
Show HN: Postacard – Text a Photo to Send as a Postcard Anywhere on Earth for $3 - traviswingo
https://www.postacard.io
======
Animats
As a fun thing at steampunk conventions, I have the Aetheric Message Machine
Company, Ltd. People at steampunk conventions can send in SMS text messages,
which are printed on an antique Teletype machine in a brass and glass case.
Recipients get a yellow envelope and a message on classic yellow Teletype
paper, delivered by costumed messengers who call out "Telegram for ..." . We
set up a full telegraph office, with signs, props, and staff.[1]

The system uses Twilio. Twilio sends the messages to a web server which
returns an immediate SMS reply to the sender, then queues the message for
typing. We don't charge anything for this. I considered getting an SMS short
code and charging for messages, but it wouldn't generate enough revenue to be
worth it.

We did a thorough job on this, with a web site, videos, code on Github, a
modest social media presence, and some press coverage. Zoominfo thinks it's a
real company, with revenue of $2,400,000 and 12 employees.[2] One wonders
where Zoominfo gets its numbers. They didn't come from us.

[1]
[http://www.aetherltd.com/volunteer.html](http://www.aetherltd.com/volunteer.html)

[2] [http://www.zoominfo.com/c/The-Aetheric-Message-Machine-
Compa...](http://www.zoominfo.com/c/The-Aetheric-Message-Machine-Company-
Ltd/354259090)

~~~
Cpoll
That is very neat! What kind of volume do you get in a convention day? How do
your couriers know where to deliver the message? It seems strange that the
recipient doesn't need to visit the telegraph office; I imagine the best part
of the experience would be actually seeing your setup.

~~~
Animats
Since someone asked...

 _How do your couriers know where to deliver the message?_

Senders have to send messages in the form "name@location : msg". "Location"
has to be in a list of known convention areas ("VENDORS", "AUTHORS", "BAR",
etc.) There's an autoresponder to help them get this right, and piles of
postcards around the con with instructions. We didn't have that the first year
we did this, and the messengers were run ragged calling out names over and
over again in various locations. About 80% of the messages get successfully
delivered now. We do about 200 messages a day.

 _It seems strange that the recipient doesn 't need to visit the telegraph
office_

It's in a highly visible location. The first year we were in that location, we
made the office look so official that attendees didn't think they should go
in. We had to rearrange the place, adding a few chairs for visitors, a water
cooler, and "please come in" signs. Now we're also an information center for
the convention and get lots of visitors.

What makes this work are the two young people who staff the office. They're
both experienced actors; one works Shakespeare festivals and the other is a
stage combat instructor.

If you want more details, we have a manual for our operators.[1]

[1]
[http://www.aetherltd.com/public/othermanuals/operatormanual0...](http://www.aetherltd.com/public/othermanuals/operatormanual05.pdf)

~~~
Cpoll
Fantastic! The tape printer is a nice touch, too.

------
slackoverflower
This service is probably using the Lob API
[https://lob.com/services/postcards](https://lob.com/services/postcards)

It actually costs $1.62 to do the exact same thing, of sending a photo with
some text, international included.

~~~
woolly
Is it the exact same thing, though? Can I send Lob a picture via SMS with some
text and an address and have a postcard sent? If not, then maybe that's where
the extra cost comes from.

~~~
slackoverflower
It most certainly does not cost $1.38/customer to subsidize (minimial) server
costs of an SMS bot.

~~~
mosselman
The brilliant part is that it does most certainly not cost that and that is
the profit the site makes. I believe people will find it cheap enough to use
this service. Buying postcards and stamps costs about the same.

I don't understand your issue with this. Are you opposed to making profit or
are you jealous? I know that I am a bit jealous of not coming up with this.

~~~
mei0Iesh
Why are you jealous when you can easily create your own website that does the
same exact thing. You can think of your own added bonus and charge a different
price.

Too often we feel like because someone else did something first, or theirs
already became popular, that the opportunity is over. That denies the world
your variation, which might turn out to be much better.

~~~
mosselman
True words. I think many of us, me at least, have a special appreciation of
the original and part of the fun is to think of something yourself. That does
not mean, as you say, that we couldn't do the same thing, if not better/more
for you.

Maybe I will give it a go ;)

------
thrden
Seems similar to "thesimplepostcard"
[https://www.thesimplepostcard.com](https://www.thesimplepostcard.com) but for
a dollar more. I used simple postcard, but the photo arrived damaged. I'd be
willing to give this a shot if I had some sort of assurance that the photo
would arrive undamaged.

~~~
ahanna46
At risk of hijacking this thread...

Try my friend's app! [https://textmycards.com/](https://textmycards.com/)

~~~
techsupporter
I tried your friend's app but I bailed out when it was unclear where my
payment details were being sent.

~~~
ambyash
Thanks for trying it--it's my service, launched around Mother's Day of this
year. I should make it clearer--it's secured with Stripe. All payment info is
stored on Stripe.

~~~
techsupporter
That's what I figured but it wasn't obvious so I stopped. Could your payment
page also use HTTPS?

~~~
ambyash
Yeah, it does use HTTPS, but I'll definitely make it clearer. Thanks for the
feedback! Cool to see multiple versions of the same underlying service being
built. Competition on price, UI/UX (slight differences) , and marketing is
what it will come down to. :) Good stuff, Postacard--seriously mean it! Fun
little hack indeed.

------
adamwi
Main postal service in Sweden (government owned) have run a similar service
for multiple years (could not find exact number but would guess 5+ years)[0].
Lower cost at 2.10 USD (18 SEK). They also have apps for the service [1].

[0]
[http://rv4.posten.se/#page/index/sid=1473077144846](http://rv4.posten.se/#page/index/sid=1473077144846)
[1] [https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/riktiga-
vykort/id444458799?m...](https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/riktiga-
vykort/id444458799?mt=8)

------
traviswingo
Hey everyone. I'd like to thank you all for the feedback and for using the
service. There is a tremendous amount of traffic coming in right now (I really
didn't expect this to be on the front page, lol) and it's pointed out quite a
few bugs which I've since fixed. If the service wasn't replying, please try
again and it should work now!

If you have any issues, please send me an email at info@postacard.io and I'll
follow up with you asap. Thank you!

~~~
judiso
don't worry, the traffic will stop coming pretty soon.

~~~
qz_
Isn't HN great for pitching your app??

~~~
judiso
isn't milk white and sky blue?

------
gengkev
Kind of a silly comment, but is this really anywhere on Earth? What about
Death Valley? Antarctica? North Korea? Syria? Siberia?

I'd imagine they use the profit from domestic shipments to help subsidize more
costly international ones, if it's really $3 regardless of destination.

~~~
notpeter
Global forever stamps are $1.20 at retail, so that's the upper bound on their
postage expense and covers all UPU countries[1] (incl DPRK, Syria, Russia,
etc). Antartica actually only requires domestic postcard rates ($0.34) as it
has a domestic zip code (96598).

[1]: [http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/member-
countries.html](http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/member-countries.html)

~~~
gengkev
I'm quite surprised to hear that! Thanks for sharing.

------
sixhobbits
"The postcard will show up at the address within a week"

In South Africa if I send a letter from one city to another, it can take a
week to arrive. For international mail, I usually work on time frames of about
a month. I've known stuff to arrive 6 months after being sent. So even if they
are able to dispatch post cards from SA, I'd be surprised if the could keep
this promise. Going to give it a try though.

------
Kiro
At what stage and how do you supply payment details? I don't see that in the
example.

------
naren87
Neat offering at a good price. International message rates could be high.
It'll be great if you could integrate Whatsapp/Telegram/WeChat :)

~~~
lucb1e
Seconding Telegram here. I recently learned that making a Telegram bot takes
no time at all, and the custom keyboards make them great to use.

------
soared
I've always thought there should be more sms based services. It would be a lot
easier for me to text the pizza guy than to call...

~~~
lucb1e
The local pizza and shawarma* shops are always a pain to call. Half the time
when they speak I don't understand their broken Dutch and they always sound
impatient and don't repeat back, making me wonder whether they know what I
want. When I ask for confirmation they sound exasperated, as if I'm asking
them to spell out a fifty item order letter by letter.

So yeah, sms based service would be great here (or rather, something that
doesn't cost money when done internationally). On the other hand, this
postcard service sounds like it's going to cost me 20 bucks when I take a
picture from another continent, which is exactly the use-case here. A 160 byte
sms already costs like a euro to send from outside of the EU.

* This is what google translate tells me "shoarma" is in English. I've never seen that word before, not sure it's a thing in America. They're everywhere here.

~~~
Turing_Machine
Gyros (Greek version) is more common in the US, in my experience, but that may
vary by region. Arabic -> shawarma, Turkish -> doner, Greek -> gyros -- all
the same basic idea of meat cooked on a rotating vertical spit, sliced off and
served on flat bread.

~~~
lucb1e
Gyros we get in greek restaurants; döner is usually sold in the same place as
shawarma. Then you do have similar places, okay!

------
lucb1e
Sending pictures as "text", isn't that a MMS (multi-media SMS)? Which, as far
as I know, is hugely expensive; I'd much rather upload a picture to a website,
Telegram bot or email.

~~~
etatoby
No, no.

When they say "text a photo," they mean "describe the photo in your own
words," then somebody from their staff goes out looking for a postcard that
matches the description and mails it for you.

TBH, I think they could just use Google Images to find a picture that matches
the description and print that. No need to pay someone $3 to travel to the
other side of the globe and buy a postcard of that Japanese temple, in this
day and age. But what do I know of business.

~~~
lucb1e
On the website it clearly sends a picture via a messaging application, and it
says "text message" above (I assume as opposed to imessage).

~~~
etatoby
I think your sarcasm goggles are broken ;-)

------
lushn
A few comments:

Can you offer international numbers for this, or is your main market the US?

You don't specify on your site where the postcard is being sent from. I assume
the US?

It may be an idea to ask specifically for a country to send to, unless perhaps
it's in the US. You don't seem to mention this in the text instructions but
have Surrey as an example, which is in the United Kingdom. Perhaps a bit
confusing? :)

Photo examples of how the finished postcard looks (particularly the back -
font, size...etc.) would be helpful I feel.

Just a few comments/ideas, feel free to ignore!

------
Grue3
Too bad I can't send it _from_ anywhere on Earth. Which is probably a more
common use case.

------
agildehaus
Let me be a bit of a stickler about your security statements. This assumes you
have to text your credit card information to use this service, which it
appears is true?

It's not correct to say it's "about as secure and encrypted as it gets".
GSM/CDMA networks do employ encryption to and from towers, but it's weak
encryption by modern TLS standards, and who knows what happens to it when it
leaves the tower? It's certainly not end-to-end encrypted between your
customer and your server and could be silently eavesdropped at multiple
points.

And if you're receiving and processing the SMS that contains the card details
it's disingenuous to say "[we] have no idea what your credit card numbers
actually are". Yes you do. You may discard that information after you trade it
with Stripe for a token, but you had access to it, and the customer has no
guarantee that you've discarded it.

~~~
traviswingo
We actually don't ask for you to text your credit card number. When the time
comes for a first time payment, we send you a secure link and you need to fill
out a form (card number, exp date). After that, we use the card on file unless
you say otherwise.

Payment form and saved card details are all handled by Stripe, and the info
never even hits our servers.

~~~
agildehaus
Oh, great, carry on then :) Might try to be clear about that on the website.

Is there some mechanism for instructing you to forget my credit card details
(destroy the token on Stripe)?

------
bbcbasic
Email would be better than text since most places have wifi/data and then it
wouldn't matter if you are using your home sim or a temporary away sim.

It would also solve the "what if someone else inherits my phone number"
comment also in this thread.

------
RijilV
Perhaps I'm just old and crusty, but the "joy" of a postcard is that I took
the time to hand write something on the back of it. For $3, I'd rather the
person sending me this share the picture over a cup of coffee.

------
anithian
How is this different from [http://sharktankblog.com/business/postcard-on-the-
run/](http://sharktankblog.com/business/postcard-on-the-run/)

and that closed last year.

~~~
chrischen
Products like these mostly depend on marketing. Just because one of the
similar type closed doesn't mean another product will fail, since the product
itself is only part of the equation.

------
uniclaude
That's pretty smart! I can totally see myself using this service. Using an SMS
interface instead of an app or a website is great, as it is inherently cross-
platform, and reduces time to market and maintenance work.

------
jastr
Neat! What's the tech stack? How do you parse the addresses?

------
visarga
How do you text photos? By url? MMS?

------
sandeep45
this is pretty slick! I like how the entire interface is SMS based

~~~
traviswingo
Thanks!

------
ghshephard
Just tried texting a photo to +1 650 285 1713 - getting a "Message not sent
error". I'm able to MMS photos to other people in the +1 650 area code, so not
an issue on my side I don't think...

------
mikehi
It's basically a copy of [https://getcourier.co/](https://getcourier.co/) but
through SMS instead of chatbot. Pricing is the same as well.

------
prenschler
nice work - I've been wanting a service that sends the picture in an envelope,
instead of postcard style. I think opening an envelope is more fun and I don't
like that anyone can see your picture when it's sent in the open.

I've been using Bill Atkinson's app for postcards (~$1.50/postcard) and it has
worked great!
[http://www.billatkinson.com/Pages/aboutPhotoCard.html](http://www.billatkinson.com/Pages/aboutPhotoCard.html)

------
HaloZero
How do I fill in my payment information through a text message?

~~~
traviswingo
For a first time payment, you will fill out a very short form. After that,
card info is saved for later use.

~~~
trentmb
(how) do you handle the case where someone gets a new number, and someone else
gets their old one?

It's a bit far-fetched, I know.

------
kapauldo
This is a great implementation. You should ask people to opt in and then robo
tweet their photos as a they come in as a marketing tactic.

------
cottsak
Sent a MMS to +16502851713 from AUS and haven't received any form of response
as yet (20 mins ago).

~~~
lucb1e
Just curious, what did that cost?

Also the owner responded elsewhere in the thread that they had some issues and
you should try again.

------
atom_king
Are you related to a Dennis by chance? Cool service, definitely adding the
number to my contacts!

------
imaginenore
Anywhere? North pole? ISIS?

------
greenpinguin
What a great service!

------
choward
I can't find the source code.

------
coolspot
Are they going to add other planets as well?

------
joe563323
Awesome Article. Did not thought that it would be so cheap and easy to setup
exit node. Thanks very much.

~~~
Kiro
Wrong thread?

