whenever I read this…
Please come join us at Show us your handmade postcards and mail art and/or check out the directory for handmade cards and mail art.
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I think maybe they think people won’t put effort on them? I don’t know.
Thank you for recommendation, I will take a look at it!
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Hello to all “newbies”, as I am a 65 year old newbie myself. I loved getting mail from a pen pal in Australia in the 1960s, and for me, that joy has been rekindled in this new endeavor (and not from just one country!). What I enjoy most is LEARNING—I mean, I have certain mental images about particular countries, but what is unique about the sender’s own personal world? What is living in a small town in Sweden like? I am of an age that I probably will never get to visit it, but even the idea of snow is exciting to me as I rarely get to see it. Like all else in this weary world, we can dwell on what displeases us, or we can “carpe diem”!
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In the beginning I was totally confused where to find post cards. The place where I live has no post cards at all. But very soon I found out the perfect place to buy these: Tradera! There you can find all kinds of post cards, some very cheap too. I have bought all my post cards there, except for the first ones. I have also bought all stamps there.
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Thanks for reminding me 
I did take a brief look there as well a few days ago, but didn’t get anything then. I will definitely find things to buy there though.
There’s also a local stamp and postcard club that might have some postcards to offer or sell, but they have been inactive recently due to the pandemic.
Edit: For the non-Swedes - Tradera is the Swedish version of Ebay, and owned by them.
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Welcome! its a lot of fun.
Maybe you should consider making your own cards? Apart from drawing and painting, there’s paper collage, photography, and stamping. You don’t have to be a great artist, just enjoy making cards in your own way. I once received a unique card, smothered in beautiful, used postage stamps. Nothing else! it was fascinating looking at the stamp designs and the countries of origin.
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Hello everybody
I started with postcrossing a few days ago! Today, I have sent my first two cards and I didn’t expect it to be so exciting to write a text and to make my card nice for someone else 
I really hope the person who receives the card will like it.
I am in a way still a bit confused with all the different stamps and cards and games and lotteries and so on, to be honest 
But I keep on reading here in the forum. It is such a nice atmosphere and people are so talented and helpful 
But apparently getting the right cards is not as easy as I thought. I recently purchased about 40 postcards about Helsinki from the 50s and 60s (really nice and interesting cards) and I was so happy that I found them for such good money. However, when they arrived here I realized that they were used already and had some texts on the back.
Now, I don’t know what to do with all the lovely cards 
I cannot send them further as the rules don’t allow it, but I was wondering if I could cut them into peaces and use them to create new cards (like mosaic or collage)? Would that be allowed?
I am happy to meet you all <3
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@raptus I always forget about Tradera! Should actually learn to use it… 
@Honeywell84 I would first check if anybody would be willing to trade the cards off you! There are lot of collectors who are interested on old cards and 50s - 60s cards might have surprisingly high value. I personally enjoy finding old, written cards from second-hand shops because it is fun to read what people wrote about to each other so long time ago.
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@Kompis-Ninna We were reading the cards with my husband yesterday evening and it was indeed big fun 
I might check the hint with the collectors! Thank you <3
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And you can re-use them in some of the handmade tags.
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That’s a really good idea!
Of course, only if you don’t feel bad about destroying them.
Personally, I love searching for old, written cards. I find them charming and I love trying to figure out who those people were, what could have happened to them, had their story ended…
You could always keep them for yourself and try to do that with some of the most beautiful ones.
Or, as suggested above, you can try to find some vintage collectors who are willing to trade. I’ve seen some threads here from vintage collectors, so I’m sure people will be happy to do that with you!
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I am not very good with arts and crafts, but I did sit down a few days ago to play around with doing a collage. Success was limited 
But this is something I will explore more. Even if the results are not something I’d want o show anyone, it’s fun and a good way to relax.
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Hello fellow newbie @Honeywell84
The first card I wrote arrived a couple of days ago, and I got my first Hurray! message And a very nice one it was too.
I haven’t explored the various games and swaps yet And I absolutely agree about the friendliness, I’ve rarely felt more welcomed in a community than here.
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I was already doing penpal-ing for a while and there’s a huge community of penpal-ers on instagram. a lot of people who do penpal-ing also do postcrossing and they post about it on insta. So that’s how I found out about this site.
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At least you tried, even if the results were not up to expectation. You know what they say: practice makes perfect.
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Well, unfortunately they kind of were up to expectations…
However, photos might work better for me. I work in a used books store, the only book store in town, and we occasionally get customers and tourists asking about viewcards. There aren’t many around from town. So I just talked my boss into getting some based on my photos.
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Hi Bo!
I feel your struggle. I had that too! But after sending a card I thought she would appreciate, but she didn’t, I thought: I’ll sent whatever I like! I really had this beautiful card, wrote her name in Chinese (she wanted that so badly), wrote about myself and what I do all day (she wanted that too), I only got a Happy Postcrossing from her, nothing more! She was an English teacher, so it’s not that she couldn’t speak any English. I like to thank somebody for the time they spend to find a nice card and to write something on it. I’ll answer your questions if you have them…
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