Postcrossing Blog

David “the mad postcard collector” from the United Kingdom has amassed over 100,000 postcards for his collection. This 56 year old multilingual Postcrosser is also a world traveler.

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I have been hooked on collecting postcards since I was a teenager. I joined two postcard-collecting groups within Mensa, one who was already also a Postcrosser, introduced me to Postcrossing, and I have been totally hooked ever since! My wife, Jeannette, keeps telling me off because I spend so much time writing postcards! I have always enjoyed having the postman deliver mail, so Sundays and public holidays are sad because there is no mail. I am so well-known by my local postmen that I even had a postcard addressed simply to 'The mad postcard collector, Felixstowe' delivered to me!

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I love travelling and have visited more than 70 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. I love music. I learned to play the guitar (but not very well) and wrote my own songs. I even recorded several of my songs, although they are not available commercially. And I love languages too: I studied French, German, Spanish and Latin at school, taught myself Dutch, Italian, Russian and several other languages; I’m learning Japanese at evening classes too. So my hobbies of travel, languages and postcards are all related.

This is a picture of me playing my guitar and 'performing’ at my 50th birthday party!

This picture, taken two years ago, shows me when I changed a small amount of money ($100) at a bank in Uzbekistan.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

One picture shows Bent Hill Post Office, Felixstowe. It’s a short walk from where I live. I buy most of my postcards there and all of my stamps, so I’m their favourite customer! The other picture, which is not so clear, is a scanned copy of a picture taken for a newspaper in 2006; it shows me with a few of my postcards and with some of the crates in which I store my collection.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I have received nearly 3000 official postcards through Postcrossing, many more through swaps, Round Robins etc. I cannot single out one postcard as so many are my favourites!