In my experience: During December with the Charity going on, I almost exclusively get addresses from Germany. This year I got many addresses from Russia and just a few to the US. Last year in December US was second and Russia third.
During the year I still get a lot of addresses from Germany but they don’t stick out as much as in December.
This is interesting! The most common country for me is actually Russia. It makes about 45%, then 33% Germany and 18% USA. I guess people in Germany and the USA have the option to receive from their own country on a lot more.
I have the repeated countries option on for more than one year now and I mostly sent postcards to Russia, Germany and USA. I personally don’t mind, but I have been thinking that I should turn it off, at least for some time, so people from other countries maybe will have a better chance to receive a postcard from Brazil. 
Not to mention that sending postcards to Russia is more expensive, too.
I have now had it on for 14 months. I haven’t drawn an address in the USA since early December. Apart from one postcard to Hong Kong, I’ve been getting addresses to Germany and Russia and, without checking the numbers, it seems I’ve sent a similar number of postcards to both countries.
This is probably going to sound odd, but I feel fairly disappointed if I draw an address in a country other than in the top three.
I was thinking whether I should turn the repeated countries off when I was in a more rare country. At first I did turn it off but then I turned it back on because I think it is more fair. My thinking was - the algorithm tries to get as much variety for very postcrosser so even if I have repeated countries on, if someone from not so common country should get a card from me, they will be selected. On the other hand, if I don’t select repeated countries, people from more active countries will be disadvantaged. Of course, I am not saying what you should do. Just sharing my thought process from when I had the same dilema.
That’s true, but considering in last year I only sent a postcard to France and other to Japan, out of the ones I sent to Russia, Germany and USA, I think in some way turn on this option must decrease the number of Brazilian postcards sent to different countries. I’ve turn off the repeated countries option for now to see what happens in the next months.
I don’t feel disappointed at all. I hope people won’t feel disappointed sending a postcard to me, too. 
Feels like Russia is back with a vengeance! 
I wasn’t getting much Russia but since I put repeated countries back on I only got Germany and Russia, first in equal parts, and today 3 Russia out of 3! Not complaining at all, just interesting to note as for a while I didn’t seem to get any Russia.
Soooo much Russia! I feel compelled to write in Russian when I send to Russian speakers so I switched off Repeated just to get something else. USA - which at least satisfied my urge to write in English (I am sure no one in Russia would be offended if I wrote in English, but in my profile I claim to speak Russian so I think they’d find it strange or lazy of me not to use it. Yes, I realise no one would care that much 
)
Many postcrossers do help Postcrossing by checking the box SEND to repeated countries. Now and then I do as well.
In topics I often read that so many of us do not care about a country, but care about individuals. That is very hopefull now the big countries grow faster then the rest. I think therefore a lot us forummembers is willing to help. So others get more divetsity.
Would you help Postcrossing to check the box: RECEIVE from repeated countries? (Suggestion for improvement).
I think I will for 30 - 50%.
I have never switched off this option, because if I would switch it off, others will get more repeated countries on cost of me. In my opinion this is unfair.
And second of all, if I would switch off this option, I would have the feeling the person which repeated country address I have denied to get is less valuable, then others. And this is unfair even.
You receive from repeated countries anyway, for there ist luckily no such box and there shouldn’t be! Such a box would worsen the the problems of Postcrossing, for it cannot create more activity in rare countries, it can just keep Postcrossers of the big countries from sending to you.
The lack of variety in Postcrossing is solely caused by reasons outside of Postcrossing:
There may be a few things we could do about it, although I think the overall impact is likely to be small.
– if you travel to anywhere that is less common than your home country, turn on travel mode and send as many cards from there as you can while you’re there. Obviously this won’t increase membership in those countries but at least it would boost the numbers from them and allow a few more people to get cards from there
– if you have friends or relatives from less common countries be sure to mention Postcrossing to them
– I guess you could put up flyers / posters / notes about Postcrossing in cafes or other places in those less common countries
But I agree that a lot of it has to do with things outside our control.
Switched OFF since a few days.
I have 35 of 100 to Russia now, which is enough for me at the moment.
If all your cards travel to 2 or 3 countries and one or more get disrupted it takes a while before they expire and a slot opens up.
Edit: when travelling cards to Russia gets registered I switch Repeated on. Just that I want a max of 25 to 33 % to there.
I keep the option off, and a country can still reach 1/3 of all sending and receiving. My point is not about a specific country/region, but the high proportion of any country/region partly determined by the scheme/algorithm. There might be a maximum proportion set in the system.
Hallo Postcrossers,
I am new on postcrossing and do not have much experience. In my settings I have the option, that I only have one traveling card to countries. How is it with expired postcards, when I have this option activ?
For example I have a traveling card to China but it expires, can I send an official postcard to China after the 60 days or must the card be registrated (or 1 year traveling) to send a card to this country again?
Even when you have this option active you can get several addresses from the same country, when there are many members from this country (such as DE, US, RU). Although I don’t think that this happens often to new members with only 5 slots.
I often get addresses from countries after a card from these countries has expired, so I guess expired cards don’t count as duplicates.
Expired cards are still on your travelling list, so I suspect these countries are still counted. So if your postcard to China expires, I think you most likely won’t get a new Chinese address. But I might remember wrong.
But even when you have unchecked the option for repeated countries, repetitions can still occur. Especially when one can have many postcards travelling at the same time.
You might click on the i or the learn more link in the settings to learn more (marked with red arrows).
You can read more about this option here All About “Repeated Countries” Option and here Keeping getting the same countries
I got two “exots” 
with repeated countries and had to check if I accidentally unchecked repeated countries. (No, it´s still checked.)
Last time I sent to Poland and Japan was in December 2020, I think with repeated countries unchecked.
I just pulled a Japan address on repeated countries too! Nice surprise.
