I know that some of us are still trying to get used to the “new norm” when it comes to travel. You may still be abiding by the quarantine rules of wherever you live regarding COVID-19 or slowly making your way back out in the world at a social distance.
Are you looking for ways to refocus your energies or considering a new hobby or a few? If you’re looking for another way to interact with people all around the world and hopefully bring a smile to someone’s face by sharing kindness consider traveling the world with Postcrossing.
What is Postcrossing?
I joined Postcrossing more than seven years ago because I too was looking for a new hobby that didn’t cost a huge amount of money and that I could do at my own leisure. Postcrossing made me reminisce of my elementary school days when I used to have penpals and write to people all over the world. I loved the long wait after mailing a letter and then all of a sudden a letter would come in the mail. I love learning about other cultures and hearing and reading other languages, so having a pen pal was the best of both worlds.
Postcrossing is a website where you can send and receive postcards from people all over the world. You send a postcard, the person who receives the card registers it on Postcrossing, and then you receive a postcard from a random person as a result.
According to the Postcrossing website:
The goal of the Postcrossing project is to enable anyone to exchange postcards with random people around the world. That’s using real mail, not email!
It goes like this: for every postcard you send, you’ll receive one back from another random member- and the more you send, the move you will receive. It’s that easy.
You can learn about far away places, different cultures or even practive foreign languanges. Postcrossing turns your mailbox into a box full of surprise!
While there are services out there that are for penpals, I decided to focus on postcards. It’s usually less expensive and you get a picture on the other side of the card so it’s like a bonus! This hobby also leaves me quite fulfilled because I’ve met some very interesting people and learned so much about the lives of people I may have never met without the help of Postcrossing.
Why I love Postcrossing?
- Cost – When I first started Postcrossing, the price of postcard stamps traveling domestically was around 30 cents and international postcard stamps were about $1.15. The cost can increase is postal rates change.
- Variety- the most cards you send the more access you get to send more cards
- Learn international phrases
- Find interesting people – profiles and websites
Are there any risks?
As with any hobby, there are always risks. The people on Postcrossing are genuinely very friendly and interested in learning about you. If you decide to join Postcrossing, be sure to protect your private or sensitive information. Don’t share information that is sensitive and too personal in nature like your social security number, protected health information, or any license information.
Some postcards take a very long time to reach their destination. The card that took the longest to reach its destination for me was a card that I sent to South Africa. One of the cards that took the longest to receive was this card from Slovakia.
Keep in mind that some postcards get lost and will expire on the website, so don’t expect all of your cards to reach their destinations. It’s just a simple fact when it comes to sending cards long distances. Don’t fret though, Postcrossing has a check and balance system.
A postcard that has been traveling longer than 60 days is set to expired in Postcrossing. This status allows an account to send another postcard. You can see which of your traveling postcards have expired by looking at your traveling postcards page.
Most sent postcards will arrive well before 60 days have passed; however, some postcards do take longer to reach their destination. Expired postcards can still be registered up to one year after you requested the address. After this period, they are deleted from Postcrossing and can no longer be registered.
This helps to keep postcards flowing to and from your mailbox. You have to send a postcard in order to receive one. This makes sure that people don’t just receive cards and never send any. When you first start Postcrossing, you only are allowed to send around 5-10 postcards at one time. I believe this is mainly to build a rapport and make sure that you
Tips for having a great Postcrossing experience
- Some ways to reduce the issue of cards getting lost would be to first make sure you print the addresses exactly as they are received from the website. Many people print the addresses out on a printer and glue them to the card. Sometimes the addresses print in the native language of the country you’re sending to. So when you print them out on a printer, it is then exactly right. I sometimes have trouble with cards I send to Russia, Russian Federation, China, and Japan, or other countries that use symbols as a part of the language makeup. The addresses are printed in Cyrillic, Mandarin, Cantonese, of Japanese symbols or characters. If you hand print them and are not familiar with writing in the language you may completely send your card to the wrong address solely on a bad stroke of the pen.
- Each postcard you send will come with a unique ID that you must make sure you put on the card somewhere so that it can be registered. I usually write in two to three times on different spots on the card. Some post offices put their meter mark at the bottom or put other stamps at different spots on the card which may cover up the unique ID. So the more places you write the ID, the better.
- Choose cards made from durable card stock. Some people make their own cards as well. You just want to make sure that the card isn’t too thin or has a lot of inks that will bleed. It has to stand the test of traveling thousands of miles without getting damaged too heavily. Keep in mind, post offices may not take substantial care with a random postcard versus an actual letter or package which someone paid to insure or secure.
- Even if you put your preferred types of cards you would like to receive in your profile, you may still receive random cards, so just enjoy the experience.
Some of my favorite post cards that I’ve received
I wanted to share three of the postcards that received that I love the most. I’ve included a link to my Postcrossing profile if you want to look at all the post cards I’ve received.
I received this one from Germany on December 25, 2014. It took 10-days to receive. I wrote about a few of my favorite things in my Postcrossing profile and I happened to receive a postcard of an animal I really enjoy.
This card came from Russia and I received it on May 3, 2015. It took 22 days to receive which is quite short for any of the postcards I have received from Russia. The cards that have taken the most time to receive for me were from Russia, Russian Federation, and China. I was lucky enough to see the aurora borealis or Northern Lights on both of my trips to Iceland as well as my trip to Alaska. So, any postcard I receive with a photo of the aurora borealis is an instant star in my eyes.
This gorgeous postcard of two giraffes necking came from Kazakhstan and took 23 days to receive. I received it on June 30, 2015. Giraffes are some of my most favorite animals along with hippos, zebras, and whale sharks.
Some of my favorite post cards I’ve sent
I now actively look for postcards that make me smile when I travel now because I hope that whoever receives the cards that I mail will also smile. Just like the previous section I wanted to share a few of the postcards that I have sent that I thought were pretty cool.
I love octopi and I loved this postcard. I sent this one to the Netherlands. It took seven days to reach the receiver.
This image is not that great as it was one of the first postcards I sent using Postcrossing. Regardless, it’s one of the favorites postcards I’ve sent since it was the first and only card that I have sent to the continent of Africa. I sent this one to South Africa and it took 114 days to be received and registered. Africa is not a continent that I have received many cards from either. I have only received once postcard from Algeria.
This card has a wonderful image of some foxes that might be seen in the state of Oregon’s wilderness. I sent this postcard to Taiwan and it was very quick to reach the end destination. It took 21 days to be received which is fast for any of the postcards I’ve sent to the Asian region. As I mentioned before, the cards I send to China and Russia usually take the longest to reach their destination.
This last one I just thought was really pretty and unique. Sometimes I hate to give up some of these beautiful cards. Then I think that the person on the receiving end deserves to find as much joy in the card as I find in it. I usually write a message on the card that wishes them well. I sent this card to the United Kingdom in 2015 and it took eight days to reach the destination.
I hope to some of you on Postcrossing. So if you join please send me a DM on Instagram or on Facebook. If you want to see any of the other cards I’ve sent or received, you can view them on my Postcrossing postcard map.
What do you think about Postcrossing? Please leave me a comment or any questions that you have about my journey with Postcrossing. I hope to see you soon starting your journey sending postcards all over the world.
