I have received quite a few ad cards and I personally love them, especially those that come from well known companies. They invest a good amount of time and money to create those postcards. And like @Incrou7 said…I’m also not so fond of the ad postcards that are pre-filled with text. Otherwise…no point waiting for ad cards to become vintage to collect them 
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They’re “advertising” the artist 
I’ve some of that category, too!
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I have received only one ad card yet, but I found it interesting. Ad also can be very creative and original, so I don’t mind ad cards 
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Woah, I’m stealing this one to my album of Favourites 
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I don’t mind as cards. But Christchurch, NZ is still selling pre earthquake postcards, including the Anglican Cathedral.
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I only send AD cards to those who request it, or if I find AD cards match people’s wishlist and I don’t find more suitable card I will send it, in my memory I sent several times before. I received some AD cards before as well even I’m not very into them and I wrote it in my profile, but some people didn’t read other’s profile I guess. Once I saw a postcrosser in Singapore who only send AD cards(thousands of) and that shocked me.
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Personally I love ad cards, especially from other countries. It is a snap shot of their culture.
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I found many treasure from AD Card in my official postcard
This is an AD Card with a cream inside. And this is a postcard
This is a 3D AD Card
This AD Card of a campaign
And i have more of a nice and unique AD Card
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Woah, the ones of the ballet are so stunning! But I guess ballet is stunning anyway, so of course it is great on a card as well.
I both sent and received ads, they can be wonderful or boring or horrible, just like any other card.
My favorite ads sent (both advertising books):
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That’s still naming and shaming and not allowed.
If an ad card is a postcard and meets my interests, I’d always love to receive it. It’s no less of a card.
I have also sent them including this one that advertises a show.
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I am open to receiving ad cards because they are cards like all the others. I received maybe 4-5 in total - a couple of them I really didn’t like, but the others I did! Definitely like all other cards, there are great ones and not so great ones.
I haven’t sent many because I rarely find ones that have space to write at back . I have a couple that I picked up in Austria during a trip, but they don’t really have any relation with where I am or any stories to tell or are peculiar enough to meet someone’s interests, so they are still waiting for their moment
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I, personally, don’t mind getting or sending AD cards when they match my/the recipient’s interests. I once sent an AD card which was simply too fitting to not to be sent, haha.
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I have sent my fair share of ad cards, but I always try to ensure that I do not send them to those who specifically requested not to receive them, because I know they won’t like them.
I also have ‘real’ postcards, including touristy postcards, and cards that were bought either online or in physical stores. But then again, I also came across profiles asking me not to send them touristy or typical postcards, and they wished for a card that no one else wanted.
My basic principle is, I try my best to fulfil the theme that the Postcrosser wants. But even if you do fulfil the theme, everyone has his/her likings, and sometimes he/she just does not like the design either. But we register it and move on, because for every one postcard that you might not like as much, you might get others which really make your day!
And I always believe the message is really important too. Sometimes I receive a nice postcard with no message behind, and that makes me a little sad too, especially since I have given a lot of talking points in my profile. But maybe the person is having a bad day and doesn’t wish to talk? Maybe that person is rushing off and didn’t have time to write a proper message? There are many reasons so I’ll always give the benefit of doubt.
As many have mentioned, let’s not forget why we are here on Postcrossing, because we love being surprised in our mailboxes and we love hearing from people from other countries about anything and everything. Have fun, and happy Postcrossing
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Received ad card:
Beautiful resort ad card
Movie ad cards:
This one is not a postcard. No writing space on the back and the sender glue paper to write address and message. I love it, can’t complain 
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And today I received beautiful ad card of Bar & Grill from my own country
On the back side there is a map of the bar location
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I find it hard to distinguish between add cards and “real” cards. What is the definition of an ad card? That it promotes something? in that case, you could say that all typical tourist postcards are ads for the country/city they are from.
That it is free? I don’t see how that really affects the receiver.
I don’t know if any of the cards I have received were ad cards, but I have sent several that were both free and promoted something. In Denmark we have these free cards called “Go-cards” which you can (in the before corona time) pick up in cafés, cinemas, concert venues etc. Some of them are obvious ads promoting breakfast cereal or a bank or whatever, but some of them promote non-famous artists, and just show some of their work. I’ve been collecting good Go-cards for decades (Wow. just realized how old I am 
)
Here are some examples from my sent wall:
These have all been well received, and I might even have sent them to people requesting “No ad cards”, since I don’t really see them as ads, just free art.
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Here are some more ad cards I sent out to several fellow postcrossers. They are for free at the tourist office of a nearby regional park. They show some landmarks of the park. Why shouldn’t I send them as they show something special from where I live and from where I like to spend my free time?
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More ad cards (bottom 3 rows):
I picked these up at a glasses chain that had just opened a store in San Francisco. They commissioned a local design shop to create them, and then just had these sitting out for free in the glasses store.
It actually pains me a little bit to send these out because I love them so much, and I don’t know if the company distributes them anymore.
I tend to pick up ad cards as long as they seem like they’d hold up well in the mail. I really like them because they’re like limited-edition snapshots of time and hold a little more meaning to me personally (and I’d assume, hopefully, from whoever sent me one!) than a souvenir card I got at a gift shop or something from a set. They’re usually tied to a specific event or restaurant I went to (which feels like such a faraway time right now especially!)
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I really love ad cards for the reasons mentioned by others - they can be super interesting and beautiful, as well as showing a glimpse into everyday life.
For many years I had it in my profile that I welcomed them, however especially from my own country I received flimsy, ugly, carelessly written ones that had clearly sat at the bottom of someone’s pile, so I took it off my profile.
But I regularly participate in a RR in the German part of the forum and sometimes the international one, and the huge variety will never cease to amaze me.
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I have received a few. I don’t say anything about them on my profile, and since I’m not a postcard collector, per se, as much as I love the image on the card, the message on the back is what is most important to me. An ad card with a generic greeting on the back would not bring me much joy, but that doesn’t happen very often.