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.
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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.
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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
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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.
Yes, like an archive! I’m sentimental too!
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.
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Yes, I wonder too!
I shouldn’t have looked here, I am really sad now. 
I hate to think of people throwing away cards I’ve sent them. 
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I don’t throw away any cards. My thinking is either I’ll use them for something someday or (given an appropriate amount of time) I can share them with someone else who enjoys used cards.
Envelopes, however, I do discard. I remove stamps, then send them through a shredder that cuts both vertical and horizontal leaving the envelope in small ~1cm x 1cm pieces. It helps protect identity (via the address) and its how I would hope someone else treats my personal information.
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I love the idea of making a photo slideshow from your cards!
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I too feel very sad to see that people just throw away cards I’ve send. I can’t even think about throwing a card even it is not my interest. Feel so bad 
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In my 9 years of being a member of Postcrossing I haven’t been able to throw away a single postcard (but my collection is still in hundreds, not thousands - so storing them is not as difficult). There were a few that made me a bit sad or disappointed, sure. But even just a distance travelled to get to me is enough to get me a bit sentimental 
I just keep them separately from the ones I like.
But if it came to this and I had to get rid of some postards - I would take them to my preschoolers! It would be a nice educational experience for them. Some craft, maybe?
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The ones I wanna get rid of, I dispose them in the paper shredder.
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At the moment I’ve got them all in a single box… but I’m also trying to Konmari my home (I am a bit of a pack rat!). So their days are numbered, one way or another.
In the long run, I’ll probably save a tiny number that I like enough to frame, and conscientiously recycle the rest.
This is why I’m religious about scanning and uploading pics of the ones I receive (and send, too). That way I have a record of the fronts of the cards. As for the written backs, I keep notes of the messages in a spreadsheet. So one way or another, I will have an electronic record, even if it’s not as nice as holding a physical card
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As a newbie I’m a bit shocked, although I do understand that storage issue when having received thousands of cards. Maybe that’s why I will never aim for sending more than 20 cards at the same time. Would be too expensive. And I really appreciate the cards I receive.
When looking for postcards, I try to get good ones—though beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We are all different and have different tastes. However, makes me a bit sad to know that people will throw my cards away, despite the effort I did (buying, writing on it, sending it off). I also have the ecological footprint in mind when it comes to postcards transported via air mail. It’s a bit decadent.
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When I first started Postcrossing, I kept every single card, regardless of whether I liked it or not. I grew up in a hoarder-y family and I also lost nearly all my possessions in a housefire about 20 years ago, so both of those things led me to keep things more than I needed to. Even though my ‘collections’ weighed on me both physically and emotionally I couldn’t let myself let go.
A divorce and several moves (the last one to a house about 1/4 the size of the previous one) have made me finally realize that possessions are not the thing that is important. So now I am downsizing my various collections and one of those was my postcards. Now when I get a card I enjoy it while reading it / looking at it and then the stamps get cut off and the card goes into the recycling. A few I will keep for my daughter or my fiancee to look at if the theme is something they enjoy. The stamps go to PCers who collect them. It’s very freeing to have less ‘stuff’.
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I really like your attitude. I too enjoy every card when I receive it and while reading it, looking at the picture. And I keep them all for a while, until they’ve had a few days or a couple of weeks on the mantelpiece. But I certainly don’t feel the need to keep every single one. Those that end up more permanently on the racks on my wall have special pictures, or appeal to me emotionally.
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This is a refreshing thread to read.
At first, I kept all cards, but I just don’t have the space for too many postcards. I do keep my favorites, and I try to creatively reuse ones I don’t want to keep. Using postcards, I decorated a few storage boxes. I still had too many postcards, but felt bad recycling them. It felt somehow disrespectful to the person sending it.
It’s good to hear from like-minded people, to be able to put into words the idea that sending and receiving is why I joined Postcrossing. To make a connection with people, and not for a large collection of postcards.
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I can’t imagine wanting to dispose of my cards but if I did, I’d either shred it, or cut up the portion with my address and throw the rest in the recycling (if my shredder failed again 
).
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Mind that cards that are deemed ‘not family friendly’ can be removed from the website so the digital archive on the website will not be 100%.