(If this thread is in the wrong place I assume someone will move it…)
Inspired by another thread, how many people have you told, that you do postcrossing? I’m not talking about people who live with you, or your pets, or the man/woman in the post office, how many other people know that you do this? I’ve told two friends, both of whom were amused and faintly interested, but not much.
I feel like adding a rider to this question: there’s not much point in people answering who have been here for ~ten years or so; they’ve had so much time to talk about this hobby. I suppose I’m asking relatively new people. (Define ‘relatively new’. Oh, within a year or so?)
I told everyone in my office, here under corona everyone sends a daily update, and I talked a bit about postcrossing. People with children were the most curious, but then they learned of the cost of sending postcards from Denmark, and everyone lost interest .
I might have been here for almost 10 years (less than 5 active tho) but i’d say 3 people know it!
My mom knows “Im sending cards to random people and spend 1/10th of my salary for that”
My boyfriend knows that “I do something with cards and writing stuff” (we have a cultural n language gap anyways so Im not really expecting him to fully understand!)
One friend/colleague who likes penpalling was actually interested in joining, so this post reminds me to send her the link!
A few more people have seen me sending or receiving cards and were like “aw, that oldschool stuff? ha ha… fun”
*not slightly amused *
I joined PX this year and have told 2 people about it, both were not interested…
My mom was also really sceptical at first but after I started receiving cards, she’s ok with me pursuing this hobby😂
I’ve told everyone about it & many are intrigued & interested - they think it’s a cool hobby, especially given the pandemic - everyone I know loves to get real snail mail. Friends ask me for updates all the time.
I’ve had several friends join Postcrossing as a result of these conversations.
Hmm, well I had an account back in 2016 I must’ve sent less than twenty cards.
Closed that when I was ill. Now I have this one.
All my frens that have ever bothered to ask what I like know I love paper and snail mail.
Ive never met anyone else randomly who has done Postcrossing. I’ve told friends but most are like ‘oh yeah you like paper right?’ or ‘oh yeah old fashioned mail?’
Two of my frens ended up signing up!
But I don’t know if they still regularly postcross.
I told one shop about it too, and that old lady ended up telling me, when I stopped by again, that she signed up and loved it.
And of course my partner knows. Suffers when I gush about a new postcard or letter.
I sort of casually mention I receive lots of mail from abroad to people who ask about my hobbies and such. Also, it’s funny, but here at my school especially in foreign language classes (other than Dutch in my case) they teach you the way to address an address on an envelope () However, the way they teach you is wrong. For example: They tell you to write the countries’ name in that countries’ actual language, which is not how the website of the postal service of this country wishes people to address these things according to their website, since the machine can only really understand the English names of countries as far as I know. The other addresses would probably have to be sorted by hand, or will get sent back to the sender lol. Anyways, I corrected my teacher and she was interested in how I knew all of this (and because I mentioned sending mail to China,which she thought unusual), so I explained it to her.
my friends know i’m a postcard collector, so i told them when i joined postcrossing (and other two sites working like this); maybe they thought i would have stopped asking them for postcards from their holidays, but they were sadly mistaken
there’s a friend of mine who always buys a few postcards for herself everywhere she goes and puts them into some albums with the ones she receives, i thought that maybe she would have joined us, but postcrossing was too complicated and maybe expensive for her, and she said she’s happy with the postcards friends send her.
i convinced two other friends of mine, but they quitted after a few months, though one of them came with me to a meetup and also proposed to organize a meetup in our town.
i’ve never met yet someone by chance and found he/she’s a postcrosser too.
I joined only 2 weeks ago, have not told anyone so far.
The point is to get the card to the country of destination. So it makes sense to write that in the language of the country you are writing from, so their post service knows which country to send the card to - or in English as this is the “lingua franca”.
Or in French, as French is still the official language for everything postal I always write it in English as the card might be misdirected and than it won’t help if I had written it in German.
I have a few friends I tell about some cards I receive, specially if that particular card reminds me of them. Also sometimes when a friend come to visit, if there’s time I show them some of the cards, it’s always interesting. They mostly think it’s unusual but that “it suits me”. I don’t know the exact number, but I would say… about 10 people. But to be honest, most of them might not even remember that.
My family and some of my professors know. Then some friends and relatives too but they don’t find my hobby to be of any value. Many question where I get the money from since I have been jobless for a long time and I’m just a student currently. I don’t like that question because I find it’s a way of making me feel guilty.
@sonataca do not feel guilty, please. It is nobody’s business what you spend your money on. Everyone has their priorities, and if postcrossing is something that brings joy to your life and makes grey days brighter, then it’s totally worth it.
I personally know only one other Postcrosser. I’ve told all my friends, but none seem to be interested. The best thing that happened from telling others, though, was a friend who gave me a box full of hundreds of old unused postcards, mostly dating between 1910 and 1970! It seems her parents and aunts and uncles liked to travel and collect postcards. I’ve been having fun sending them to any Posstcrossers I think might appreciate them.
Coming back to this subject… about 2 years ago, while opening the main mailbox of the building, I see a card, with an ID, i snatch it being sure it is mine (20 apartments and 19 get just bills!)
I come home ready to register it and I see a different name… I live on an island with 60000, in a city of 30000… We have max 4 postcrossers on the whole island. One of them, is my neighbor. Same wall separating us.
i gave him the card so now we both now each other’s hobby!
EDIT: we are actually 9, only 4 active the past year, only 2 the past 6 months… Im practically alone!
My mum knows I do Postcrossing, because she opens the mailbox at times and sees all these postcards from all around the world. She sometimes helps me to mail out my postcards too as she will pass by the postbox pretty often.
My partner knows too because I will always be talking about the postcards that I’m sending or have received.
I have a few friends who are into Postcrossing too, so in total I guess about 5-6 people know on my side?
I live alone too, but I told my family (I am sending them pics of my cards), I also told 3 friends about it and showed them some of my received cards. They seemed interested, one of them might join Postcrossing, another one has started to send me postcards (and then I send one back). We just live a few kilometers apart though, but I think that makes it even more special I’m also telling everyone who asks about my hobbies, because this is my main hobby.
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) However, the way they teach you is wrong. For example: They tell you to write the countries’ name in that countries’ actual language, which is not how the website of the postal service of this country wishes people to address these things according to their website, since the machine can only really understand the English names of countries as far as I know. The other addresses would probably have to be sorted by hand, or will get sent back to the sender lol. Anyways, I corrected my teacher and she was interested in how I knew all of this (and because I mentioned sending mail to China,which she thought unusual), so I explained it to her.
I always write it in English as the card might be misdirected and than it won’t help if I had written it in German.
I’m also telling everyone who asks about my hobbies, because this is my main hobby.