You are lucky! I am still waiting for my many cards to Germany to be received and registered.
Activating repeated countries affects where you send, not where you receive from 
Do you think it depends on how many cards you have travelling? I never thought of that. I am one of those who receives lots “in advance” but I thought it was random. In fact I am almost sure it is random because my address is often given out 10-15 times in one day but most of the time I don’t have that many cards travelling, usually 5-8 at one time. Also, people in the biggest countries like Germany and US don’t seem to have a lot of this “in advance” phenomenon. It happens to us in “smaller” countries because, I think, the algorithm skips a lot of addresses because people don’t have “repeated countries” (and “send to own country”) on. So let’s say someone is requesting addresses without “repeated countries”, the algorithm skips German Guy 1, German Girl 2, Germany Guy 3 and German Girl 4 and comes to your address, so the sender gets you. Over and over. I guess it doesn’t explain the high numbers of “in advance” cards but it is definitely affected in that way at least in part.
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Not sure I understand you correctly, but I have had more cards received by me than my sent cards received by others a few times, sometimes, a gap of as many as 7 cards. Honestly, I am initially disappointed at receiving those cards feeling thoughts of frustration “Why aren’t they registering my sent cards?”
Yes, I believe the number of cards “in advance” is related to the number of travelling cards from you. That is my experience. If I am sent roughly 30% more than I should need, maybe the percentage can be a bit higher if you are from rarer country? 
Do you send in batches (I wait until all my travelling cards are received before I send another batch) or continuously? That can surely affect the numbers as well.
Yes, I think this is true too. I am often near the maximum of travelling cards, with 28, 29 or even 30 cards travelling at once. When I went just 1 card more sent than received, my address could be given out up to 20 times. My husband, on the other hand, sends far fewer cards, and usually only has a handful of cards travelling at any one time. When he goes 1 over, his address is only given out 7, 8 or 9 times. @elikoa
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@hankadl and @Florallle this is interesting and I will start paying attention to it! I noticed last time I received a batch I was only sent 7-8 on the same day and that’s low compared to usual but I started to go inactive within hours of being due one card, otherwise I get 15+ at once and it takes me months to catch up.
I usually send 2-3 cards every weekend so I guess small frequent batches, but I’ve been a lot more erratic in the last few months - so it could be 5 one weekend and then nothing for 3-4 weeks.
@Johnk60 You can read all about it here:
Where we talk at length of when we receive so so so many cards It’s a long thread so get comfortable 
And yes, sometimes I had 10-12 more received than sent and it can take 2-3 months for 10-12 of my cards to be received, so it all goes in waves.
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Deutsche Post says for months now, they have many employees on sick leave, while the unions blame the new working time model for the problems. However, before Christmas Deutsche Post always hires a lot of seasonal workers. Maybe that soöved the backlog for now.
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I wish things would be just a truly ‘first in first out’ method, with repeated countries removed and sending to your own country required. Much more fair, imo.
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Wouldn’t that also mean you could send to same person many times and/or the one to whom you sent, can send to you. (Now it only happens with multiple profilers.)
Edit. Could it also mean you send to yourself, if you are first in line to get a card, and you draw an address - so you get your own address 
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I don’t think that would be the case because I assume the algorithm can be set up to not make two profiles meet more than once, even if there is no repeated nor send to own country. They must be separate things. Otherwise those of us that send to repeated and to own countries, would encounter the situation you describe already now.
By the way (unrelated to the above), I turned off repeated and I have 5 cards going to 5 different places and no Germany (only expired to Germany). I feel super guilty but at the same time it is so unusual so I am enjoying the variety. I will get back to repeated soon, as I always end up doing so.
No, I meant if it were truly the first free address (all settings removed), then it could be myself, or someone I sent a card, or they to me.
When there are settings etc. involved, like not to send to myself, then it’s not anymore “truly” first in first out -method. Just thinking this, because often it’s presented like a super easy method to “just give the first free address” (like this hadn’t enter the founders mind ), but if I already sent to that, then there has to be skip, if I sent to the five next ones too, then there is five more skips.
If one should send to their own country (not sure if this would cause even more same country in the end and worsen the repeated problem), why would this be more important than option to not accept sending to same person again? Should there be option to tick “I can send repeatedly to same member” or “I accept giving my address to the one who I have already sent”.
Or, if we would remove options, maybe sending to same person would become obligatory too?
Because with multiple profilers this already can happen both ways.
So if you have to choose own country, maybe then also sending repeatedly to same person? If it would be the first free address, and if this is seen like a good part in solving this problem.
Like I somewhere wrote, I think it’s good, in the beginning keep “not repeated” so if one country is blocked, not all travelled are waiting to be expired. And when you have many slots, then it’s good to choose repeated.
(Sometimes I wonder if members with many sent cards are causing problems, because these are the ones who send a lot, and many of these have already sent with each others So they need a newish member address. And if no such is free, some newish one gets too much cards because of that too?)
Edit. Sorry this might be long and unclear!
I just end up thinking things, when often the “first free” is seen as easy solution, but the more you think, it isn’t. In my thoughts 
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That’s an interesting idea, I never thought about it
That is also an interesting thought, it kind of relates with big country/small country and also big sender/small sender but often the biggest senders are from the bigger countries (better/cheaper postal systems etc.)
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Since my account is very new and I only have 6 slots available, I have the option unchecked. I might activate it once I have more slots available, though.
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I changed my settings to sending to repeated countries. I expected to get all Chinese addresses and this is why I changed my settings - to help even the imbalance now that the suspension is lifted.
However, I wrote 8 cards and only two are to China. I even got Austria and Denmark
This option sure is full of surprises
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Ana has said elsewhere that the numbers have balanced so that Chinese address giving is back to normal. It’s now a matter of all those Chinese members to receive the recently sent ones.
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I doubt this. I am drawing addresses again and now I get all China as expected. But this is fine
Yes, I saw that too. It’s very encouraging.
I did not get all going to China either, but almost:
Now it will be interesting to see how long they will travel and how much variation there is in travel times… I was surprised to see that at the moment I have more cards travelling, than I have officially sent to China during my five years of postcrossing. So, it was about time to send some more. 
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I just find it interesting.