Yeah, I feel you on both of those things. I generally don’t collect things because I find that collections weigh on me after a while. But having to decide what things to bring with you to another country will certainly even further impact one’s opinion of what “needs” to be carried around.
I scan them, and I use the folder they’re in as a rotating background for my desktop, so I continue to see them. But I don’t want to feel oppressed by keeping cards that aren’t meaningful to me (plenty of the ones I’ve received are meaningful in some way, though).
Oh wow! It’s good to see that I’m not the only one who hasn’t fully organized my postcards, like I wanted to do during this pandemic.
Though I don’t think I have an emotional attachment to my postcards, I know (for now) that I don’t want to toss them out.
Postcards and Postcrossing, especially, are great reminders of all of the good that still exists in our world.
I keep all my postcards except one I received that stated I was going to hell for not being Christian. I deleted it off my wall as it was digitally uploaded. But I have all 2200 postcards in binders organized so I can look at them and show them to my young nephews who are obsessed with travel and monuments. I have seven 3” binders in my craft room of postcards and I pick a different one to take to look at with them each time. I even started him an account so he can collect them and have a binder for him.
I see this as a way to collect and connect and unless I get another awful message, I probably won’t throw another one away. I almost worry now that the effort I put in to writing and sending is wasted if so many people just throw them away.
i don’t wanna throw my cards away. i tried a few weeks ago but i have cards with a lovely picture and a short message and cards that i don’t really love but they wrote a nice, long message. they’re all meaningful to me and once in a while i love taking a look through all my cards. i ‘only’ have a few hundred, i think maybe 700 i don’t keep track of the cards i receive through the forum. in my first year or two of postcrossing i tried to keep them organised in binders but after a while that’s too much work and too much binders and the cards are all different sizes and i didn’t know what to do about that. so now i put all my cards in shoeboxes. i have 3 now and like i said, i don’t wanna throw them away but i also don’t wanna end up with a room full of shoeboxes.
so if someone has a great idea of what to do with old received cards, i’d love to hear it!
I think it depends on how you look at it, whether you think your time is “wasted.” A postcard and message may bring a smile to someone on a gray day. They recognize that and so they just enjoy the card for the moment an then let it go.
I’m not a collector, but I have saved every postcard I’ve received. I view it as a snapshot of humanity at a particular point in time–so I save the bad with the good because the choice of postcard also reflects the sender’s personality. If it came to the point that I needed to get rid of them, I think I’d probably contact a museum or a school or an actual collector and give them away. They might as well have a second life with someone else if I’m unable to keep them.
I was thinking, however, that maybe postcards from 2020 should perhaps be specifically kept together. They’re kind of a historical document for all the crazy and unprecedented things happening this year.
It’s kind of my philosophy on lost cards I guess. I certainly don’t mourn when they don’t get registered because once it goes in the box, it’s on its own until it gets to its new owner.
I hope that you won’t feel like the effort is wasted. I feel like sending Postcrossing postcards is like giving a gift - you do it freely, with the hope that it is well-received and makes someone happy. Sometimes people may not treat the gift the way you would have wanted it to be treated, but they still appreciate it (someone cuts the sleeves of a shirt you gave them and remakes it in some way), and some appreciate the thought but it’s not right for them (they re-gift the vase).
Number of cards that I actually threw away is really low, probably those cards could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
In case I do not like the card (mostly due to motif that do not fit into my interests, less because person did not write something about the place but about some xyz stuff), I simply put it among my available used cards for trade. I do not have problems with swapping such cards, as many people like themes that I do not, and vice versa.
I am relieved to know that I am not the only one who decided that I could not keep all my cards! Earlier this year I went through all of them and recycled most. I now have a few A5 clear folders which hold my current collection of highly sentimental cards, or my collections. The funny thing is, I am a collector but nowhere on my official profile do I say what I collect anymore. I just want to leave it all open to chance and see what I get.
As said earlier by others, for me the joy comes out of the sending and receiving process, and mostly not by the card itself. If the card is great and I can feel it gives me great joy, I’ll keep it. If not, then I will scan it, thank it, and then dispose of it. Lately, I have been using certain cards in my junk journalling, but they will eventually be recycled when I’m done with the journal. My tiny room is much happier this way!
My collection isn’t more than like fifty cards right now.
Theyre all in an album thats handmade so I can see both sides of the cards.
I do recycle some of my penpal letters tho? Like the envelopes? I keep only parts of them within another journal to look back upon.
If I do get into the thousands I think I’d like to continue framing them inside my handmade albums as long as I could. I treasure each one a lot… I’d probably get rid of the ones that didn’t have a lot to say on the back? I’d scribble out the address and reuse them or give away to others that would want the paper. Maybe some I’d recycle.
So far I’ve kept every postcard I’ve ever been sent in a box, even if not much effort was put into them, and am creating an album of these last two years right now. I’m a person who loves books and has many books, but I think in the future there will certainly come a time when a shelf of one of my bookcases is dedicated to postcard and stamp albums lol. Though, since I collect stamps and like creating mail art, if I were to ever truly wish to dispose of a card, I’d take off the stamp for my collection and then use the rest of the card for mail art I suppose.
I also still have all cards sent to me. The ones that actually fit into my collection are stored in binders or postcard-albums other are in boxes. I really have a problem throwing cards out. Someone took the time to send this to me and I feel it would be wrong to just get rid of it. However so far I have the space to keep all cards.
this is a good question…I changed jobs and moved (again) and I am getting weary of hauling stuff all over the country. You can only have so many possessions, eventually its just clutter everywhere so I am a big fan of downsizing and reducing. For now they pile up on a shelf but with the next move they will have to be tossed
How long have you collected for?
I’m starting my collection in a Rubbermaid bin organized in freezer bags and with paper clips. Putting some exceptional ones on the wall. For now there’s a Christmas/ Holiday, winter wall in my living room.
I’m someone who devotes too much sentimental value to the things I receive, so I could never bring myself to throw away a postcard, even those that I don’t really like. I still have all the postcards I received.
On the other spectrum, I also wonder if my postcards hold enough value for others to decide to keep when they are doing their purge. But it’s out of my control so…
I’m intending to bring all my postcards to my future home next time, and I will use them as decorations around the house where I’ll rotate the displays.
