When Postcrossing was about a month old, an American penfriend, who ended up writing only a handful of letters to me and then vanished, wrote to me about Postcrossing.
I was very, very lucky to have found out about it so early and am thankful for it every day! Postcrossing has enriched my life immeasurably, I can’t emphasize that enough! 
She obviously only came into my life to tell me about Postcrossing.
And YES: better late, than never! 
I definitely sympathize. And I think it’s a natural reaction for anyone new to a hobby to have a preference toward engaging with it with people who seem more on the same level with themselves. I’m newer/low card count myself and I do feel a stronger affinity for those who are in the same boat. High volume members can be intimidating. I have had one who requested no duplicates! At the same time, one of the nicest hurray messages I’ve received was from a high volume member who was very happy with the card I sent showing my small town. That’s one thing I’ve learned: if you do have a good source of hyperlocal cards, milk it for all it’s worth! But on the whole, I think it’s just another aspect of playing postcrossing: sending postcards to all sorts of people all over the world at various stages of the hobby.
@gatton Oh, haha, I only just realized that you have been a Postcrosser since 2011! At first I thought you were new, because of the “39 cards”! Silly me! 
So, my “welcome” is totally belated! 
I’m not in the 10k or more area, but I guess 4k+ probably is enough. 
like others before I have to say that I became much more relaxed over time. Send me something I never thought of? How cool! Send me the same card for the 5th time? I wonder how many copies I can collect!
We’re really not monsters, just people who really really love Postcrossing.
i can understand you are a bit intimidated by so many sent and received cards. for me the profile itself makes the difference. sometimes people have thousands of received cards and they ask to check 28 links to 3827 collections to avoid duplicates. i’m not doing that.
if someone has a lovely profile which makes it easy to pick out a nice card and write a nice message then i don’t care about any numbers, or where someone lives, or anything like that.
Regarding the Handmade cards:
There are a few threads about this topic. Check out this one for example:
I think the biggest reason is that they think most of them aren’t really nice. The sender didn’t put much effort into it and so on. I guess with some handmade cards I could even agree. But I also received some that are just a piece of paper glued to a card and they are beautiful it just depends on your taste. I mean, I also receive store bought cards that I find ugly But I don’t mind that because taste is different. And since the sender made the effort to send me that card I like it, even though it’s picture isn’t to my taste.
If you like to make handmade cards and send them people who love them, then you should check out the handmade RR
Oh and you should also check out this thread to see that there are also A LOT of people who love them!
You write as if everybody with more than tenthousand cards received would be so picky. I have written to many of them, but I never had a picky profile among them. In fact they are the easiest to please!
I think this too, because if they don’t like my card, they will soon get a better one and they know it, so their day isn’t spoiled over one card.
I have never given much thought to how many cards the recipient I have drawn has received. I just do my best to provide a gift from a stranger that they will recognize for what it is: a little outreach of love.
A few other thoughts:
I think some people don’t like homemade cards because they don’t always fit neatly into whatever storage schema they have devised for maintaining their collection.
I have a list of the sorts of cards I don’t necessarily care for. I keep it in my head. Why? Because if I am really honest with myself, there really aren’t any. Each one I get is a gift in some way or another. The fact that it got sent at all shows that some stranger spent a little time and effort on my behalf. How can I not be humbled by that?
As for the high volume folks, I aspire to be one someday. I have had the opportunity to meet a few (many thanks to the Dublin crew of postcrossers for welcoming me into their midst!) at virtual meetups, and every one of them has been a lovely person, happy to share their deep knowledge and wisdom of both the postcrossing hobby and of deltiology or philately or both.
I have no idea what was going on on in the life at the other end of the postcard. But whatever it may have been, that person managed to take a little time to honor me by sending me one. I try my best to pass that along to the next recipient I draw from the pool. How can I not? I have so many lovely gifts from all of you!
Agreed. Unless Postcrossing is so benevolent to send more address for every card registered. Right?
Thank you Robin67. I wish I could like your reply more than once
No worries. I definitely feel “new” to the hobby. I always stress over what to say. I had to stop sending cards for health reasons and it took me several years to pick it back up. I guess I will now try to make up for lost time.
I think the reason people don’t like handmade is because they got something disappointing in the past. It STILL has to be a postcard and not something on thin paper, newspaper or whatever. This is the reason why I added it to my profile.
I guess I just have always had the mindset that I appreciate a handmade gift more than a store bought one. I have only received one so far. It was a card with a painting of a train that someone sent me from Taiwan. It wasn’t fine art or anything but I thought it was neat and it is certainly unique (I mean if people want to avoid duplicates then hand-made is the way to go! lol)
@mobi Your “hyper local” idea sounds spot on to me! I did a google search for my little 10,000 person town and found I can buy cards with it and the state park I live near on them. Yay! I am so excited to try this. I can say with near 100% certainty that someone in New Zealand or Brazil does NOT have a card with my little town on it.
That’s amazing to hear! I’m so happy for you that the cards are out there! That’s exactly how I feel with the ones from my small town The odds that anyone will have such a card is so small, it makes it special.
I had postcards made for my little town and a few meetups. I am positive I have at least 6-10 cards no one else has seen because I designed them and had them made. I usually pull from one of those options.
Lol. Your town is huge compared to mine… we boast 1250. I deliver mail here and the next town over…pop 180. But way more people live outside town limits than in.
I have over 3k cards, but I like the messages - every card is a little contact with someone, and that is what I like, If it’s on the back of a card I like too - BONUS! I’d rather get loads of the same picture all with an actual message on than all different cards with just “happy postcrossing” on the back personally.
I just say I don’t like little birds on cards - I have a phobia of them, so it’s kind of scary to see their picture on my doormat.
One of the problems with handmade cards can be that they don’t survive the postal system - I know there is a machine somewhere in the UK that makes white marks on the fronts of a significant number of my received cards 
If it is handmade, it can be even more ruined… And I hate that someone took the time to make it for me, and it got spoiled before I even got to see it.
Indeed! It could be intimidating to be matched with such members. And while some go into detail specification of what they do not like, increasing the intimidation, others have profiles that read genuinely welcoming.
I also do not understand why many here, including some occasional/beginner postcrossers like me, reject hand-made cards! One person even went on to specify “no no-copyright cards!” I found that to be hilarious.