It’s been over six months since my last Postcrossing update and this strange hobby has been progressing steadily. As of today I’ve sent 1436 postcards and received 1427, and my usage puts me in the top 3% of members based in the USA!
My current maximum is 37 simultaneous addresses and I’m sending/receiving an average of about 40 cards per month. This is time consuming and I’ve considered cutting back, but since I just renewed my PO Box (which is surprisingly expensive) I guess I’ll continue for at least another year.
As usual Germany dominates the top 10 of countries I have sent to…
…and received from. Since May I’ve sent almost 100 more postcards to German addresses alone!
There have been virtually no changes at the low ends of the country lists, with no new countries sending me cards and only a single new one – Uzbekistan – receiving a card from me (which took 82 days to arrive).
Of the 209 countries that currently have postcrossing members, I’ve sent to 63 of them and received from 65. The ‘rarest’ one I’ve got a card from is French Guiana (only 14 members) and the two I’d most like to – but likely never will – get cards from would be Vatican City (4 members) and Papua New Guinea (only 2 members).
Moving onto cards, the variety continues to run the gamut. I added to my bio that I like cheesy old tourist cards and have seen an uptick in them, such as those above. The Australia expo card (why do I not remember an expo in Brisbane in 1988?) was actually sent to me from Germany.
I get lots of animal cards as well, and since I say I like ‘unusual’ animals I occasionally get exactly that, such as the wonderful newt.
I also added that I like ‘fantasy’ cards which led to an uptick in spooky cards, especially witches! I’ve also received a few cool Asian dragon cards from China.
The card on the left, which is shown next to a standard postcard, is by far the largest I have yet received. There’s no explanation on the back of why she’s holding a tank, but since it’s from Belarus perhaps it’s some sort of nationalistic image? At any rate, a lovely card.
I also received a few ‘postcrossing meetup’ cards from Taiwan or China and once again they all were covered with cute stamps that seems to be what the postcrossing users in those countries use. Maybe I should look into getting one like this?
As always I love seeing all the stamps, although the UK and German ones remain marred to the ugly (anti forgery) QR codes.
One Indian postcard was sent using the above for postage, and one Chinese one was sent using just these:
They took up more than half of the back of the postcard, and they actually wrote my address on the other side.
The above are some cool German stamps I received this past six months. I know England had a few nice stamp series as well (including Dungeons & Dragons) alas no one used any on cards sent to me.
A selection of the shaped stamps on recent cards, and as usual Finland wins the contest on most unusual shape.
I particularly like the one in the left where the edge of the stamp is the edge of the ice the man is fishing off. Finland is very clever with their stamp design, and it seems every couple of months they release a new unusual stamp.
The above is the most notable card I received, not just these past six months but perhaps in all the six years I’ve been using Postcrossing! This is an original watercolour painting showing the view from the senders apartment in a Russian town! I praised this in my confirmation of receipt message and she responded saying it took her about half an hour and she tries to do one every week. I had read about users sending original art through the mail but this was the first time I was lucky enough to receive one so I feel very privileged. It’s lovely isn’t it?
In a few days we’re off again to Japan, and as always I look forward to sending the usual barrage of postcards. I hope you enjoy receiving mine when they arrive 🙂
