PostCrossing what is it

An interesting concept indeed, stemmed from my childhood hobby of pen-friends

When I was about 10 I started my pen-friend craze and put my name into a Malaysian newspaper asking for pen-friends. Lo and behold I got about 34 replies which I kept up for quite awhile. I wonder what my grandma thought of me asking for money for postage. I don't remember getting any flack from her, but I did get eyebrow raises on why I got so much snail mail.

I got replies from more males than females. One male's family owned a business so every now and then I would receive handbags.

I thoroughly enjoyed this period in my life and still do some sort of pen-friending either in written form to friends that down own email, and in email form to friends that do.

Nothing beats the handwritten for of communications, I love it. That is probably why I took up card-making and scrapbooking 14 years ago.

I first heard about Postcrossing on WOYWW I play every Wednesday that was posted by Lisca meijer. A wonderful project indeed. I read what it was about and promptly signed up and wrote up 5 postcards (below) and posted them off all in the same day. I also discovered that postcard and letter postage costs are the same. Australia has one of the highest rates of postage to anywhere in the world.

My postcards are going 15,000kms away and I probably won't get one back for a couple of weeks because it is going via snail mail. 4 are going to Russia and 1 to Germany. I am only allowed 5 to start with and when they are received then I can send more. The postcard cost 80c and the postage cost $2.75-this will be the most expensive postage as it's the furthest point from Australia. New Zealand and the Pacific is $1.95 and Asia I have no idea yet.

There are meetups in all countries, either yearly, monthly or regularly.

I have an idea to add an interesting concept to my postcard postings, but for now I shall keep it a secret.

Here is an interesting write up about postcards being obsolette. I must admit I had a hard time finding postcards to send, if they do become obsolette I will have to make my own LOL

I have seen them in touristy places we have visited and wished I had picked up some now. Well we will just have to revisit these places again to pick more up LOL.

About postcrossing:

The project

The goal of this project is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world, for free. Well, almost free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world.

Why? Because, like the founder, there are lots of people who like to receive real mail.
The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you probably have never heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises - and who wouldn't like that?

How does it work?

First, the short version:

1. request an address from the website
2. mail the postcard to the address
3. wait to receive a postcard
4. register the received postcard in the system

The first step is to request to send a postcard. The website will display (and send you an email) with the address of another member and a Postcard ID (e.g.: US-786). You then mail a postcard to that member.

The member receives the postcard and registers it using the Postcard ID that is on the postcard. At this point, you are eligible to receive a postcard from another user. You are now in line for the next person that requests to send a postcard. Where the postcard comes from is a surprise!

You can have up to 5 postcards traveling at any single time. Every time one of the postcards you send is registered, you can request another address. The number of postcards allowed to travel at any single time goes up the more postcards you send!

Still have questions? Check out the help section, our Community Guidelines and the forum.