Postcrossing

Back of a 1908 postcard

If you’re a fan of snail mail like I am, you may want to take a look at Postcrossing. The concept is very simple. It’s the exchanging of postcards to and from random people around the world. Nearly every country is participating to some degree, and it’s completely random, so you never know where you’ll be sending to or receiving from. The first five countries I sent cards to were Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Greece, and Belarus. Very soon, I’ll be dropping postcards in the mailbox for Russia, Netherlands, Poland, Finland, and Belarus.

I realize there’s a clear European slant at this point, but it can’t be helped. Many of these countries are highly active, especially compared to certain countries. Nonetheless, they’re still postcards from strangers around the world. I’m anxious to see the list of countries I send and receive from grow as time goes on. Thus far, I have received cards from Finland, Netherlands, Australia, and France.

Your address sits in their giant queue, and is put back in it each time one of your cards has been received. Thus, the ratio of sent and received cards is consistently kept even. When you request an address, you are given a unique ID number to put on the postcard, so that the person on the other end may register it on the website, thus marking it as received in the system.

In the near future, I will be uploading the cards I have received. New postcards will be uploaded as they are received.