Never had a problem with ball points on any card made of standard cardstock. I only use good quality name brand ones as some of the off brand junk I’ve gotten really are atrocious and you end up spending more as you throw away half of them. Not to mention the reason here, they often do skip on anything but cheap porous paper. Fountain pens are another matter. It’s hit or miss. I had to trash a nice card I wrote on with indelible Rohrer&Klinger ink in an expensive pen. No problem with the pen or the card except the ink rubbed clean off and turned into a smudgy mess even after letting it sit. Apparently indelible inks do not always soak into smooth cardstock so that makes their permanence moot.
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I have been having trouble writing on many of my postcards lately. I thought it was just one pen at first - it would write a few letters, then stop. I’d doodle on a sheet of regular paper and get the ink going again, pick up with the message on the card and after another letter or so it would stop.
I threw out that pen and picked up another, and same thing. Seems like my ballpoint pens don’t work on many of the nicer cards, especially the ones with photos on glossy paper. Hate to just use matte postcards; they often aren’t as nice. And besides, I just invested in tons of shiny new postcards!
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Nancy
Hi, Nancy! There are some great tips (no pun intended) in these two topics, and probably more:
Check both of these out! Basically, the solution is to have a few different types of pen on hand for different postcard finishes. To test which one works best, you can scribble a little on the corner where you will place the stamp afterward. Good luck and happy hunting!
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Hi Nancy, I moved your question to this topic as it seems to fit in quite well.
Good luck with finding the perfect pen! 
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I concur! Sharpie pens or fineliners are the best for glossy cards.
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Hi,
I just had a card returned because my ink smeared. I like to write with a felt tip. I have big handwriting and those pens feel controllable to me. It was my first time with the smearing problem.
Anyway, I am going to read through your thread to see what recommendations you received!
Thanks!
Is it water prof?
I have a few cards that are beautiful, but the material the card is made of is not good to write on. My solution? I put a giant white sticker on the back (like a label from a label printer) and then I write on the sticker. It works perfectly! I can use any pen I want 
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I placed an order from Christopher Arndt recently and his website actually discussed which pens work best on his postcards. I was surprised to open my order and find one of the pens, a basic Bic Stick and a piece of their cardstock to test different pens on.
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I greatly prefer Sharpie fine points to write on shiny paper – no smearing / fading that I’ve ever seen.
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Plain old Bic stick ball point or similar works on anything I’ve found. If you need indelible ink, make sure it is ISO 12757-2 (not “1”) certified for documents (regular ball ink is quite easy to erase by a forger), and even if you don’t, forget low quality or off-brand pens. The ink will fade quickly or it won’t write well at all.
For me it’s really a pain to write on the Disney Villains postcards. The backside has a strange coating and no pen ink will stick to it. Even my trusty Sakura Micron pens are failing. The only pen which is working is a Edding with a very fine tip but the writing still looks terrible and sometimes I have to go over twice.
Does somebody has a recommendation for strangely coated cards like the Disney Villains Box?
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I regret buying the box, they are awful to write on! None of my usual writing pens stick at all. Only suitable pen I’ve found is a fine point Sharpie. It looks a bit uglier than normal (somehow even Sharpie doesn’t stick 100%) but it works.
I don’t understand what the cards are meant for but it’s certainly not sending them!
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You are so right @elanlei ! Well, at least I like many of the motives, so I will keep many for myself. But the others will be a horrible task to send 
This sounds like a set where printing out and pasting/taping sounds like the best idea? Include an explanation if you feel uncomfortable perhaps…
I pick up my Cross pen for tougher cards.
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I’ve thought about that too and will probably do it that way for this box with a short explanation. Because of my tendinitis at the wrist it would be more comfortable for me to print out a few texts sometimes.
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I found this today! The ink of Zebra SARASA speedy dries most quickly among the pens I’ve used.
By the way, once I got a card with waterproof surface, and I decided to use pencil to write on it in the end. It helps! Just remember to write harder to make the color of letters dark enough.
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I had some Aquarapella (?) cards that are impossible to write nicely, and also some other shiny ones, as well as a certain Finnish brand. I write my message then to another piece of paper, like post it type paper, which I glue or tape there.
Now I avoid buying these. This (not knowing what kind of material the card is) is also one reason I don’t like buying online.
I have found Pentel or Centropen fine liners are better for me on shiny cards than Sakura Micron.
To make writing faster (not waiting to dry) I put another piece of paper on top of what I’ve written, but still sometimes if I’m not careful, it smears.
Once I poured clear embossing powder on top of my message and heated it, looked really fun in my opinion 
Something to think too, if the card is very shiny, then maybe the glue also doesn’t stick well, so I try to attach any paper with stickers or tape, in addition to the glue.
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Thank you for the recommendation!
I would love to buy my cards local but we don’t have any except for some tourist cards. I live in a very rural area and have to drive long to get to a city with nice bookstores etc. who sell cards. 
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I’ve routinely had this problem with cards by many publishers and am grateful to learn of several pens that will do better than the Zebra pen I usually use.