I have noticed a mild resurgence in postcards now that we are all officially sick and tired of text and email, and it's far more personal than asking someone to look at your Facebook photo album.<p><i>But...</i><p>Why do we send postcards? Is it for the pretty image? Is it for the message? Yes, but ultimately it's because you want to share an experience with someone that matters to you, and you want them to know that you are thinking of them as more than just a fleeting thought. Otherwise, a text message with an image or video suffices.<p>Bottom line: Simple Postcard would be a lot more interesting if we could physically write in them before they are sent. Just don't take this as a suggestion to use AI to put pen to paper and mimic our handwriting from samples, because that's plain creepy.
I just came back from a 10 day solo vacation to Europe. Rather than post updates on Facebook I sent postcards to close friends and family each day. It was a lot of fun taking time out of every day to go find a few nice postcards and send a handwritten note. I think the recipients really enjoyed it as well. I'm surprised postcards are around still-- but maybe they'll make a resurgence as people seek to rebuild stronger connections than social media facilitates.
I don't know what it is, but there's something about this that i like. Maybe its the "do one thing, and do it right" aspect. (Though it remains to be seen if they do it right.) But I for one wish these guys good luck!
I hope you have some human doing image QC or I envision a long conversation with Postal Inspectors regarding all the dick pic postcards that you're sending.<p>BTW, that said, this reminds me a little bit of rather elegant app developed by Bill Atikinson, "Photo Card", which aims to convert photos in iOS to postcards on demand.
I really enjoy the US Postal Service's $0.39 stamped postcards. There's a blank front, which makes it convenient to sketch what I'm seeing when I'm writing the message. (A few parks, like Yosemite, will frank the stamp from "Yosemite National Park", which is an even more special treat for the recipient.)<p>They are quite a good value for the money if you are ever in the USA and wish to correspond with friends and are artistic. :)
There was a similar thing years ago on HN that was like $4 for a postcard with the image you uploaded. It went defunct, though. I really liked the idea and did try to use it, but it was already in the process of being shut down by its creator.
Always wondered why postal services don't offer something like this for letters that a sender requires be sent by mail, but giving it to the carrier digitally is okay.<p>If it was in major cities, literally be possible to send a letter same day.
Very fun – I've already sent 5. The cost is very impulse-purchase friendly, and it's a lot easier than the effort of going to the store to get cards printed out and putting stamps on and such, though less personal because of lack of handwriting. Is the current price introductory pricing or do you think it would be sustainable long-term? Seems low to me for on-demand printing, but I haven't seen the quality of the cards.
Excellent idea for parents and grandparents that may not be into computers and the internet. Even for those that are, having a physical photo and note show up in the mailbox would be a great thing to brighten their day.
There aren't any example shots of the post cards.. How do these things look? I've stayed away from similar products because they have logos and unwanted crap on them.
I've been using Postagram (<a href="https://sincerely.com/postagram" rel="nofollow">https://sincerely.com/postagram</a>) for a few years to send a card to my grandmother regularly from my smartphone. The cards look great, cost $1, and have the image in a perforated square which can be punched out of the card, with the description on the back. They have a solid app with tracking and history. Hard to beat that, but maybe the feature that Simple Postcard has is fitting the image to a 4x6 area (full front of the card) rather than the smaller square (3x3", I think) on the Postagrams.
I love this idea. My cousin and I have been sending each other postcards frequently for years. She's always good about sending them often while I'm only good at purchasing neat postcards with the intent to send them.
I assume it's built using Twilio + Lob API?<p><a href="https://lob.com/services/postcards/pricing" rel="nofollow">https://lob.com/services/postcards/pricing</a>
I just sent a picture postcard to a friend for $2.<p>This was a really nice speedy flow.<p>For some reason I expect the sms interface to be more human and cheeky. I guess it's the weird AI chat bot trend.
What Payment Gateway are you using? If I'm not mistaken this qualifies as a micro payment (< $5) and the transactions fees can be rather high on a $2 purchase.
It occurred after sending the MMS, that this page could simply be an elaborate attempt to flood some guy with random pics.<p>I would recommend buying a 5 digit MMS number, to add some more obvious legitimacy to the service.
The swiss post does allow you to send any picture as a postcard, even for free: <a href="https://postcardcreator.post.ch" rel="nofollow">https://postcardcreator.post.ch</a>
"How do you fit my photo to a 4x6 card?<p>We use an <i>algorithm</i> to scale and crop your image to fit the card.<p>Can I send a GIF?<p>We don't have the technology to print GIFs yet. We have some interns working on it."<p>This is a prank, right?
I remember seeing something similar being pitched on one of the Shark Tank episodes, excep t that I think it was a phone app where you had to install it on your phone