How do you start and end your postcards?

I start with ‘hello’, ‘hoi’ or ‘ahoj’ and end with ‘have a nice day, Jana’.

I start by thoroughly reviewing the recipients bios and finding the right card.

I end by handing it to a postal clerk for hand cancelling.

Ideally.

This would be typical:

"Jewell -

Greetings from Maryland! It is gradually getting light here on a rainy day, and the steam from my tea is fogging up my glasses. I chose this Edgar Allan Poe card for you as it fits many of your interests, I hope you like it. I send as well a hug and a smile, with best wishes for excellent health and a mailbox full of postcards!

Warmest regards -

Eric"

Of course, the message will vary. I try to find matching postage stamps, or at least stamps to the recipient’s interest, and use a rubber stamp that shows my user name and the weather. Postcrosser ID is on the label with the address. Sometimes I can fit an “airmail” rubber stamp, depends on the size of the card and my message.

If no name of the recipient is provided by them I am in a quandary. Frankly I find that rude. If you want me to send you something, the least you can do is tell me your name! In the cases, I usually lead wit something like this:

“Greetings from Maryland! I hope this card finds you all and brings you joy…etc.”

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I usually start my postcard with “Hello (Name)! Greetings from Russia!”, but now I feel tired of this tipical greeting, want something unusual and more attractive, maybe greetings in Russian :thinking:
Endings are always different and depend on the message and free space on a card.

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I start with Hello… or Dear… and then write: my name is… and I live in…

In the end I write: Stay healthy and take care! Much love from Antje

I also often write the beginning in the language of the receiver: Hei… or Lieve…
and in the end: Terveisin or Lieve groetjes… ( these are only examples in Finnish or Dutch)

And when I speak the native language of the receiver I write the whole card in that language: in Russian and French or also in Norwegian or Indonesian :slight_smile:

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I start my message with a “Hello (insert name)” or just “Hello”. I end my message with a “Best Wishes” or “Stay Safe” and sign my name under.

I usually start with “Hey NAME!” or “Hi NAME!” and usually end with “From Alys in the UK”

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I’m usually a “Hi person” - though sometimes I also start my postcards with “Dear Earthling!” :alien:
Oh, and at the very start I always write the place I’m writing from + date + weather icon + temperature - like “Warsaw, April 1, 2021 :sunny: 73 F”.
I usually close with a greeting in Polish: “Pozdrowienia z Polski” or shortened to “Pozdro!” if there’s little space. Or, in my capacity as an alien, I sign my cards “May the Force be with You!” Plus, obviously, my name or nick. Though maybe it is not soooo obvious, as sometimes I receive postcards not signed by the sender at all…
If there’s space, I also put a hand-drawn “stamp” of my postcrossing avatar + nick at the bottom :slight_smile:

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I’m 100% “Hello, dear” person :)))

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I don’t do anything fancy. I start with Hello [Name] or Hi [Name]. I don’t add the name if they did not put that in their profile or address. And then I end with writing my first name. I used to actually sign it, but one could read it.

Along the very top I put the ID in green ink and the date in blue. If the recipient asks for extra details like the weather or temperature, I put it on the same line.

I start the text with “Sali [Name]! Greetings from Switzerland” and end it with “Best wishes, Jane”.

Sali is an informal Swiss German greeting derived from the French “Salut”, and is pronounced roughly the same as the English surname Sully. I add the country because our stamps say “Helvetia” instead of Switzerland and I got some confused Hurray-messages in the beginning wondering where the cards were from.

I’m with Asta, @chasingkites, and @Antjelino on #TeamDear.

I rotate between:

  • Dear _____
  • Dearest _____
  • Hello, _____!

and end with:

  • Big hug
  • Kindest wishes
  • Happy wishes
  • Your neighbor/friend across the globe, Rebecca

I beg to differ, no matter how you start your postcards! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: (And no, I don’t think you sound impolite or unfriendly by omitting the recipient’s name, for what it’s worth. :purple_heart:)

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“Dear” and “dearest” - there words are like a hug:)

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You know youˋre a Postcrosser… when you find this topic interesting. :blush:

I start my cards with ID, date, weather.
Hallo first name, greetings from Nuremberg!
(as much text as fits on the card…)
Best wishes, Aurelia (I try to write my name clearly, as I like readable signatures…)

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“Dear” might be a hug, but I think “dearest” is the creepy hug. :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyways, maybe that’s why I’m not much of a fan of “dear” in the first place. I’m not much of a hugger either.

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[Spreads arms menacingly] :joy:

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“Howdy, [name]!” or sometimes “Dear [name]”

I used to say “Hello”, but I thought it would be more interesting to use “Howdy”, as it is less formal, and it is a true representation of local language. One postcard recipient mentioned they didn’t know the greeting until they read it on my card, so I’m happy to teach a new word.

If I don’t run out of room at the bottom, I usually wish them good health and good luck. :four_leaf_clover:

I will be happy when I never have to write “stay safe” again… I just want this terrible pandemic over with for everyone.:mask::microbe:

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When I read the profile of the person, I decide if I start with Hello or Dear…
Recently I had such a nice profile of someone, that I started with “Dear”… and I got such wonderful " Hurrah" message!
I also have very different closings like " Be happy in your life " and I always write my name at the end !

Hi Firstname and Best wishes for me. If I can’t figure out what the first name is or if I’m sending to a group, I just say Hello!

Dear sounds too intimate to me so I tend to avoid it. My dearest Eleanor…

I’ve seen some weird ones including just Dear with nothing but a comma after it and a variety of misspellings of my name, most notably Hi Elena! which I get on at least one card in fifty.

:joy: i’m sorry, i’m sure it must be frustrating. i don’t understand how you can write something wrong that you just have to write from your screen. i get a lot of kira instead of kyra as well. it’s not so bad, i’ll say, but still strange.
though sometimes i’m worried i’m writing someone’s name wrong as well. a lot of mostly russian postcrossers have a different name in their profile and their address. i always hope i’m writing down the right one.

oh and i usually write hallo and best wishes, but sometimes i get a bit bored of that so i write dear (only if it’s a kind profile that i have something in common with, so it feels like it’s worth more than a hello, you know?). or i write have a good day or something.

i said stay healthy for a while but it’s kinda weird to say that because of a pandemic, i wish everyone good health all the time. so i quit with that pretty soon (i don’t see it as often anymore either actually).

Dearest seems incredibly intimate to me. Something you would say only to close family members or good friends. Never to a stranger. Though come to think of it, if a close family member ever called me dearest, I would think they were being sarcastic.

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