I absolutely see the positive aspects of such an option: There are some people who would love to join postcrossing, but have problems writing in English or are insecure about their writing style, and I think opening postcrossing for more people is a good idea. Furthermore, it would help because in most countries (as far as I know at least) it would lower postage costs - again, more people being able to participate. However, this option would probably be only an option in some countries, because in some other countries only a very limited amount of users takes part in postcrossing. And I, personally, don’t think it’s fair to have an option only for some users. (On a side note: I personally wouldn’t use this option if it would exist (I don’t send within my own country), but that doesn’t mean I can’t see the possible advantages).
Hello! I also live in the USA. I have my preference set to “have multiple cards traveling to the same country at the same time” which means that the majority of addresses I draw will be in the countries that send the most postcards because they have to receive the most postcards in return. These countries are Germany, Russia, and USA. Currently, the USPS does not deliver mail to Russia, so when I draw addresses I typically end up with a pretty even split between Germany and USA. I like sending postcards to Germany and USA because postcards to each of those countries tend to arrive quickly, but another benefit to that is that I save on postage costs due to several being domestic postcards. So while there’s not a way to intentionally select the preference to only send and receive from the USA, if you set your preference to have several cards traveling to the same country at the same time, you will likely end up with more domestic addresses than you would if that preference was turned off.
This question have torturing me for a long time already…
Average salary now (open source data):
USA - $4600
Germany - $4400
Finland - $4200
Australia - $3600
Canada -$3500
UK - $2800
…
Ukraine - $400 !!! Four hundred.
I had checked my photo album with cards …
During August I had sent at least 115 cards (including few envelopes) abroad.
Yes, I found myself quite active in direct swaps and RRs
Postage cost for card is $1. Almost every time I glue stamps for more than $1. Envelope costs from $1.5 to $2.5.
Every card costs at least $0.3.
You may count and calculate %% of my salary that goes for PostCrossing.
For example, USA members could buy stamps for sending 3000 postcards abroad monthly, meanwhile Ukrainian members only 400 stamps…
And I don’t think I spent TOO MUCH for this hobby. The more I don’t complain for postage amount increasing and hard times caused by War in my country.
What is wrong with me?
Am I taking PC too seriously
From what I’m seeing in this thread, many US members are interested in this. How about joining a website that is focused only on postard exchanges within the US? Maybe this is an option for those who want to spend less on this hobby that is becoming more and more expensive in so many countries. In fact, there is already a website where you can choose to send and receive postcards only from your own country, but I don’t know if I can point it out here.
Honestly, I see Postcrossing as a website that allows us to meet people from all over the world and learn about different cultures. So, personally, I don’t see the point in allowing members to send postcards only to people in their own country.
I actually thought it was a feature and discovered it wasn’t when I was on travel mode last month. I ran out of international postage but still had 3 more open slots and plenty of domestic stamps. I would be interested in having it as an option.
I hope you are able to find what works for you so you can continue to participate in and enjoy PC!
Hey there Deandra @dchristian75 I don’t know if you know this already (and apologies if you do!) but you don’t have to use International Forever Stamps to send cards outside of the US. You can use any valid US postage stamps as long as they add up to the current rate to send a postcard internationally, which is $1.50. This could mean a mix of your Forever, Postcard, 2 ounce, 3 ounce, 10 cent pears, etc.
If you thought you had to use the Round Global USA, you’re not alone. But you absolutely do not have to do that, and lots of folks don’t.
Here’s an older post I made in the forum where I show some of my stamp combinations:
Back to the topic - no, I don’t think we should be limited to just our country. In fact, I’ve never sent an Official card to someone in the US. I’ve sent over 2000 cards since January 2014 and all have been international. I love my fellow Americans but Postcrossing is about a wider reach for me.
It’s average salary and doesn’t tell of other living costs, or how much a person in reality has money to use (in what they choose to use it). (For example in 2022 median salary was under 3000 €, which is already much less than the average 4200).
There was few years a news article how Finns unemployed are so lazy, that salary from strawberry picking is not “good” for them, and still people from Ukraine come and do it, so Finns must be lazy.
But: in Ukraine, with the salary from one summer picking strawberries here, it can be two year’s income there. In Finland it most often is not enough to cover the travel there, and living (if one is an adult and pays rent or pays the house loan).
Now, when some Ukrainians live here, it’s not “good” job for them either
So, the average salary doesn’t tell much, and of course we all here are individuals, and how much money we can use depends on so much more things than cost of stamp and card, and average salary.
When I first joined years ago I had no interest in getting US cards, was looking for more of an international experience. Later I checked the box (cheaper postage and faster travel time) so I’m fine either way. But the stamp costs are getting ridiculous and I can understand why members would appreciate some options. As it is now the best way to deal with the expense is to draw fewer addresses or arrange private trades with preferred destinations.
A few years ago, when I first started Postcrossing, I asked that question to administrators. And of course the answer was no, I couldn’t only mail to the US (my home). Currently, most of my pen pals are from different countries and from Postcrossing. If I had only mailed to the US, I wouldn’t have pen pals from all over the world! I enjoy receiving mail from around the globe.
I thought this thread interesting and informative. Thank you for the record keeping ideas, spread sheets and such.
I think this would be a good idea considering the costs. In the UK it’s cheapest to send to the UK but most expensive to send to Europe as we can’t use international economy.
So I’d find it helpful to be able to select perhaps by continent. As this would enable additional choice and help with budgeting.
It wouldn’t take away the option for those who like it currently is as they could keep their same settings.
I think it’s a good idea. There should be such an option to choose domestic shipping only (includes anywhere you can send with a domestic stamp only, not an international stamp).
The problem is not only the cost of shipping, but also how long it takes for the cards to travel.
As others have mentioned in the past, there are two main problems, where one is philosophical and one is practical:
It wouldn’t really align with the spirit of Postcrossing, to connect people all over the world.
It would work really well in countries with tonnes of users (like USA and Germany) but it wouldn’t be practical for smaller countries without many users, so it would create very different options/user experiences for people from different places (which is already the case now — given some places are further away/slower than others so have to wait longer for every slot, and users from e.g. Germany and USA with the domestic option turned on get domestic addresses often but in a ‘smaller’ country like Australia we get a domestic match ~once a year — but it would be worse).
So, while I definitely understand wanting more affordable postage and faster travel times, I don’t think it makes sense for Postcrossing in particular to introduce an option for domestic-only cards. It would be better for users who prefer this option to participate in forum swaps or look for different platforms.
(Just quoted because this made me think what I have thought often earlier, so this is not personally to you)
If the travel times were faster, one could send more, hence spend more money on stamps. If the cost is problem, having more free slots quicker is not helping.
But, since this is about sending and receiving mail world wide, international hobby, even the suggestion sounds a little weird, illogical.
There are other ways to swap within one country already, and even formerly more international swap-places have turned to “my country only”, I would be sad to see it happen here.
I am confused why people are offended by this suggestion.
If some people want to have an option to do postcrossing within their country or region only, how does it affect the rest of the community?
If there is a check box in Preferences “Do you want to send to your country only?”, and you don’t like this idea, you just don’t check the box. And someone who likes this, will check this box for themselves.
It doesn’t affect other people.
At least I myself am not offended at all, maybe surprised/confused is the correct term. Like coming to an orchestra practise, to play together with all, and then (some) strings decide, they don’t care about other instruments and play only together, still being there. I would think, why they come here in the first place, when there are string ensembles as well It feels they would take advantage of the one who organised halls, connections etc. but then only choose what they like, not thinking what work it was to set up that all, not to mention that the meaning was the interaction between sections, not make someone else do the work to find players who would play with you.
But if this should happen and the founders think it’s ok, I’m fine with it too.
It’s just strange suggestion to me
For all people interested in exchanging postcards within their own country, there are websites with this option, such as geopostcards.club (I’m not sure if I can recommend this website here). I personally wouldn’t like this option to exist in Postcrossing, since as has already been said here, It wouldn’t align with the spirit of this community. What I like most about Postcrossing is precisely that it allows us to meet people from all over the world and learn about their culture, their daily lives, instead of remaining “closed” in our own bubble. Besides that, I think this would create divisions within Postcrossing that would end up excluding members who are not part of our bubble. At least for me, Postcrossing is all about inclusion.
I don’t really think anyone is offended by it, but many just don’t agree with it, which isn’t the same thing.
As I mentioned above but maybe didn’t make clear, this option would only really be possible for users in the most common countries. So those in Germany, USA, and Russia, etc. would have this new option to save money and/or send more cards, but the rest of us wouldn’t have enough users to send to and therefore wouldn’t be able to use the option, meaning it’s not fair.
There is also a direct effect, in that it would change the makeup of who we send to internationally. In some ways, maybe this doesn’t matter so much if it’s a giant user-base (to be honest, at the moment consistently half my cards are going to USA and they’re really slow, so I wouldn’t be too sad if there were a few less) but what if (for example) after the 1 April Royal Mail price increase a large proportion of UK users decided to go domestic only (which is believable, given it’ll be USD$3.20 to send a postcard to Europe)? Then the rest of us would have even fewer chances to interact with people from the UK on the official site.
And, finally, if you change the basic idea of Postcrossing in one way, then what’s to stop it changing in other ways in future.
I think if you sign up.to this site, you agree to its aims and the way it works. It’s free (other than having the supporter option) and you aren’t obliged to belong or to send a certain number of cards. I live in the UK and each overseas card I send costs £2.20 regardless of where in the world it goes. I’m a carer for a disabled family member so I’m not rich but I send what I can afford because I really enjoy this project. If you only want to send within your own country, surely there are national tags and RRs you can join?
I’m just grateful that people kindly go to the trouble of running and sustaining this site. It’s not their fault postage is expensive!
I don’t know if you know this already (and apologies if you do!) but you don’t have to use International Forever Stamps to send cards outside of the US. You can use any valid US postage stamps as long as they add up to the current rate to send a postcard internationally, which is $1.50. This could mean a mix of your Forever, Postcard, 2 ounce, 3 ounce, 10 cent pears, etc. 
