Monday, May 13, 2013

Snail Mail is Not Dead

by FabricGreetings

I am a great fan of snail mail. My business is built around that concept. I love all the new and interesting stamps that are released and my postmistress knows when I come in, I am not buying the regular Flag or Liberty Bell stamps. I want to see what is new – but more on that later.

Early this year MooreMagnets suggested I might find the blog www.MissiveMavin.com interesting. And I do. She is also a seller on etsy and promotes snail mail. In the course of reading her blog, I discovered http://www.postcrossing.com/.

Postcrossing is a site for people who like to send and receive postcards. It works quite easily – even I was able to figure it out. You register on the site and ask for an address. You are given an address, a short bio of the receiver and a ID number to write on your card.


Once your card has been sent and received, it gets registered and your name will be put on the receiver list. I have received about 14 cards from all over the world.
 
Some are scenic cards.



Some are art cards.



All are interesting.



Perhaps more interesting than the cards are the many stamps that accompany the cards. The USPS has a global international stamp that is round. It cost $1.10 to send an international card. I use both the global stamp or one forever stamp (46 cents) and two postcard stamps from last year (32 cents each). It gives the recipient a variety of stamps at one time.



But the stamps from around the world are amazing.
Can you imagine a stamp with guitar strumming pigs? Got one from the Czech Republic.



The card from Finland has sledders on it – why is that not a surprise?



Some stamps are just scenic.



But all the stamps have one thing in common. They are unique.
For those of you who are just flag and bell stamp users, here are a few of the new stamps I found at the post office this week.



So if you are looking for an interesting hobby, check out Postcrossing. Or if you don't want to join an organized group, take it upon yourself to send someone a card. You might be lucky enough to get one in return.

3 comments:

RobinsFlight said...

This is so interesting! I just may have to sign up- nothing makes your day more than finding some fun piece of mail in the mailbox!

Unknown said...

Oh how fun! I am so glad that you signed up to do that! I thought you might enjoy that site!

sewsouk said...

Fun to receive an unexpected card in the mail- I got a hello recently- wonder who that was from?! I love seeing all the pics from different countries as well as the stamps- most of them here in Morocco have the King's head and nothing more. I guess if you asked or knew how to ask they might find something different. My family always collected stamps- even i have an album filled with hundreds of them- some are very old.

Great pice- off to check out those web sites