First 5 Postcards should be more local

Hi. Wondering what the reasoning is to avoid the international stamps. Thanks

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It was just a general musing and nothing against that person. I think the received time was perfectly reasonable for the travel time, which leads me back to my original post :slight_smile:

I thought the International Forever stamps were $1.65 right now?

They are $1.45 going up to $1.50 in July.

Several international members have expressed boredom with the Global Forever stamp. If you see the term ā€œnice stampsā€ in a profile that person would definitely be disappointed with one of those on a card.

Ok so it has nothing to do with the delivery time. Just a personal preference of stamps. Thank you for the response

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I dont even like those orange flowers! I have some left over holiday poinsettas which are niceā€¦sometimes its convenient to use just 1 stamp, just wish there was a better design

Oh, so thatā€™s why I have like four cards travelling to China right now.

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Curious regarding which are the coolest countries :joy:

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I was intrigued by this thread because indeed most people complain that they donā€™t get variety and they donā€™t get to interact with ā€œcoolā€ places (@Jujubaland I donā€™t know, Uzbekistan and South Korea and places in Africa that donā€™t even have a functional mail system but people are annoyed at postcrossing that they donā€™t get to interact with them). I mean anywhere that might be exotic to a North American or a European.

I always have the feeling that anyone that thinks that sending/receiving takes days and not weeks/months has never experienced mail before. How could it be so fast?
That said, it did feel endless waiting for my first cards to arrive. All to Russia, took a month, and I knew this perfectly well and still I was checking constantly :joy: I read the entire forum (slight exaggeration but not so much) and got a couple of penpals and swaps. But officials are way more fun, for me.

As for registering in batches, many of us receive multiple cards in one day and then none for days/weeks. Since the pandemic, I get all my mail from certain countries on the same day, like ā€œoh, guess the plane from the USA came todayā€ when I find 3 USA cards in one day. I know thereā€™s no longer just one plane to places like when travel just reopened (we had strict border closures here) but sometimes it still feels that way.

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well honestly when i just started i thought everything was cool except my own country. and the bordering countries maybe.

but i guess itā€™s easier talking for me because cards to countries like france or spain or finland usually still arrive within a week, two at most. whilst if you live in the usa everything takes a bit longer, no?

now i care more about the people, the kind of profiles iā€™m sending cards to. i would much rather send to someone in germany with the same interests who seems nice, than some far away country and iā€™d have no idea what to talk about.
but if you just start (well, for me at least) every new country i got, got me very excited.

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When I started Postcrossing in 2017, my first 5 cards went to Sweden, USA, Russia, New Zealand, and Taiwan. This last one expired and never got registered, although I sent a second card.

My first card was registered 5 days after I drew the addresses. I watched both my email box and mailbox continually, willing the cards to arriveā€¦ It took awhile to realise that snail mail just takes its time. :blush:

Really, patience is not one of my virtuesā€¦ :see_no_evil: But with Postcrossing, you have to be patient in the beginning. It takes time until a card flow builds up. - I recieved the first card 18 days after I drew the first addresses.

Honestly, I donā€™t think that it would help to assign more local addresses. Cards from Greece or Italy somehow take months to get to Germany, whereas cards from USA or Japan can arrive in 7 days. Itā€™s not just about the proximity, but also the involved postal systems, and the ā€œavailabilityā€ of the recievers.

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Have to be active 60 days before doing so. My first card, to Spain, still not registered as received; the one to China, also awaiting delivery. I did not know all my cards would require international postage, and had to wait to get those stamps.

Hi DawnMarie. I saw your post on FB and joined. I think our international stamp is pretty. I did not have any, so used a combo of pc/envelope stamps in order to send my first card. My on hand postcards are too small for this purpose.
But I need to use up all my new International stamps.

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Welcome! I like our international stamps but sounds like a lot of people are bored with them. I wish we had a better selection. I have a lot of other stamps so two 1st class plus an additional ounce stamp gets you there. Enjoy!!

I was also disappointed that I had to wait before I could send out new cards, but I agree with others- the forum has been amazing and almost more fun than the regular postcrossing. I joined a round robin and get to send more cards and feel like I am getting know the people involved since we get to exchange multiple cards.

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Here is some advice: two Forever stamps plus either two 10Ā¢ stamps, or add one 24Ā¢ extra ounce stamp, works for international mail as an alternative to the single Global Forever stamp.

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TY That is how I sent my first card, as I did not have Global stamps yet. My available Postcards are a bit too small to use regular stamps.

Absolutely right!
Now my addresses look like this:
I got a postcard to Belarus faster than to St. Petersburg!

Hello :wave:! Did you not pick the option for the local cards, then? I clicked both of the options and have sent 16 cards and received 3, so far since joining Postcrossing on 02/29. If you are willing to share your address, I will happily send you a postcard. The offer is open to anyone else in this thread, too :grin:.

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While we are VERY impatient for our 5 cards to finally reach their recipients, itā€™s actually still very fun waiting for them to arrive! Imagining where they might be right now, learning new fun things about the places the cards went out to. Itā€™s all part of the fun! :sunny:

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