Another successful Postcrossing meetup at Great American Stamp Show

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

In August I was thrilled to work with the American Philatelic Society to host another Postcrossing meetup at a Great American Stamp Show.

This time the event was held in Hartford, Conn., and we had two meetups related to the new United States forever Pinback Buttons and Autumn Colors stamp issues unveiled at the show. Almost 1,500 postcards for both issues were given out at the two meetings to the more than 30 attendees.

Again I would like to give a special thanks to Trevor Bills, a former American Philatelic Society Young Philatelic Leadership Fellow, who assisted again this year with passing out cards and explaining the workings of Postcrossing to the group.

Bills also helped run a digital quiz that included a prize at the end, and it seemed that attendees really liked that added touch.

Pictured nearby is a photo of all of us who gathered for an hour to sign or handstamp postcards and prepare them for mailing from the show. A finished meetup postcard is also shown.

According to the Postcrossing website, “The goal of this project is to allow anyone to send and receive postcards from all over the world!”

After setting up an account, you can send postcards to random individuals around the world, and in exchange, you receive postcards from different random people. The website provides further details about how this postcard exchange system works.

A handful of meetup attendees came up to me during the event to thank me and told me that if it wasn’t for the combination of a meetup at a stamp show with a first-day ceremony, they likely would not have attended.

And I spotted many who attended the meetups roaming the show floor afterward looking for postage to use on future postcards. I also saw many of the same people at the U.S. Postal Service booth mailing their meetup cards. It was a total win for all in my book.

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