Postcrossing Blog

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.

Arja Koskela, 48 y.o. from Virrat, Finland. She was the sender of the card registered as 3 million! She was introduced to the Postcrossing world by her sister and her niece. Now she agrees Postcrossing is a fantastic hobby!

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

First my sister Sirpa and her daughter Elisa read about Postcrossing and of course they felt excited about that. They told me how fantastic hobby Postcrossing is and I belived them…Sirpa is also my twin sister, so we often do same things… :) I agree with Sirpa and Elisa, Postcrossing is a fantastic hobby!!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Oh, the books are near my heart! And handicrats of course!! I have made tiffanyworks and glass-meltingworks nearly ten years. Our family has an old house, so gardening belongs to my life and it’s a great hobby. When I have time, I walk in the near forest!!

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

Here is my mailbox near our house…True we have an awful roadside and nowadays it isn’t in a right place! :(

In my hometown there isn’t a postoffice anymore. So our mailbox, where I put my postcards, is near the shopping mall.

I keep by my cards in a folder, so it’s easy to watch them.

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

Of course my favorite postcard is the first one… It was something special!! The card was from Oxford, England. I always remember that feeling when I found it in my mailbox.

Klemen was the lucky user that registered the Postcrossing postcard no. 3.000.000. He is 22 y.o, lives in Vipava in lovely Slovenia and he collects stamps. Postcards help him learn about other countries and people of different cultures.

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

I collect stamps and my friends, who know that, told me about Postcrossing and so I become a big fan of it. I love receiving cards, learning about other countries and people of other cultures.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Lots of them: collecting stamps, mountaineering, cycling, …

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

On the picture is the mailbox in Vipava, where I mostly post my postcards for others.

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

This is my favourite postcard… there is a clear reason why: it’s the 3,000,000th postcard! :D