other Postcrossing members. She quite enjoys attending Postcrossing meetings.

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

My pen pal (since ages) and Postcrossing member tinewoest, from Belgium, told me about Postcrossing in a letter and I immediately got infected! Thank you sooooo much Tine!!!! I got hooked from the kindness of the Postcrossers and found the forum pretty soon. After finding the forum I was a complete addict! I attended as many meetings as I could get to. For example, I joined meetings in Helsinki, Cologne, The Netherlands, and Belgium. I have learned so much about the world, the people, kindness and habits in the Postcrossing world. I became sick in the summer of 2009 and needed to slow down a bit but Postcrossing is still my BIGGEST hobby.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Before Postcrossing, collecting horse postcards and writing letters were my biggest and only hobbies. I stopped horseback riding in 1998. Since I am now a Postcrossing addict my horse postcard collection has grown bigger and bigger (over 15,000 cards now) and I have no time to sort them properly because I spend all my free time on the Postcrossing site. I have about 22 shoe boxes full of postcards from the last 4 years. They are unsorted but most of them are in my head or in my computer lists. I also started scanning my postcards when I discovered Flickr through Postcrossing but it is impossible to scan my whole collection because most cards are in folders already. My pen pals now only get a letter once a year and many ask if I am still alive. Writing a postcard is so much faster than writing a letter. Sorry girls!

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

I don’t like the girls working at the post office and mostly order my stamps online so no pics of the office but the following pics show me at the mailbox I usually use. I mail the mail before i go to work there and this mailbox also get lifted on Saturday and Sundays. :D

My home mailbox

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

My absolute favorite:

Second favorite:

Third favourite:

But I also love all the non-horse postcards. There are so many that are so beautiful.

David “the mad postcard collector” from the United Kingdom has amassed over 100,000 postcards for his collection. This 56 year old multilingual Postcrosser is also a world traveler.

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

I have been hooked on collecting postcards since I was a teenager. I joined two postcard-collecting groups within Mensa, one who was already also a Postcrosser, introduced me to Postcrossing, and I have been totally hooked ever since! My wife, Jeannette, keeps telling me off because I spend so much time writing postcards! I have always enjoyed having the postman deliver mail, so Sundays and public holidays are sad because there is no mail. I am so well-known by my local postmen that I even had a postcard addressed simply to 'The mad postcard collector, Felixstowe' delivered to me!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love travelling and have visited more than 70 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. I love music. I learned to play the guitar (but not very well) and wrote my own songs. I even recorded several of my songs, although they are not available commercially. And I love languages too: I studied French, German, Spanish and Latin at school, taught myself Dutch, Italian, Russian and several other languages; I’m learning Japanese at evening classes too. So my hobbies of travel, languages and postcards are all related.

This is a picture of me playing my guitar and 'performing’ at my 50th birthday party!

This picture, taken two years ago, shows me when I changed a small amount of money ($100) at a bank in Uzbekistan.

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

One picture shows Bent Hill Post Office, Felixstowe. It’s a short walk from where I live. I buy most of my postcards there and all of my stamps, so I’m their favourite customer! The other picture, which is not so clear, is a scanned copy of a picture taken for a newspaper in 2006; it shows me with a few of my postcards and with some of the crates in which I store my collection.

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

I have received nearly 3000 official postcards through Postcrossing, many more through swaps, Round Robins etc. I cannot single out one postcard as so many are my favourites!