I’ve found a couple of interesting random swaps in the #trades-requests-offers corner of the forum, might be worth a look? One was a swap with someone who was offering a card from a box set I’ve had my eye on, and another was for a weird, underwhelming, why-is-there-a-postcard-of-THIS vintage nonsense card (aka, my favourite!)
I’ve been back at work this week, so it was nice to have just one card to send in return for both of these! Not enough energy for much more than that I love that you can send absolutely LOADS of cards if you want to, but that there are also ways to send just one or two extras too.
I’ve been in Travel Mode since early December, because I’ve been staying at my mum’s house during the lockdown. I am turning it off on Monday, and returning to London on Wednesday.
I am due a lot of postcards… because I’ve been sending all through that time. At the moment, I have a 61 card difference between sent and received. I can’t wait to see what comes through my letterbox!
I switched mine to inactive from mid-November, in advance of bubbling with my parents at their place for Christmas. I didn’t want have too many sitting waiting for me when I got back to my place. I returned to my place on 2 January and switched my profile back to active: what followed was a deluge of postcards for the rest of January! I’d been sending from mid-November right through to when I left for my parents in mid-December, so had built up a similar gap between sent and received to yours.
There’ll be a lot of people writing to you simultaneously around the world! The system definitely tries to make up big gaps between sent and received as quickly as possible. Look through my received cards and you’ll see loads written on 2 January, the day I switched my profile back to active. It was almost like being Harry in the Dursley’s living room, yes!
I suppose I might achieve that if I actually posted the card on the day I drew the address! But I need at least one evening for writing, and then if I miss the collection the next day…
Yep, I’ve drawn 4 addresses over the past 24 hours that I haven’t written yet. I’ll write them tonight and drop them in the postbox tomorrow. They get collected at 5pm. Sometimes I time it right with collection, but it’s never a stress. I don’t want to make Postcrossing stressful!
I’ve had two to Germany registered in 2 days lately: one was posted Monday for 4.15pm collection and registered Wednesday pm, the other was posted Wednesday for 4.15 pm collection and registered Friday pm.
I’ll either use a 09:00 collection box or a 16:15 collection box, depending on when in the day I’ve written the postcard (I’m an early riser, and like to get a little postcard writing and a short walk via a post box in before I start work).
I just received a card from someone in Germany. It was completely printed (except for the code written once in pen) and it didn’t even address me by name - instead said ‘postcrossing friend’. When I went to their profile it shows on their wall that they have the exact same card sent to loads of people for the last couple of years (probably longer I just gave up looking.) It seems they’re just churning them out. Have to say I’m a bit disappointed! Anyone else experienced something like this?!
Yes, of course, it happens. Just put it to one side (obviously after registering) and move on. There will be a great card along in no time. There are no rules except ‘you must send a card’ and there are clearly different approaches taken by individuals. I’m quite amazed at how much energy some postcrossers (not particularly @candyflosscurls ) use up getting upset about cards received, profile contents/demands etc. Even about languages used! (“How dare they, I don’t read xxx”). I really didn’t think any of it fits the spirit of this place. Agreed, some people could put in more effort, some could be less demanding, but hey, what can you do, we’re all different and won’t all agree.
I totally agree @AnjuschkaC - I’m fairly new so experiencing a lot of these things for the first time! Just was surprised to see someone cranking out so many of the same postcards
Yes exactly, it’s really disappointing, but I’ve only had very few so while you may remember them more, good definitely outweigh the thoughtless ones. And you wonder about the person sending them, they’re definitely in it for a different reasons than us. I have also had a couple of shoddy ‘home made’ ones but again the anger I have seen expressed about those really surprised me.
That is not very imaginative! I’ve come across postcrossers who send the same card to everyone a couple of times. Their loss! They miss out on the fun of searching for new postcards and trying to find a special card for each recipient.
Regarding the printed text, was it an older postcrosser? Some might have poor English skills, but for me it is ok if they still want to take part in an international exchange like postcrossing. Even if they can’t communicate, they still get the buzz of receiving a card from a person in another country
I love that you can send absolutely LOADS of cards if you want to, but that there are also ways to send just one or two extras too.
