7 Years of Postcrossing

This morning, I received a surprise email:

 

Er... no, I can't really say I remember... 

But seeing who sent the email is of course a clue in itself... ;)

Checking my Postcrossing account, I note that over those seven years, I have sent no less than 900 registered postcards to random strangers around the world - and received as many.

I think the first time I mentioned Postcrossing on my blog was 31st May, 2013. It was through one of my first friends in the Blogosphere (Scriptor Senex of Rambles from my Chair) that I first learned about the project; and a lot of inherited stamps from my dad made me decide to join. It just seemed more fun to me to put the stamps to use rather than sell them or just keep them.

With the increase in postal rates and so on, most of the inherited stamps have indeed been sent out into the world by now (except some of low value, the use of which would leave no room to write anything on the card!) In the meantime, I had somehow managed to overestimate how many cards I needed to buy... so now it was the cards begging me to be sent travelling... So I had to buy more stamps... and then more cards... and so it goes on!!!

PS. I also suspect that over these seven years I've probably exchanged about as many cards outside the Postcrossing system as within it. From storage point of view, it would no doubt have been wiser to just keep the stamps... But not half as much fun!

Two cards that dropped in this past week:

Quote card (with matching stamp on the back),

from him who first inspired me to join Postcrossing

Dandelion Flower Fairy
from my penpal Jarina in the Netherlands

Postcards for the Weekend – Mail Service

One of my first received Postcrossing cards in 2018 apparently came straight from Postcrossing Heaven… Not only does it show “Christkindl’s Postamt”, but it was also sent from a Christmas Postcrossing Meetup, in Austria – dated 23rd December 2017 – and signed by some fifteen or more postcrossers. What a treasure!

…

A Ramble about Stamps

(Feel free to skip this if numbers give you headache…)

Shortly before Christmas, I read somewhere that there was to be another increase in postage rates in Sweden from 1st January. The impression I got was that both domestic and international postage was to go up. In 2017, international was already increased twice, and went up from 2x to 3x that of a letter or card within Sweden. If the same pattern was to be applied for 2018, that would bring the cost of sending a postcard abroad up to a quite ridiculous level! However, after last years’ changes, I didn’t put it past them…

On the official website, there were no details to be found yet. But I decided to stock up an extra supply of domestic stamps (‘1st class’) at the old price (7 kr), as they would not only still be valid but even increase in value (to 9 kr) in 2018. (These have no value printed on them, just “Sverige Brev” – Sweden Letter. But can also be used together with other stamps to make up international postage, at whatever they happen to be worth at the moment.)

When I checked again after New Year, it was actually Good News for me - on the international front. Turned out that it was only the domestic postage that had gone up (from 7 to 9 kr), while the international remains unchanged (for now) at 21 kr.* 

This means that for me, to send a postcard abroad may even be cheaper for a while. (Are you still with me? I’m having difficulties myself! But if I use wisely the stamps bought at 7 kr before New Year, but now worth 9 kr…)

(Please don’t tell PostNord. If they’re made aware, they might panic!)

*[21 SEK ~ 2,57 USD ~ 1,9 GBP]

Postcards for the Weekend 67: Anything You Wish

About Snail Mail

… Mail trucks taking a holiday rest (Sunday after Epiphany) …

A few years ago when going through my dad’s study, I found a lot of stamps that were still good for use. Not knowing what to do with them, I decided to join Postcrossing and send them out into the World; which is what they were made for in the first place.

By now I have used up most of the leftover stamps of higher value, so I’ve started buying some new ones again as well. Because if I use only old low value stamps on the international cards, that leaves no room to actually write anything!

Last year, our international postage rate was SEK 13,00 (2x the domestic postage). However, when flickering through the latest newsletter from PostNord (the Swedish postal service) around New Year, I noticed that one of the new stamps to be issued in January had the eyebrow-raising value of SEK 19:50 - i.e. 3x the domestic postage (and equaling ~ $2,13 or £1,73). On closer investigation, I found that this is actually our new minimum international postage rate from 1st January.

This is not something that seems to have been noted at all by our newspapers or TV, though. Even when googling it now, besides on PostNord’s own website, I only find it mentioned on philatelist sites.

As upset as I am about the sneaky postage increase, I have to say I quite like the stamp. (I have a Dala horse just like that on top of one of my bookcases too.) Here it is for those of you who won’t be getting one on an actual card because no one can afford to send it to you:

(PS to my regular snail mail correspondents: Don’t worry.
You’ll still be hearing from me now and then…)

December 6 – Stamps & Postcrossing

Today, I finished my Christmas cards and letters going off abroad, and put stamps on the envelopes. It’s been an extremely stormy and rainy weekend here, and I’ve stayed indoors. But we’re supposed to get a break from the wet weather tomorrow, and I hope to get out to post my cards and letters then.

When going through the piles and shelves and drawers of paperwork in my dad’s study after he died a few years ago, I kept finding lots of old (but not too old) stamps, still good for use. I do like stamps - many of them are wonderful little pieces of art. But I don’t collect them. And rather than just letting them lie in a box unused, I decided it would be more fun (for them, and for me) to send them travelling around the World – which is, after all, what they were made for!

So I joined Postcrossing.

Collage of some of the postcrossing cards I received in 2015

2½ years later, I have used up most of my old stamps of higher value; but have received a lot of fun and interesting postcards (with stamps!) from around the world instead. (It might argued that the postcards take up more space than the stamps did. But I still feel it was more fun!)

I still have some old stamps of lower value left; but am now using a mix of old and new to make up foreign postage (or else there would be no room left to write anything on the cards)… I’ve also cut down a bit on the number of postcrossing cards I send. The system is pretty much self-regulating, so that’s not a problem. (If I send less, I also get less.)

This week, I still have a pile of Swedish Christmas cards to write.

Collectors’ Quotes

“I collect old portraits. They're all just interesting pictures of people, and you just kind of wonder who they were and what they were. There's a guy - I don't know who he is, but he's wearing a suit. He's got his arms folded, and he looks like he sold insurance or something. I'm just wondering why someone painted him.
”Ellen DeGeneres

 

“I collect records. And cats. I don't have any cats right now. But if I'm taking a walk and I see a cat, I'm happy.”
"Haruki Murakami

 

“I don't collect any memorabilia. I wish I'd have kept everything I had. But who knew you had to keep it. Just gave it away. And we lost so much and we didn't look after a lot of it.”
Ringo Starr

 

“But in truth, should I meet with gold or spices in great quantity, I shall remain till I collect as much as possible, and for this purpose I am proceeding solely in quest of them.”
Christopher Columbus

 

“I collect watches because I'm always late, and I need to know exactly how late I'm going to be - in order to come up with a good excuse.”
Colin Hanks

 

“I've always been an obsessive collector of things. Richard Briers collects stamps. I collect cars and guns, which are much more expensive, and much more difficult to store.”
Michael Gambon

- - -

I spent a weekend out at the House again. Two years we’ve spent rummaging through that house, and there are still surprises hiding… I’ve told you before that I found lots of still valid stamps 1½-2 years ago while going through dad’s study. About three months ago I decided to use those for postcrossing (link to my first post about that back in May).  

This weekend I decided to look through some boxes we found later, also related to dad’s stamp collection. They seemed to contain mostly first-day covers and foreign stamps. The main reason I started looking through them was that I was curious if there might also be some postcards. Very few of those – BUT in among all the envelopes of foreign stamps (mostly from the rest of the Nordic countries) I found more unused Swedish stamps as well. And when I say more, I mean lots. Probably at least as many more as those already found!

I can maybe (sort of) understand the kind of stamp collecting where you put “one of each” into albums in some sort of order. Here, however, we are talking stamps kept in their original little semitransparent envelopes (usually two of each issue/booklet), each stored with the brochure they were ordered from, in the envelope they came in; and the envelopes in boxes; and the boxes stacked in a wardrobe…

I’m not a stamp collector. I may be committing some kind of sacrilege, but what I do with stamps is (re)sort  them according to nominal value, and some perhaps according to topic – so that I know where to find them when I want to use them.

Now please excuse me. I have some postcards to write…