How soon do you draw your next address?

Before shelter in place and school from home because of COVID, I would write a postcard each morning while my daughter got ready for school. We would mail it on the way. Now, though, I do them in batches of five or ten, a couple times a month.

I also usually draw a new address immediately. I have a limit of 6 at the moment and all of my postcards are travelling far (other continents) so they are taking forever! A slot became available last week but I was under quarantine for covid so Iā€™ll wait until one of the travelling cards expires (day 57 so far) to draw 2 addresses and send the postcards together.

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I write my cards on weekends so Iā€™d draw a few addresses on Friday and on Friday night I picked all the cards for me to write and send. :hugs:

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Usually when I register a card, but sometimes I like to wait for two. It just depends on my day.

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I am new to Postcrossing and hope I am not disappointing people. I am a bit slow. I like to draw a new address after I finish my postcard, sometimes even before I mail it if I know that I will be going to the mailbox that day.

Then I like to read your profiles and think about them a bit, or even just think about your names and your cities. I like to think about what your lives might be like and what you might find interesting about me or my home. I might remember something I saw at a store or online that I think you would like. It might take me awhile to get it for you.

I might change my mind, think what I was going to say is dumb, and need to wait until a quiet morning when the news isnā€™t making me angry.

I might need more practice before I get it right, but I do enjoy writing to you and I hope you will forgive me for being so slow.

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I draw an address every three days, and have done so since the beginning more than 10 years ago. The original reason was that I was trying not to get addicted and spend too much time and money at the time. :smirk:
This way I have enough time to think about which card to pick for that particular postcrosser, and thoroughly compose my message. It sometimes takes 1-2 days before I mail it.
I donā€™t do batches, because I wouldnā€™t like to get several recipients mixed up. I like to give my full attention to one postcrosser at a time. (Sometimes I think I do get up with others that are in the same batch frome a sender who draws many addresses at the time. Would love to hear if you have ever mixed up your recipients?)

I see my statistics curve almost like a work of ā€œslow art.ā€ Once I had to take a break of 8 months for work, so my curve dropped to 0. Now, I decided to take a similar brake in regular intervals, in order to continue my work of art.

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Technically, I draw addresses in batches, but after requesting all those addresses, I only open up one profile at time. I leave that profile open on my electronic device (whether itā€™s my laptop, iPad, or phone) the entire time that Iā€™m choosing the postcard, decorating it, and writing the message. Itā€™s only when Iā€™ve completed that postcard that I move on to the next profile. That way, thereā€™s very little chance Iā€™ll mix up any postcards.

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That sounds like a lot of love youā€™re putting into each card!

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What do you mean to keep the statistics clean?

Because Iā€™m just starting Iā€™m eager to send one after another.

Iā€™m assuming that @Albion means that the ā€œcleanā€ statistics they have will purely reflect travel time. As opposed to drawing an address, waiting 5 days, then mailing itā€“because then the actual travel time would be 5 days less than whatā€™s reflected on the site. The site records the travel starting as the point that you pull the addresses.

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I do this same thing (batches one address at once) and I wish we could select when we actually mailed it.

I agree that could make things easier on participants who love statistics, but I also think that would make things more complicated. How would you mark a postcard as ā€œexpiredā€? Would the administrators have to keep track of both datesā€“when the address was pulled and when it was sent? Would the Postcrossing stats be messed up if you donā€™t enter the date? How would you enforce entering that date, even if that was possible? I can also envision a lot of people forgetting to go back to enter the exact date that they sent their postcards or not even bothering to because itā€™s one step too many. There are people who already think uploading pictures of postcards is just too much work.

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So far I am just quite new to Postcrossing, and because of the pandemic I didnā€™t go out frequently to buy or find postcards and thus didnā€™t hold many cards. Postcards are not so popular in the area I live and I need to go to fairs, larger bookstores (but the cards there are expensive) or even the university to search for cards. I also didnā€™t have a credit card, which means online shopping is not so feasible. After I had sent out about 20 cards, I didnā€™t have any spared ones that I stopped drawing addresses.

I will almost always have the cards before drawing an address, and I will only write cards if I am not too busy.

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