Deltiologist - PostCrossing

            Deltiology is the collection and study of postcards. This is the third most popular hobby next to philately and Numismatics. Deltiologist is a person who collects and studies the postcard. Deltiology is related to Philately since it also deals with Postal item. 

Image-1: India Postcard featuring Lion Head Stamp

Image-2: India Postcard featuring Gandhiji Stamp

Image-3: Indian Picture Postcard featuring Taj Mahal

Today - 27.01.2017, during a visit of CPMG (Chief Post Master General) - Mr. Charles Lobo to Mettupalayam. He introduced us to a wonderful website project called www.postcrossing.com, which is extremely a simple and surprising way to collect postcards around the world, almost without any loss.

Here is how it works :

The main idea behind the project is "If you send a postcard, you will receive one back from a Random PostCrosser from anywhere in the world" 

1. Goto https://www.postcrossing.com/
2. Signup for a new account. (Note: Provide the complete address containing Door No, Street Number, Town, City with pincode and INDIA)
3. Verify your email account by logging to your email

Now you are ready to join the world of postcrossers.

Now you are entitled to send a postcard to a Random person which the system selects so that later you will receive a postcard from a random person anywhere in the world. So how to send a Postcard.

1. Login into Postcrossing
2. Click "PostCards" menu and select "Send a PostCard"
3. Click "Request an Address"
4. You would see a PostCardID and an address to which you need to send a postcard

 5. Now get a picture postcard and send it to the address you have received. Please do not forget to write the Postcard ID on the letter (This is very important which is necessary for you to receive a card back)

So how do you receive a Card back?

Once the person to whom you have posted the card receives it, you would then Register the Card in the Postcrossing.com using the PostCardID you mentioned in the card. (Note: Ideally it would take more than 15 days for the card to reach the person depending on the country)

Now, whenever a postcrosser requested an address, your address would be in the queue. Very soon you might receive a card from any corner of the world at a surprise. 

Initially, you are allowed to send 5 postcards at a time, later as the number of postcard you sent increases, the number you can send would gradually increase. For more on How many postcards you can send?

Some Interesting facts on Postcrossing.com:

1. More than 39 millions postcards sent so far by the postcrossers around the globe
2. 199,962,080,445 km traveled - i.e., 4,989,696 laps around the earth
3. As on today, India has around 8234 members registered 
4. All-time topper has sent around 21,322 postcards so far (from India the topper has sent around 5820 postcards so far)

Happy Postcrossing:) !