When you care enough to send the very bewildering.

December 18, 2007 6:33 PM

If you're looking for a good prank this holiday season, why not have someone living in Europe send cryptic, bizarre postcards to your friends. Bidding has commenced.
posted by zardoz (29 comments total)

People in Europe can afford to do this just to fuck with Americans because their money is worth four times as much.
posted by Artw at 6:35 PM on December 18, 2007

And also because they're getting paid $185 or more to do it. :S
posted by sonic meat machine at 6:41 PM on December 18, 2007

I'd have them sent to Claire Danes.
posted by Poolio at 6:47 PM on December 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'd bid $500, but only if the guy promises to sign the cards "John Forbes Nash, Jr."
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:48 PM on December 18, 2007

You can do that yourself just by writing the card, sending it to the postmaster of the destination city with a note to the Postmaster to put a local post mark on it. Very fun.
posted by threadbare at 6:52 PM on December 18, 2007

Yeah, I read FARK yesterday, too.
posted by Balisong at 7:04 PM on December 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

A great idea, but you'll have to reduce the list of possible victims to those without Google.

Google: mystery postcard from Atlanta Summer Games

First hit kinda gives it away.
posted by rokusan at 7:06 PM on December 18, 2007

I have friends that will send me ominous, nondescript pictures of disemboweled pigs, or otherwise stalk me from across the pond (which, by the way, Paul, all is forgiven... it was the absinthe, I swear).

To pay for these kinds of services just doesn't seem in the true spirit of friendship.
posted by quintessencesluglord at 7:18 PM on December 18, 2007

People in Europe can afford to do this just to fuck with Americans because their money is worth four times as much.

Uhhhh, sorry to burst your conveniently xenophobic/whiny USian bubble, but the guy is from New York.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:42 PM on December 18, 2007

That's why he needs the $185, which amounts to about half a Euro.
posted by Artw at 9:50 PM on December 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

Way to run with a theme there, dude. Bravo!

FYI, his postage from Poland should be 90¢ per card.
posted by miss lynnster at 10:15 PM on December 18, 2007

My American brother lives in Brussels. Where should I have postcards sent from?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:18 PM on December 18, 2007

For the cost of the postage stamps, I will send your friends cryptic postcards from small towns in Germany, simply for the opportunity to write people cryptic postcards. This guy's services are overvalued.
posted by cmonkey at 10:40 PM on December 18, 2007 [3 favorites]

It's value is exactly as much as he will get.
posted by parallax7d at 10:42 PM on December 18, 2007

Very interesting. Who wants postcards from South Africa?
posted by Goofyy at 10:51 PM on December 18, 2007

I live in San Francisco, I would gladly be on a postcard exchange program . This sounds fun and creepy!
posted by wolfewarrior at 1:48 AM on December 19, 2007

yeah, i'm sure i could send someone a creepy postcard from new zealand if someone is interested :)
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 2:53 AM on December 19, 2007

This is absolutely wonderful and should become a real service business online.
posted by The Salaryman at 3:13 AM on December 19, 2007

During the 60s, when English towns that had the shit bombed out of them were finishing their rebuilding, my fairly unscathed home town got a bad case of "new building envy" and knocked down a host of gorgeous buildings from an era when we had more rich people per square mile than pretty much anywhere else in the world. The great and the good of the town then had a job lot of postcards printed, and those available for sale today are the remaining 700 million of that first print run (of 700000053). So, if you want postcards of bad planners trying to sell you a utopian future in postcard form then I'm yer man.
posted by vbfg at 5:18 AM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

There should be someone in a remote location who has a static web presence doing this, where you could just fill out a form describing the content you want creepily included on the card (Your new sweater sets your eyes off beautifully; please leave him, my angel) and paypal them $8 or so. Could people in prison do this? Hot.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:36 AM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

I did this when I was playing Illuminati by mail. Fun stuff.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:10 AM on December 19, 2007

Some day it actually will cost $185 to send a postcard, and we will all be like "remember that time, back in 2007, when we were laughing about hiring somebody from eBay* to send cryptic timecapsules to our friends?"**

*eBay of course will now be a small country in the sky, governed by Doublespeek Inc Inc and fueled by Brawndo.
**This comment shall not be read again until December 19th, 2157.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:11 AM on December 19, 2007

Only three cards?

Amateur.

Friend of mine once drove another fella bonkers the reverse way—hand-written notes from him that appeared everywhere, despite the fact that the author was overseas and could not have delivered them. But he did a good eight or ten of them, which was enough to make the victim wonder if it was ever going to stop. Three is just a warm-up.

(See also Guerrilla Surrealism Case Study 1.)
posted by eritain at 12:09 PM on December 19, 2007

From the ebay comment section:

Q: No offense intended, but is this really worth nearly $200 (bidding at $185 right now)? Are you THAT good? (Clearly you're good, but still, 200 clams...more Dec-19-07

A: Milton Friedman would say "it's worth what it's worth." Paris Hilton would say "who's Milton Friedman?"

Well played, sir.

and I, as wolfewarrior, would gladly take part in a creepy postcard by proxy exchange for nothing.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:29 PM on December 19, 2007

lets do it. I work in a used bookstore and I always find tons of really old postcards pressed between the pages, so this really sounds perfect. My email is [e-mail]
posted by wolfewarrior at 2:45 PM on December 19, 2007

It does kind of sound like fun. Like a twisted version of a penpal. I'm in.

mexico
posted by mosessis at 2:50 PM on December 19, 2007

If anyone wants postcards from SoCal, email's in the profile.
posted by finrod at 3:32 PM on December 19, 2007

me: So, if you want postcards of bad planners trying to sell you a utopian future in postcard form then I'm yer man.

And if you rant long enough, someone releases a book about it.
posted by vbfg at 3:29 AM on December 21, 2007

Late to the game, but, oh Christ, how I would have LOVED to do this. Because my friends are so far-flung and international in nature, it would have ONLY worked if I had someone sending cards from somewhere in rural Poland (mebbe back-country Nicaragua). Loved the idea. I woulda done it in a minute. Definitely an idea for an unusual Christmas gift for next year. I will be watching Ebay in November fo' sho'.
posted by msali at 4:05 PM on December 23, 2007