Thanks LC! I did see that formula, and I’m excited for it to go up. I realize there is nothing I can really do except send cards whenever I am able to. I feel like 13 cards traveling is pretty good for 18 months of belonging to the group! I will definitely spend some time on the forum to figure out what else I can do. Looking forward to all of it!
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It will totally depend on how committed you are to Postcrossing … I’m in my 5th year and I just hit my 1000 cards received and sent & can send up to 29 cards. I slowed down a lot in the early period of the pandemic due to a huge number of my cards going missing, and only really started getting back into the cycle mid last year. And being from Asia, most of my cards are sent to Germany, Russia and USA, so the travelling time also took much longer I would say …
Honestly in the beginning it will feel like every wait is very long and draggy when your postcard limits are in the single digits, but once you hit 15-20 cards, you will feel like you are sending many postcards at least every other week.
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Lotteries & tags are very easy to start with - there are all kinds of lotteries to join with different themes or offers & expect to play a bunch before you win a card.
Note that the ones that say CHAIN Lottery in the title you will be expected to host a lottery in return if you win but there are lots of lotteries that are not part of the CHAIN too you can join.
https://community.postcrossing.com/c/games-activities/lotteries/99
Tags are very straightforward - pick a theme you like & tag someone (send them a card) and get tagged by others (they send you a card)
https://community.postcrossing.com/c/games-activities/tags/86
If you have cards you can offer - you can do direct swaps with people or respond to their offers of a swap as well.
https://community.postcrossing.com/c/trades-requests-offers/postcards/32
And then there are round robins which are more complex & require some commitment to the process - you are generally committing to sending cards to groups of people - each one may be a bit different, but many, many themes & variations to choose from.
https://community.postcrossing.com/c/games-activities/round-robins/14
And for all of these games or swaps - you generally post your interest on a topic & then switch to private messaging in the Forum to exchange addresses or show each other your offers.
Don’t be shy about asking questions - there’s lots to learn & people are pretty friendly & helpful - you’ll get the hang of it soon. Enjoy!
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I’ve started in postcrossing in 2009, and I can only send 14 cards, so I’m guessing 1 extra card per year 
.
I’ve been active on and off but recently I’ve been more active than ever before and wish I could have more cards to send. I do some private swaps. I’ve never tried the round robbins, they intimidate me somehow. Cards are taking a lot of time to register, especially to Russia. So when I get an address from Russia, I cry a little but then I try to send it as soon as possible. I sometimes go to the main post office so that it departs in the first plane of the day.
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Thanks Prodromos! I just sent you an email about being a penpal!
I giggled a little about your dropping your cards off at the main post office. I JUST did that on Saturday, only to realize the post office was already closed for the day, was going to be closed on Sunday and also on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. day. I guess my cards will go out RIGHT AWAY, just three days later than I thought. 
Thank you so much for all of that info! I definitely need a breakdown of these things!!! I really, really appreciate it!
When doing tags, how do you get the person’s address? Do you just message them and hope they respond with it?
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Wow! 29 postcards at one time is very exciting!!! Trying to be patient over here…
Why do you think the Postcrossers from Russia were more active in the past?
If you look at any of the tag threads, you’ll add the regular tag response like this below for example:
Tag @LC-Canada
And then yes, you tell them you’ve tagged them & ask for their address through private message. People usually respond quite quickly within hours (1 or 2 days at the most). And then you send them the card with the theme of the tag.
And then someone will tag you at some point & send you a pm (private message) asking for your address & so on.
Does that make sense?
I can totally relate your feeling lol. I check my email everyday to see if there is any Hurray message. My sending card quota now is 12, I never feel enough! I prefer sending card to receiving card It always makes me happy when I found a card in my drawer which perfectly matches the recipient’s preference.
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Yes! Thank you!!
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Hahahaha! “Hurray” message! I see that I need to significantly increase the number of cards in my drawer! How many do you think you have? Also, adorable doggie. He/she doesn’t look real!
You don’t have to buy a lot, but you may do so if you can afford the beautiful original design cards. As for my observation of people’s profile, the most popular themes are map, lighthouse, tourist card, series card (e.g. Blue Cat, Inge Look, and GF etc) and so on. I spent over one grand on the postcards and stamps in the past year… It’s unbelievable that it sometimes costs a lot if you are indeed craving for postcrossing 
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For they sent more postcards. I have seen a statistic last year, that their number of sent postcards reduced from more than 1 million to 600,000, but I cannot find it right now.
I’ve started 8 years ago yesterday (have eaten the traditional digital cake already 
), January 2014. Third quarter of 2015 my stats* show ~25 cards sent/received a months. So I guess it takes 20 months (for a European with many active countries close)
One time a year one is allowed to make others jealous, so: I can have 57 cards traveling, if I want to, that’s almost two cards every day of a month. (but I hardly ever use all these slots, maybe close to/after a meet_up or after hunting a special ID (600k, here I come)) 
*you can look up the basic stats of others, also in your region, in their profiles, to get a feeling for various traveling duration.
PS: it’s funny that I’m seeing another AT-user replying just right now - hope I’ll win this race (hi, Robin)
edit: I can have 58 cards travling after a new registration today 
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I can’t remember! 
But when I started, I could only send 3 cards.
There was no forum.
There was no possibility to contact other members by a private message for an exchange!
The passion was there, but one just had to wait! 
When I was young, we also, only had 2 TV channels in Austria, no cable TV, and those 2 channels didn’t even have a 24h programme!!! 
I can laugh about all this now, but at the time… 
I think I don’t have to mention, that there was also no internet, when I was young! 
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How did you see, that I was writing too??? 
One does see a user’s icon on the right side - guess not to induce a race, but to avoid double answers or too much traffic.
And of course I know your avatar …
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There is a whole section devoted to handmade cards, mail art & ATCs (artist trading cards) including a thread where people can show what they’ve made lately - it’s very inspiring!