Postcrossing Blog

Raymond “Skip” Empey or Papa Skip is 69 y.o. and lives in Massachusetts, U.S.A.. His passion for lighthouse postcards led him to Google “postcards”. Check what happened next…

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

I have collected lighthouse postcards for years, I actually have thousands of them from 1900 through today. Always looking for a new source I Googled “postcards”. Needless to say Postcrossing was one of the items that came up. “Well this looks interesting”, I think that’s what a mouse says before he sticks his head in the trap. I remember starting with 5 cards and I very quickly got addicted. I have met many wonderful people. Some like a card and say thank you others write a comment or more. Some make an effort to find a card that you have mentioned in your profile and or put special postage stamps on the card. Everyone is different but by in large I have found 99.9% of the members are really very nice. I always write a small paragraph when I register a card and ask for a address so I can send a thank you card. It’s something I can afford to do but not something I expect anyone else to feel they have to.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My biggest hobby is lighthouses, along with postcards, I also collect stamps, postmarks, books and photographs on the subject. My wife and I have visited all the accessible Lighthouses in North America and many hundreds around the world. During the Summer months I am a volunteer at Boston Light (1716) for the National Park Service and the U.S. Coast Guard. I also narrate harbor cruises for a Boston Cruise Company where I tell the history of the city, harbor and islands. I also narrate lighthouse cruises along the Massachusetts coast, four north of Boston and two south of Boston each Summer.

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

Picking up my mail.

Entering new cards into my computer.

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

I have because of Postcrossing hundreds of favorite postcards. When someone lives away from the sea and makes an effort to find a card picturing a lighthouse that’s a favorite. When someone includes some interesting comments that’s a favorite. Each day when I go to my mailbox and there is a card or cards they become my favorite. I have lived a very blessed life with a wonderful family and friends but because of Postcrossing the blessings continue to come as I am constantly gaining and developing new friendships.

Jocelyn, 39, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. For her, Postcrossing is a full time job. It must be, she receives an average of 5 to 20 cards a day. Learn more about Joce and her activities in Postcrossing.

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

Over three years ago, I was a big part of Flickr's The Biggest Group thread. We had a sub-thread called TBG-Traveling Postcards. I immediately loved the idea of sending and receiving postcards within the USA and throughout the world! I found Postcrossing through a flickr friend in The Netherlands (who is not on Postcrossing anymore) and I was immediately hooked – sending and receiving officials and participating in the forum. Wow! What a concept! I was amazed at how friendly everyone was! I would have never thought that so many people could be just as addicted as I am! I currently host the two largest round robins: Color RR and Photo RR.
I have met so many people through Postcrossing. It’s amazing how many friendships have developed over the past few years. I am very grateful to be a member of this wonderful site.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Aside from postcard collecting, I love to cruise! I have been on over 26 cruises that have sailed all throughout the Caribbean. What an excuse to cruise too – oops, I am out of postcards, I must cruise again to replenish my stock so I can trade! I live in the desert so I can’t get enough of the ocean. Photography is also a great love of mine. It’s interesting capturing unique photos of people, places and things. Postcrossing is a full time job (but a fun one!) so I don’t want to have any other hobbies!

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

Here is a photo of my mailbox where I run home to check everyday (except Sunday). Sometimes the box is full – I receive, on average, 5 to 20 postcards per day! I used to have a wonderful system to store my postcards (in photo boxes, alphabetically by country) but since I started scanning them and uploading to flickr, my system turned into a mess. A neat mess though! I have many bins of postcards that have been scanned, bins that are ready to scan and bins of cards available to trade. No matter how they are stored at the moment, I love each and every postcard I receive!

And here is a part of my postcard collection:

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

I absolutely love this postcard. It’s a simple wish for my birthday when I turned 39 in November 2008. The little girl on the card is blonde and just so beautiful. The girl reminds me of me, when I was young; so sweet, innocent and happy! The colors on the postcard are vibrant and bright and every time I look at the postcard it makes me smile. It was written and stamped from Thaddee Calisson, Paris, France.

Américo is 58 y.o. and lives in Santiago do Cacém, Portugal. He joined short after Postcrossing was born and is now amongst the Top 50 with more than 1400 cards sent. He has favorite cards but above all, he distinguishes the people who send them.

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

I have read about Postcrossing in an online portuguese newspaper just a few days after the project begun and decided to visit it. Just for curiosity…!!! I got hooked by the possibility to receive cards from different people all over the world. From that moment on I became a compulsive postcard collector!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love reading, listening to music, swimming, walking on the beach and surfing the net.

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

This is the mailbox where I post my cards. It’s the only one existing in the very small village of Vale de Água.

The stairs are used to help some people to reach the box because it’s too high (just kidding !!!)

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

Obviously I have my favorites among all cards I have received. However I think I prefer to distinguish those Postcrossers who have tremendous difficulties to get a simple postcard (for a lot of reasons) and send it everytime they get an address.

Friendship Books (FB’s), penpals, ToyVoyagers and for more than 4 years now… Postcrossing! Ilyani, 26, from Malaysia manages to do all of this. The rest of the time she’s a busy student.

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

Ahh… long story! But short story is, I was bored and doing FB’s swap while finding new penpals. After a while I became more bored and decided to let go all the FB’s, and the person to whom I had sent the FB’s sent me postcards in return. She thought I was collecting postcards, so she gave me the Postcrossing website address to check out. I never saw myself collecting postcards, but I kind of liked receiving them from penpals and all, so I decided to give Postcrossing a try. And after I received my first few postcards just in such a SURPRISE way, I knew I gotta love Postcrossing! :)

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Writing/receiving letters, taking photos, ToyVoyagers! I hosted many ToyVoyagers before, and now I have my own Haris! He has visited Paris, Budapest, Rome and now he’s in Finland! He’ll soon visit Poland and Macedonia, how cool is that? I am still poor to travel to Europe, so in the meantime he’s traveling on my behalf ! :)

I blog my postcards too, I guess that’s one of my latest interesting hobbies :D Soon I’ll be back being a busy student again and I guess I won’t have much time to update it anymore. Or more honestly, cause I can’t bring my postcards to the hostel!

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

This is the place in this whole town that I visit most frequently!! I have never seen the postman personally, can you imagine? I usually see a glimpse of him passing the mailbox in our gate, and that’s all. And the postman is usually wearing black sunglasses so it’s hard to recognize him!

The place I keep postcards – I just load them into a huge box. In fact, two boxes!

And my whole postcards collection can be seen in Flickr.

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

Who says I have a favorite received postcard? I actually have 1000 of favorite received postcards!

Christiane from Germany likes postcards since she was a school girl, but she used to get them only from friends when they travelled. Till the day she found out about Postcrossing…

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

I’ve been addicted to postcards since I was a school girl. I always wanted to write and receive postcards. Unfortunately, I only got postcards from my friends when they were on holidays.

Some years ago, a friend from a forum told me about Postcrossing. I was as keen as mustard right away! Well, I registered the same day and sent out 5 postcards – the first postcards of many, many more. :-)

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I like to go swimming, rock-climbing or hiking. And, as I am a librarian, I love reading, of course! Books are almost as interesting as postcards – they also take you to other places, just like postcards do.

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

Me mailing postcards after a postcrossing meeting in Cologne, December 2008

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

This is an official postcard (PT-38113) that I received from the user postalmada from Portugal. I always appreciate it when users send me library postcards because I know that they are VERY hard to find. Additionally, the library on the postcard is a very beautiful one, so this is one of my favourite received postcards.