After I’d become a Supporter I started getting messages about direct swaps on the official website. Well, I’ve always had a link to my offers but not many were interested before.
Today I’ve been browsing the Forum and saw people mentioning that they prefer not to swap on the official Postcrossing website. So I have a question, why not? Because you can’t really send a proof? Have you ever been deceived by postcrossers this way?
I’ve done swaps like this and it all went lovely. That’s why I agreed to all the swap suggestions I’ve received recently but now I’m starting to feel a bit nervous, maybe I shouldn’t have?
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Most probably different persons have different reasons. Personally I don’t like to do direct swaps on the official website, because of the message system. It’s harder to keep track. I have done a few and noted no difference in the reliability. Most swaps go smooth whether on the official site, the forum or on social media. So do whatever you feel comfortable with 
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I see. And yes, the message system is much better on the Forum!
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When I started out on Postcrossing, I had direct swaps checked. The first three requests I got - all went awry, meaning I sent a card and never received a card back or even a notification about my card being received.
I learned I should have told the other party to send first.
Overall, it just seemed too much of a bother for me personally, as I’m rarely looking for very specific cards, so RRs serve me just fine.
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That’s terrible! I usually trust other people and feel awkward asking them to send their card first but I’ve been lucky enough to receive all the cards from those swaps. At least if I haven’t forgotten about any 
I love all cards so I enjoy RRs too and it does seem safer in some way.
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This is the exact reason I don’t do direct swaps on the main website. I have on my profile for any direct swaps to message me via the forum and if someone does send me a message on the main, I respond advising them to message me on the forum.
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That seems to be one of the benefits of being a Postcrossing supporter… I also frequently check out the profiles of the latest supporters to see if they do dierect swaps
And yes, I have had bad experiences doing direct swaps thorugh the main site - though not so many more than in the Facebook group, and not enough to discourage me completely… Many people don’t answer swap requests, even though they declare themselves interested. Some people don’t sent the cards they promised. But that can happen anywhere.
The main plus of arranging swaps on the forum or Facebook, I’d say, is that you can show each other pictures of the cards you have on offer. Well, and you can do photo proofs - but if you want to cheat, those proofs don’t really prove anything!
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I say no to all of them now. I’ve only agreed a few but most of the cards never arrived and there were no thanks either.
One person was just impossible to deal with, I asked for simple things and they managed to misunderstand everything. I wrote what kind of a card I’d like and added that I’d like a long message on it. She sent me a message with several paragraphs of text via the little PM contact form thing! The card itself which I did get had very little on.
All of this with ‘not interested in private swaps’ ticked as well.
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Usually I don’t look for swap on the official site, but there were several times I met with some angels who messaged to ask my address only because I favourited his/her card! Now we’ve become postcard pals.
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I had a real boost of swap suggestions in a couple of days! May I ask, do you check out supporters’ pages because they’re more “trusty”? Just curious why everyone got interested in me, haha
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No, I’d say they’re more “deserving”
Another reason I’d say is when you’re just randomly looking for someone to swap, then it’s a bit hard to decide where to start looking - so it makes sense to start from the couple of users displayed on the main page…
And, of course, a “catchy” avatar will the more so attract a click. Looks like you’ve got one…
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Message system on the main site is really uncomfortable. I messaged to one person who was interested in direct swaps and never got the answer, and I can’t even say if this person saw my message at the first place. You could easily lose it in your mail 
I’m really thinking about turning this off.
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Yeah some people don’t answer while they are still active. It’s annoying. I only did 3 direct swaps on the official site, one postcard I was promised never arrived and with the other 2 I’m still sending cards regulary 
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There are sound reasons why you are seeing in the Forum thumbs down posts regarding swaps on the Official side. Many of those people are cheats. Ask them to mail first & see what happens. They riposte is “what? Don’t you trust me?” And my answer would be “no I don’t.”
Most RRs are moderated, so the bums and cheats can’t get away with their nonsense.
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That’s a great idea! I’m going to put that in my profile as well, because I don’t mind and really enjoy direct swaps, but the messaging system on the forum is so much easier.
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I think I had one private swap on the official site since I started postcrossing. I do private swaps on the forum in the offer/trade section.
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I’ve had 2 experiences with direct swaps and they’ve both been good! I loved the experiences and am open to more. I used to belong to a website (swap-bot.com) that dealt totally with direct swaps of all kinds. I had to unsubscribe to this site because the rules were so stringent that it turned a fun experience into a chore. To those of you who have had bad experiences I say DON’T GIVE UP! Especially after the tough year most of us have had.
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I don’t have time for superficial swaps, so the deception is really rare. I usually receive a request from someone who got a card and really wants to communicate. I ask them to send first. I respond… and we see how it goes from there. By the way, I do not accept a pen pal request from all, I am careful to seek out a decent match.
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I’ve recently turned off the Interested in Direct Swaps field on my profile because the first line in my profile is to PM me in the forum for Direct Swaps and I still get sent messages on the Official website. They’re hard to track and hard to respond to compared to the forum.
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