Direct swaps - what's your experience?

Incidentally, something that put me off for a long time about becoming a supporter was that it was so visible, I wish it could be optional to get the badge or not…
I have “not interested in direct swaps” anyway so I very rarely receive any requests.

One thing for me is that a lot of the time it looks like those who ask for swaps this way seem to be fishing with a wide net, that is sending copypasted messages. So it feels less personal. I only swap if I feel like having a conversation with the person as I am more interested in the interaction than in the cards themselves (I don’t collect anything or have special wishes).

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That might be, but not in my case. My prime interest is also in the interaction more than the postcards themselves. So before asking for a private swap, I will not only have a look at the “sent” wall to see what kinds of cards the postcrosser might have on offer, but also read the whole profile… My swap request may be short and “impersonal” though, as I don’t want to come across as intrusive. I just hope the adressee will have a look at my profile to see if she or he is interested :slight_smile:

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:slight_smile: I am sure not everybody does the impersonal copypasting looking like they don’t know who they are writing to. But I take your point that your message might look impersonal as you don’t want to intrude, I didn’t think of that (I tend to be very specific on why I contact a person, not that I would ever request for a swap on the main site, I tend to answer to swaps on the forum sometimes if I have something someone wants or something is offered, but I would never initiate a swap).

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Before I had turned on Interested in Direct Swap for about 3 years or so, but nearly all the swap requests I got were about Gotochi shaped cards. In my area, they rarely sell them in the post offices, I have to go all the way to downtown, where I do not visit much.

It really gave me lots of weird feelings that nearly everyone requested Gotochi only. I decided to turn off the option, although I am still interested in direct swaps, on the forum or not.

A Gotochi shaped card costs nearly 200 yen.

They need to be sent in an envelope and the postage for the bigger irregular sized one is 220 - 300 yen.

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@clubpostcards That’s a lot of money! I’d only swap such a card with someone who is a good friend or pen pal. Not a random stranger contacting me via the official site. Glad that you shared this info!

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@cremebrulee
They offered me 2 or 3 cards in return and they were not aggressively asking me, but since nearly everyone asked me for Gotochi suddenly, I was like, am I a Gotochi sending machine or what ?? For that reason only, I sadly have had to turn off the direct swap option on the official site…

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You can ask the Postcrossing team not to display the badge.

Dear postcrossing, I have been for a while in postcrossing and in the forum and I have noticed that a lot of people say that they have had bad experiences while swapping, like getting scammed or the recipient never sending a card back.

Although I comprehend that some of the cards may have been lost and that may have generated some confusion, I wondered if anyone in postcrossing has been scammed or has had any bad experience.

I would be very interested in listening to your responses, because although postcrossing is an incredible hobby and has got a lot of good things, it can also have a bad side.

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@MPetisco I don’t have the impression that “a lot” of members have problems with direct swaps - there are so many swaps organized in the Postcrossing forum, and only a few members write about problems.

In the beginning I did some swaps via the official site because I was asked for it, and made some bad experiences. I recieved no card at all, or not the card which was promised, or cards in really poor quality - of which I’ve learned to establish some rules:

  • If a completely new member asks for a swap via the official site, and it sounds like a randomly sent message, I’ll ask to see the card they’re offering to send.

  • And I won’t send my card at once, but wait until their promised card arrives. (Btw, that’s a rule in some bigger round robins too when a new member is joining.)

  • It’s important to be very clear about what you’re looking for, what’s the deal in a swap. In a forum swap for two cards, I recieved the cards in an envelope instead of written and stamped (how I was sending mine) because I didn’t express my expectations clearly… Disappointing, but a misunderstanding seldomly is the fault of just one person. :upside_down_face: Now I keep in mind that there can be a language barrier making conversation a bit more difficult.

  • In forum swaps it’s useful to exchange “proof” before sending, meaning a photo of the stamped card with the address written on it (not showing the writing side to not spoil the surprise :wink:).

  • And I recommend keeping a list where you put every swap arranged, mentioning both offers, arranging and sending date, so you can tick off and follow up your sending and receiving.

If cards are not arriving, it can have several reasons: The postal journey takes longer than usual; the person just forgot to send your card (it happens when many swaps are arranged); or the card was sent later than expected. If they really don’t respond to your messages, you’ve probably been scammed… But as I said, this doesn’t happen often.

Just keep in mind that a swap is a private arrangement between two strangers, without established rules like on the official website or in Round Robins where the exchange is moderated. :wink:

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@MPetisco after more than 10 years on Postcrossing, I have a few observations about Direct Swaps. I have stated them above and elsewhere, but here are some of my own views on this:

►On the Official site, I NEVER do direct swaps. Those who intend to cheat look there for unsuspecting saps.
►I limit my swaps to the Forum. But here, I follow a loose rule with unknown traders:
¶ You request a swap - you mail First
¶ I request a swap - I mail first

This has worked well overall. With people I have traded with before, we mail at the same time. Not a fool-proof system; I have been burned twice. But these cheats always come back…sometimes months later.

Just bear in mind that we are talking about pieces of paper. Maintaining that perspective is beneficial.

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Hello @anon95027724 !
After more than 10 years on Postcrossing,new profile.
Why did it happen ?
Those who intend to cheat, here also there is.
On the official site, very good direct swaps.

I have a different profile on the Official site. When Postcrossing moved to the new Forum, it screwed things up royally. That being so, I created this profile for the Forum and kept the other profile for Official PostCrossing. But I am the same person :smiley:

Again, if you read my comment carefully, it was my opinion that I avoid swaps on the Official side. If you had a different experience, more power to you.

Are you sure?
You must be wrong!
I have different experiense.

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On the official side, swaps tend to be rubbish and a waste of time. Often it’s just a long begging message asking for some very specific and expensive card, obviously unwritten in an envelope, with no mention of my potential gain on the exchange. The few I’ve agreed to, I’ve either never received anything or instead got something that in no way matched what I asked for. Once I got so fed up dealing with the confused and clingy person that I just sent their card and didn’t even bother sending my address. I’ve never had the interested in swaps box ticked.

These days I always just ignore the messages.

On the forum side, I’ve done some great swaps and been very happy with them all.

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I’ve done some direct swap on the official side, all were cool. I even exchange about 40-50 stamps with someone. The only disapointement was when I had no answer from someone who said was interested by direct swap. It’s rare that someone ask me a direct swap so I’ve never felt spamed with it.
Actually I prefer swap on the forum with RR and tag, it’s much easy to have card I like by this, and it always worked for the moment.

Despite being on and off Postcrossing since 2018, today is the first day that I’ve actually participated in sending Postcards on the forum. I signed up for 3 tags and will be dropping off those cards tomorrow.

The reason why I was hesitant about doing swaps for so long was because it seems less ‘safe’ than the regular Postcrossing system, for lack of a better term. It seemed that forum swaps did not have the same security as the regular system. Direct swaps would fall into that category.

I decided to try swaps here because it seems that many occur successfully! I like the idea of swapping for more direct cards as well. However, I’d still be slightly uncomfortable with coordinating direct swaps over messages - at least, for now - because that’d all be occurring in messages and not in a public place.

I am newer to Postcrossing and I was feeling frustrated at the limited number of cards you can send on the main site. Some of the recipients of my official cards said they were interested in direct swaps, so I wrote on my postcards asking them to let me know if they would like to do a direct swap back, but I got no response either way. Maybe it’s because my profile is newer.

On the forums, I have had such fun with direct swaps, round robins, tag, etc. I’m getting way more cards in my mailbox now, and finding lots of people and places to send cards to too. So far my experiences have all been positive. Not everyone seems to want “proof of sending” photos, but I take photos of all my cards once they’re written, stamped and addressed and store them just in case they ask later on.

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I just turned on my direct swaps last week, then I donated to become a supporter and people started massaging me about swaps….are the two connected?

Also I am sorry to ask but can someone explain the difference between doing direct swaps through the sites messaging or what some people say is “swapping theoigh the forum”? I am
Not sure what that means and would love to know the most effective way to swap. How do I use the forum for swaps?

Thank you for any advice you can offer!

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In the Forum, you post offers and people respond to them. Or you respond to offers others post. You also have moderated tags and round robins where you join groups of 4-5 people.

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Not directly connected so far that I know, but when you donate you get a badge and you will be more visible (featured on “latest supporters” list) and sometimes people just prefer to send offers to supporters and browse the profiles that have donated. It seems like it is a common trend for member to get increased amount of requests shortly after they donated. I think it is just because you are more visible on site for a moment

It is purely about what you prefer. Through the site you use the site built message system which means you have to go to member’s profile each time you want to send them message and their message will come to you as email. In other words, you can’t reply the message directly or send pics. This works for those who wants to have more anonymity and “easy way out” if the swap doesn’t sound good, but it is clumsy to use so if you want to make more swaps then forum is much better.

On forum you can have a private message chat so it is easier to reply and talk. You can also send pics etc. and have bit more info about your partner by checking what they have wrote on the forum before and so on. You also have a chance to make more detailed post about what you are looking for and connect with people interested on swapping.

I prefer forum more for swapping because it is less clumsy and faster to use.

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