Stationery Haul #8 – Philippine Postcards

Hello lovelies! How are you doing these days? I hope you’re all well and safe.

As for me, it’s been hard being stuck at home with nothing much to do and the days seem longer than the last. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. But it really feels like that as the lockdown keeps getting extended. Most business (especially the non essential ones), some government offices and the post office has stopped operations since mid-March at the announcement of the lockdown. Since then, I have stopped receiving international mail and packages.

I have been waiting for several packages from Aliexpress, Patreon subscriptions and other online purchases I’ve made prior to the lockdown. And I don’t know if they’ve arrived in the country (on quarantine) or if they are lost and if I should just request for a refund and cancel the orders. Honestly, I still want to receive them, but who knows when that will happen.

Anyway, I was looking for postcards online and thought about checking the Carousell app. Carousell is an online marketplace where good and services are offered for sale, brand new or otherwise. It is a free platform similar to Shopee, Lazada, and even Amazon. The only difference is, the logistics (negotiation, delivery, etc.) are settled between the buyer and seller themselves.

Moving on, I saw several postings that do sell old unused postcards, but found one that was too good of a deal to pass up on. The seller, soldbylau, was selling Philippine related postcards in sets for basically Php 5.00 each. I chose two sets that I liked (marked SOLD in the photo below) and also found a book for Php 150 that I can use to decorate my penpal letters. Total price for a book and 38 postcards: Php 340.00.

It took a few days before the seller responded to my inquiry, but she gave me a discount making the new total of my purchase to Php 300.00. She said she can’t ship the items, but I can have it picked up by Grab or Lalamove, both offers instant delivery services. And since I was excited to get my hands on something — remember, almost 2 months of no mail — I booked the delivery 2 hours later and received these beautiful things later on!

The postcards are mostly in good condition and all unused. Only a few had large/many yellow stains in them considering their age. So I’m really happy with that. It’s really hard to find this type of postcards brand new these days. I’ve visited at least 5 different branches of the bookstore where majority of these came from, but to no avail. In my elementary days back in the early 90’s, these postcards were everywhere and only used for school projects and reports! Back then, I really didn’t understand what they were for. But now that I want them, I can’t seem to find any!

The book, entitled Drawn to Nature Through the Journals of Clare Walker Leslie, was also in good condition. The only reason I got this was because of the illustrations. It had beautiful watercolor illustrations of different animals and plants that I would like to use for decorating my penpal letters. I was initially planning on cutting out the images from book itself, but realized I can just scan and print the ones I really like. This way, I can use them as many times I want and the book stays in tact! 😉 Below are some of the scanned images from the book.

Overall, this was a good buy and I now have more crafting things to do while on lockdown. Hehehe 😜

What’s keeping you busy lately? Let me know in the comments below. 😊 Stay safe always!