I would also agree that personalising is the key, but this made me think that pre-writing could be an interesting experiment.
Maybe you can pre-write a few lines, mark them differently (e.g. with a different colour) and then finish off when you get the address.
I recently pre decorated some envelopes during a boring zoom meeting (camera off of course) but never thought of doing it with postcards, I very rarely decorate them as there is not enough space to write even without taking space!
Most of the time, I only draw an address when I can write straight away. Often I will decide to get one more only after writing one card, so even on the same day they are often not picked in a row
I don’t write anything ahead of time. I like reading the profile first. It makes me feel good when I get a Hurray message that made the person happy because I followed some of their suggestions on what to write about.
Thanks for your question. I am pleased to see that a lot of senders takes time to write a personal message. Am I alone when I feel that 9 cards on 10 I received contains only a few words like “hope you’ll like the card and the stamp, happy postcrossing” I am a bit disappointed when I receive such a message. I see some guys with more than 5 000 cards! That’s huge but it isn’t a right reason to duplicate message.
Oh yes, the “happy post crossing” message is always a disappointment. I do like it when someone took the time to send a message telling me about themselves.
No way! For me, the whole point is selecting a card I think the recipient will like— based on their profile. I also try to identify things that person and I might have in common, or interests we share, etc., and mention that on the card I send. For me, that’s where the opportunity to connect lies.
So now I see that people put a lot of effort into finding the right card, and writing a personalized message. I’ve actually been out of town the past few weeks, and have mostly been buying postcards I like from different attractions and sending them to whoever’s address I get next. I do have access to cards I bought earlier. And the messages have been about what I did at each place. So I haven’t put much thought into what cards to send who, and what messages to put. I’ve just bought and sent what I would like, or expect, to receive. Anyway, this is just a long way of asking, have I been rude? Or is this a common newbie thing?
I don’t think you’ve been rude at all. I find it interesting when people tell me about the place/attraction/what ever is in the picture and even more when they have a story about the time they visited the place.
I love travelling and that’s a way to get to know places worth visiting and have some facts beforehand.
No!!! Way not rude. Maybe a “newbie” thing, which I personally think is sort of a shame. Although my profile also kind of steers people as to what to send and suggestions of what to write, I love the idea of people sending what they want, with whatever friendly message they feel like sending, and who in turn just want to receive a postcard – any postcard – with a message – any friendly message.
To the point of the thread topic, I still wouldn’t write it ahead of time, well…just because. Maybe (for example) you have a picture of a theme park you visited, and you are tempted to write in advance about your experience on the cool ride in the picture. But maybe the profile says the person you are sending to loves food. If you have already written the card, you’re stuck. If you wait, instead of talking about the ride on the picture you might talk about the amazing corn dog you ate while you were there. Or, for a real dog-lover, the service dog you saw riding alongside its person…or whatever.
It’s not that the pre-written card wouldn’t be appreciated, but the one that talks about something that directly speaks to the recipient’s profile is to me even better.
I like to write the message after I know who I’m sending the postcard to. I would sometimes explain what’s on it differently based on the person I send it to. For example, I had a postcard with an old bus repurposed into a shepherds’ shelter - with roof and everything. I sent it to a tech-y guy who was into vehicles - I would have never come up with the exact message I wrote if I hadn’t come across someone like him. Sometimes you have the perfect card for the person you drew and you HAVE TO personalize the whole thing at the back.
(camera off of course) but never thought of doing it with postcards, I very rarely decorate them as there is not enough space to write even without taking space!