Y began using Postcrossing in 2013 when we still lived in Atlanta. She liked the concept of connecting with others around the world via mailed postcards.
The way Postcrossing works is you setup a profile with your mailing address. Then, you request an address of another Postcrossing user for you to send a postcard to. When that person whose address you just got receives and registers your postcard online, then another, different Postcrossing user will be given your address randomly to send a postcard to you. Some users offer to do direct swaps, but most do not. In some cases, you might make a connection with someone that leads to becoming pen pals (Y and I each have different pen pals in Germany).
I began helping Y with her Postcrossing account before the pandemic began. We share and trade off duties, which include requesting addresses, choosing a postcard that someone might like, selected and affixing the correct postage (in the past, we purchased unused stamps on eBay and at philatelic/stamp collecting shows at significant discounts), and of course, writing a message, the postcard ID, and recipient’s address.
As you can see below, we’ve had 6,866 sent cards (we’ve sent more than this–this number reflects the number that were successfully registered by their recipients), and 6,869 received cards (this is how many cards we’ve received and registered–as you can imagine that number would be higher if some cards sent to us had not been lost in the mail).
The picture at the top of this post is our most recent batch of 100 sent postcards. We had let the account go dormant during this past school year. Over the past few days, Y requested 100 addresses, selected cards, and affixed postage. As she would complete a small batch of cards, she handed them to me and I wrote the message to the recipient. For selecting the postcard and writing the message, Y and I would read the recipient’s profile and view their favorite postcards to get a sense of who they are and what we would like to send/say to them.
Of these 100 postcards, we sent 1 to Bulgaria, 2 to Canada, 13 to China, 1 to Czechia, 1 to Denmark, 1 to Finland, 23 to Germany, 1 to Ireland, 1 to Italy, 3 to Japan, 1 to Kazakhstan, 5 to Netherlands, 2 to Poland, 1 to Portugal, 1 to Spain, 1 to Taiwan, 41 to the United States, and 1 to Ukraine. The distribution depends on how many users there are in a given country and how many have just had cards registered. Postcrossing tries to balance the distribution across its user base. Also, you can select to not send cards to your own country. However, it’s worth noting that the price of sending a postcard overseas is about 3 times the price to send a postcard domestically.
I encourage my students to try out Postcrossing as a way to connect with others and practice their writing. Also, learning about others’ lived experience and sharing your own with others can serve to break down barriers to understanding and bridge arbitrary divisions between people.
Anyone can join and the service is free. The only costs are for postcards and postage. If you are interested in Postcrossing, you can get involved in whatever way suits you.
