Category: Stamps

The Japan Postcards

July 15, 2026

I sent myself a whopping 63 postcards from Japan! That’s an average of nearly 4 each day. If I was an independent observer, I’d suggest this was excessive, but as with the Australian cards it didn’t seem so while I was there. A ritual of my solo Japan trips has become relaxing postcard-writing in my hotel room while watching anime on the TV 🙂

Why so many? Well an explanation is hardly needed, but let’s just say I’ve leveled up in my postcarding! It’s also true that I bought many more than usual, and even brought with me a couple of dozen leftovers from last winter’s trip.

I was in Japan for 16 days, and for the first time completed a special ‘postcard project’. Once a day I sent myself a card from an art series involving two cats exploring Japan. I had 12 of these from past trips in my collection (here at home) and was confident I could find 4 more while I was there. As you can see above, I did!

I also successfully sent the above enormous lenticular card, which I photographed next to a normal sized postcard. I’d purchased this in Australia several years ago, but never sent it because I was confused about the Japanese rules for sending oversized cards. But I know how to send these now, and I was happy this arrived in perfect condition.

I didn’t count how many unique stamps I used on the cards I sent home, but it’s surely in the dozens. I bought mint retro stamps several times during the trip, and used many of them. You probably got some yourself. I wonder if you look at the stamps?

Last January I went to a postal museum in Arima, and saw some Japanese stamps featuring various pop culture properties. Six months later I used some of these myself on cards 🙂

The above is on a card sent home from Osaka, and which features the rubber stamp I made myself at a Sanrio store. What’s this card talking about? These:

I went all in on these gacha machine ID photos, which followed in the footsteps of ‘someone else’s dog’ from last winter. I think got about 10 times of these, and I stuck every one on a postcard. As it turns out these are members of Japanese (not that famous) idol bands that I believe are all signed to the same management company.

But that still doesn’t explain the dog!

The Australia Postcards

July 9, 2026

On this past trip, I sent myself 35 postcards from Australia. Here’s some of them:

As usual I numbered the cards, and the highest is number 36 but one (number 20) never arrived. Does this card exist and is still in transit, or did I make a numbering error? I don’t know, and it’s difficult to tell based on the dates and messages on 19 and 21.

Most of the cards are vintage thanks to Sue giving me a bunch she had found in an antique store. We found almost no new cards on our road trip which was surprising since some of the places we visited (Katoomba and Dubbo Zoo) are tourist attractions. I suppose Australians no longer send each other postcards.

I sent us three a day, although I have no recollection of writing so many! One card describes the events of the day, and the other two are just random/funny events from that day or the trip in general. The above is an example, and if you’re wondering why I had the idea of including SHAZAM in the card your guess is as good as mine!

And none of those ten Chomp bars survived until the Japan flight, but rest assured I purchased more.

I do my best to vary the stamps I put on all the postcards I send, but I was very surprised to discover seventy different stamps on the 35 cards!

This was possible because I discovered (here at home) a stash of old Australian stamps that I brought with me. In addition the guy at the post office near the QVB in Sydney did his best to help me buy every different stamp they had in stock.

It is my experience that postal workers – in the US, Australia and Japan – are usually more than happy to entertain my requests to look at and buy as many different stamps as possible 🙂

There’s also the licensed stamp sets, of which I saw about a dozen in post offices while I was there. I used the stamps from the Avatar and Big Things sets, and if you look at your postcards you may see examples from both.

These cards will all be filed in my second ‘Australia’ binder with the hundreds of others I’ve sent myself from those shores over the years. As I’ve mentioned many times, these are my most treasured ‘souvenirs’ from my travels.

I’ll (probably) do a post about the Japan postcards as well, although we’re still waiting for a half dozen or so to arrive…

The Financial Ruin Of Early Retirement

May 2, 2026

Last night at the drive-in I had a great idea, which I then proposed to Bernard: in exchange for an abundance of postcards from my upcoming trip, he would pay me for each unique stamp I use to send them.

To be specific, the first stamp costs him $0.10, the next $0.20, and each subsequent costs $0.10 more. So if the first card has four unique stamps on it, he’d owe me $1 ($0.10 + $0.20 + $0.30 + $0.40). To ~~trick him into agreeing~~ sweeten the deal, I agreed he’d pay me nothing unless the total exceeded $10.

I laughed like a goon when he signed the contract!

The above is a plot of what he’ll owe me versus unique stamps. It would take fourteen unique stamps for the total to exceed $10 ($10.50 to be precise) and as you can see it rises quadratically. The equation, if you’re interested, is $n(n+1)/20 where n is the number of unique stamps.

Looking at this plot, the amount he’d owe me would surpass $100 at 45 unique stamps. For amateurs this would be a challenge, but he made the critical mistake of forgetting I’m far from an amateur. In fact, due to leftovers from previous trips, I already have enough unique stamps to surpass this amount.

But stopping at 45 is barely a challenge. How far could I push this?

Checking out the Australia Post website reveals several dozen current stamp issues. It’s hard to put a precise number on how many since the website is irritating to use, but I’d say it’s upwards of 40 unique stamps. Just from these alone (and including the ones I already have) I’m well over the $100 return.

But Australia Post also sells collectible ‘Stamp Packs’, one or two of which I usually buy on each trip. From the ones in-stock today there’s 123 unique stamps and I know from experience it’s not difficult to find older packs available in post offices.

So it’s not unreasonable to assume I could relatively easily find 150 unique stamps in Australia alone. Before you ask “What about the postcards?” remember who is writing this. The deal doesn’t specify anything about how the cards bear the stamps, so I’d just buy big cards and put 10+ stamps on each.

If you’re wondering about the cost of all these stamps, then yes it adds up. But a quick analysis of average prices vs returns shows I’d be making money after about the 15th stamp, and likely much earlier if I buy many small denomination ones.

And this is just Australia. Things get truly interesting because I’m also going to Japan…

Japan has a few dozen basic stamps available, all of which I bought on my last trip. Obtaining these is trivial, so getting up to over 175 stamps wouldn’t be much of a challenge (for me).

And they also have these limited sheets, and I know exactly where I could go (Tokyo Main Post Office) to purchase dozens of different ones. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to obtain at least another 100 unique stamps amongst these alone.

And then there’s the licensed limited sheets, and the stamp shop near my Osaka hotel that sells hundreds of old mint unused stamps. The sky is the limit. I could get to 500 unique stamps ‘easily’…

The above is a plot of returns vs unique stamps up to 500, at which point Bernard would owe me $12,525.00. While I believe I could exceed this amount, in the interests of good sportsmanship I’d probably end there.

Of all the ~~crazy schemes~~ good ideas I’ve ~~hatched~~ had, this may be the best. I get to buy lots of stamps, send lots of postcards, and I’ll make five figures (easily) out of it. What could go wrong?

Robot Claw