I could not resist buying some of the glittery disasters I saw in Basilicata - they are truly terrible.
3 Likes
I will send handmade cards if someone specifically says they like them on their profile, or sometimes if they have an interest that I would like to draw for them. 
I’m an artist, but I do not send handmade cards to people who say things like “no handmade cards unless you’re an artist” on their profiles.
I encourage people to send me handmade cards, and I’ve received a mixed bag. Some are great, some are fun, some seem like they put a lot of work into them even if they’re not to my taste, and some seemed very low effort. But that’s part of the experience of it for me, you just never know what you’re going to get from someone.
12 Likes
Your point is actually very interesting, and further “segments” the issue into stuff that has artistic value and stuff that doesn’t have artistic value. We’ve come a long way since the original premise (i.e. “Are handmade cards actual postcards?”). Yes, they are! And, just like normal postcards, they can be beautiful and ugly.
I would say that, with handmades being… well, hand-made, this spectrum is way more pronounced. You have extremely beautiful handcrafted artworks, and some terrible collage monstrosities.
Therefore, I think the main issue is as follows: how do I explain on my profile that I only want handmade postcards that have artistic value? Wouldn’t that be super pretentious? Since beauty is İn tHe eYE oF tHe bEhOLdEr… And how is our sender going to interpret that? They might as well think that their own Earl Grey box with uneven edges and lots of brown stains is the most beautiful thing ever…
This is why so many people just gave up and have a “No handmade cards please” in their profile. I’d never do this, by the way – my profile is just a list of suggestions, and the last thing I want to do on this site is to come across as rude and demanding.
This is actually so beautiful! You do exhibit a mastery of composition and visual harmony skills… and you’re able to create this general satisfaction-inducing feeling 
I wouldn’t mind a handmade card like this one. However, not everyone has your skills, which is why handmades are always so controversial on Postcrossing.
I send them to my friend as a very cruel joke, but now I’m starting to get them back… This is karma!
They’re quintessentially Italian, and quintessentially maritime – I don’t think you’ll find these in historical towns or big cities. They always have these “throwuppy” rainbow colours violently mishmashed together, with at least five super small generic beach views encapsulated in tiny compartments (sometimes even peppered with gratuitous nudity)… And the best part is that these postcards can be fish-shaped, or even butterfly-shaped! (I always fail to see the connection between butterflies and… whatever the card is supposed to represent.) There’s an Instagram profile where such cards are analysed in a super funny way – I don’t know if I’m allowed to share it as there are some quasi-naked people in some of the postcards… Everything is censored with little stars, obviously 
This huge paragraph might feel like a big sidetrack to what’s being discussed here; however, it links back nicely to my argument: the distinction shouldn’t be between handmade cards and store-bought cards. It should really be between beautiful and ugly and, as we’ve seen, there are plenty of ugly non-handmade postcards as well! However, since beauty is not an objective parameter, this debate will never be solved (at least not in peaceful terms).
10 Likes
I send handmade all the time … 
some people don’t even get that they are handmade
8 Likes
I am not a big fan of handmade postcards. I am not good at crafting and I don’t understand it really. But that is just me.
In my oppinion handmade cards can be postcards of course. I have received an ordinary sheet of paper cut to the size of a postcard where someone had drawn something on. That to me was not a postcard but a sheet of paper. However if those handmade cards are done properly why should it not be a postcard?
1 Like
I’ve sent what people term ‘low-effort’ handmade cards. These are something like calendar pages that have been glued onto cardstock. They’ve been loved by people though and when I send cards like these, I think I know what I am doing. I don’t send cards that might come apart while travelling and I send these to people who don’t mind receiving them. My third most popular card is one of these recycled cards:
16 Likes
For me, it depends on the effort or thoughtfulness that the sender puts in. I love receiving well made handmade cards but most handmade cards I’ve received, I wouldn’t consider as postcards. I once got a random page torn off a magazine and glued on a piece of cardboard. I would appreciate it if it were related to my profile, maybe a simple message like “this reminded me of you because you like _____”. But no, it just said “happy postcrossing” at the back.
After receiving a few like that, I completely gave up on handmade cards and prefer store-bought ones over them now.
5 Likes
Well, sometimes handmade cards have more effort into them, like some random postcards with just Hello, or Greetings, and nothing else written. So to be honest, I appreciate handmade cards also.
3 Likes
I will say that when I got a store-bought with only “Happy Postcrossing” written on it, I was disappointed. I know not everyone is comfortable with writing in English (sometimes I opt not to write in German because I am not feeling up to it), but I find it not as enjoyable to just get an impersonal message. A handmade card, with some effort put into, makes the whole card into a personalized experience for both sender and receiver.
8 Likes
I find this to be a nice sum-up of the whole thing, everybody has their own opinion on this.
But since we can’t read each other’s minds, many considerate Postcrossers who create more or less artistic cards are often too insecure to send their cards, out of fear that their creations will fall in the “not so nice” category for the recipient.
My advice on this is, everything on a profile are just suggestions. 
I personally send my (well, not super artistic) handmade cards only to people who don’t state “no handmade” on their profile. But I also send them to those who don’t mention handmade in their profile at all, I don’t want to be ashamed of the things I make.
14 Likes
I agree, I only send postcards I would be happy to receive myself and I am not ashamed of any card I send, handmade, store-bought, free, ad, whatever.
Certainly, many of my handmade cards have already made it into the bin, but I want to keep that number as low as possible, so…
I do send handmade cards to people who do not say anything about handmade one way or the other, if the profile makes me happy to spend some extra time, effort and cost on them. (As @anon12838227 und @SkyHound nicely explained earlier, even “easy” cards like food packages and cards made from recycled pictures take time and thought to put together and when the supply costs are factored in often cost more than cards from box sets, etc.). I certainly do not want to waste time or money on people who will not appreciate them! For that reason, I also do not send handmade cards to people who only want them if they are made by “artists” or if they are “beautiful;” because…who knows what that means?
9 Likes
Yes! I wholeheartedly agree! This “No handmades unless they’re good” narrative only caters to the most confident and self-assured Postcrossers out there… I, for instance, would think twice: would the recipient find my card to have artistic value, or would they just throw it away?
I admire the way you approach things! I wouldn’t send handmade cards to those who do not explicitly request them, but I might change things a little bit. For instance, my profile doesn’t say anything about handmade cards, but I still receive them and I always cherish them so much!
I’ve prepared a few handmades already (mainly watercolours – I’ve never done food packaging cut-outs as of now)… I’m just waiting for the right people to send them to, coz I don’t want to see all my efforts being wasted into someone who wouldn’t appreciate them in the first place 
You mean, the handmade cards you receive? Were they really that bad that you had to get rid of them? (I don’t blame you though – I’ve heard some horror stories about terrible handmade postcards…)
2 Likes
No, I mean the ones I made and sent! I know that not all of them will be appreciated and people are not obligated to store them forever…
And actually, I do keep all handmade cards and also all cards where someone has taken the time to draw a cat for me.
4 Likes
Ohhh! I must’ve misunderstood! But even if you threw postcards away, I’d wholeheartedly respect your decision! I used to be taken aback by such behaviours (I was first exposed to a serial postcard-thrower back in 2017, and couldn’t believe my eyes the first time I read about his postcard-throwing sessions), but now I got used to it, and sometimes I can even understand the reasoning behind this… Although I would never do something like that myself!
By the way, this is kinda off-topic… But we could open a discussion elsewhere where we talk about postcard-ridding practices! 
I would obviously keep all the handmade cards I receive as well! I would gain nothing from throwing them away, maybe except for feeling super guilty about it! But I haven’t really received many bad handmade cards.
So here’s a question I’ll ask everyone: have you ever received very bad (like, objectively bad) handmade postcards? Something must’ve happened in your private Postcrossing experiences for handmades to be so controversial! So far, the few handmade cards I’ve received are all super beautiful… Are all the horror story really common?
1 Like
I see no problem here: the image is lovely, it survived traveling thousands of miles and being run through mail processing machines, AND you recycled? That’s a win in every category! 
5 Likes
Handmade is my preferred. I’m an artist and I love to see the originality. Mail Art for sure!
14 Likes
Yes, once I received a very low effort “card”. I wouldn’t even call it a card as it was a piece of rather thin paper (thinner than the regular copy paper). One side had my address + a (nice) rubber stamp or drawing, the other side had a few coloured lines and one sentence. I still wonder how it survived the transport.
1 Like
I’m certainly keeping the card you colored for me! 
Yes, once a piece of paper like @Cassiopheia said, even thinner than normal paper. The picture was actually really nice, but the whole thing was so thin I was afraid I’d damage it by the touch. ^^
I also received many of these handmade folded cards that are made by glueing pieces of an image onto each other, I really don’t like these, especially if there are visible glue stains… I think they have a DIY set or so in the Netherlands to make these cards. I also received some made with this set technique that were lovely, though. Just depends on the effort someone takes.
One card I received was also a child’s drawing on just regular paper… And not one of those cute ones with many colors and things, just two small objects drawn with a pencil.
1 Like
Call me heartless, but I’m not a big fan of children’s drawings… I get that it’s wholesome and stuff, but the senders always seem to be very keen on getting these “brownie points” by virtually doing nothing… How effortful is it to hand a piece of paper to your child and let it aimlessly run pencils and crayons over it? I would like receive something truly personal – a long message… something inspirational – rather than a meaningless jumble of lines!
Ok, this rant of mine has probably contributed to dismantling all the points I’ve made in this thread… But still, my main argument is that the distinction shouldn’t be between handmades and store-bought – it should be between beautiful and ugly! 
9 Likes
And since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is impossible to make that distinction clear cut.
Is a handmade card a postcard? Of course it is. It’s a piece of paper with an address and a stamp on it which has been delivered to you by the mail company.
Is it the card you would like to receive? Ah. Now. There. That is the real question.
Most of the time I’ve been excited by the unexpected. I try to let go of expectations. It is. What it is.
Recently someone sent me a piece of origami that a penpal sent her, accompanied with the message that she hoped it would give me as much joy as it gave her. Talk about meaning. 
12 Likes