Postcards From Paradise

There are a number of services that will mail postcards for you and on my personal to do list was to test and choose a service.

Why? I find myself sending fewer postcards because the selection is often poor, or doesn't reflect the experiences that I had, and because the cards and postage can be expensive. With electronic photo sharing options many people cruising forego postcards altogether but there is something special to me about receiving something from someone in the mail.

Postcardly is the compromise that I chose. I can send an email with a photo I took as an attachment, to a special email address I set up in advance. The card is printed with the photo as the front and the subject and body of my email as the message on the back. Depending on which preset email I chose, the card is addressed to different people and mailed from the US - for a total cost of $1 if mailed to a US address or $2 if mailed internationally.

I wanted an email based service rather than an app based service because now I can prepare the emails to initiate the postcards while I am offline and then when I next sync my email the cards are processed and sent.
To use the service I need internet access but so far I have had WiFi as often or perhaps more often than I have seen post offices. And of course the card isn't mailed from an exotic port.

After testing the service I was quite happy with their photo printing quality and speed. I set up a bunch of addresses while I had fast internet.

I received 3 free postcards as part of a free trial and after seeing the cards I prepaid $20 for 20 printed-and-postage-paid cards.

11 comments:

  1. This is very cool, thanks for sharing. I have actually been looking for something exactly like this.

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  2. Ditto the above -- we just went through this exact struggle, trying to find postcards that at all captured the essence of the place. In Mexico, the postcards mostly seem to be of naked women or tequila shots ;) So in the end we gave up!

    Thanks for the link -- at $1/piece, we'll definitely give it a try!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One more thought -- do you want to give out your referral link? Or is the link above your referral link? Might as well get some free postcards from the ones I want to send! :)

      Leah
      s/v Brio

      Delete
    2. Hi Leah, Thanks for asking. That is the referral link! Livia

      Delete
  3. This is a great find! Thanks for sharing. I'll definitely be sending to friends and fam as we sail through the Caribbean.

    Kelley
    sailingchance.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is pretty cool! And what great idea. Thanks for sharing!

    Mike
    siochana.us

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  5. Ah yes but they are not handwritten and they do not have local stamps. Call me old fashioned but I like to see someones handwriting and I like to see exotic stamps!

    ReplyDelete

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