Some numbers are impressive! I really think it’s down to fast travelling time, which are not possible for everyone, more than anything else. Where I am now, nothing can get registered in less than 8-9 days, so if someone can have card registered in 2-3-4 days, that makes it a lot faster.
And yes I guess sending every time you have a slot and always having the max number of cards travelling might do the trick to o.
(Personally, I don’t care - I recently hit 500 and I joined in 2016, so… )
In my experience, the times I’ve been curious about a Postcrosser who has been on the site ~2 years but has sent over 1000 cards, they’re always Germans sending within Germany. 
I don’t send and receive within my own country, so I made peace long ago with the fact that my counts would grow slowly. If I chose to send and receive within my own country, I would have a higher count.
I don’t think it works that way that you can only send within your own country and never to any others? Or at least, it shouldn’t. I’d be tempted to ask Administration whether this person seems to be refusing foreign cards?
No, I’m sorry for any confusion. I did not say in my response that Germans are ONLY sending within Germany (because that is not an option in Postcrossing at all). Rather, that in addition to sending to other countries, they ALSO have selected to send and receive within their own country.
This is optional, and I have not selected this option for my own account. If I did, my counts would grow a little faster.
@adriennefriend did not write “only” and you are right that you cannot chose to only send to your own country, but if you are from Germany and enable sending to your own country, then you’ll send a lot to your own country. A third of my cards stay within the country
I understand now. I send cards within USA (300 million people in six time zones) finding doing so as interesting as the international cards I receive. But, it’s a personal choice.
Right now, I’m at the edge of getting another slot, yet I have more cards received by me than registered - frustrating!
I bet I’m missing out on a lot of amazing cards and connections by not sending and receiving within the US. (Many of my “favorites” cards on my wall are US!). But the slower pace of sending and receiving international cards works for me at this point in my life, because it gives me more time to focus on choosing stamps and cards, writing messages, etc, because the volume is not as high and as frequent (even at 1826 sent cards). It helps keep the hobby relaxing. (Whereas consistently faster arrival times means more slots open sooner which might feel more stressful for me, personally, knowing my personality and challenges.)
Waiting for a new slot was also hard for me, when I only had 12 or 13 slots, but it took 50 registrations to get a new one.
I’m sending since 2005 and just recently I reached the 1000. Because I also send at the forum,sometimes at Facebook groups, I almost never use all of my official limit (30). For me the numbers are not important, I prefer to send less but take my time to enjoy the process. I think if I start sending as a machine, all the postcards I can, it would feel as a job or an obligation (and it would also cost a lot!)
I also enjoy the process although I sent more 6200 since 2013, but I hardly send cards in forum activities. Everyone has their own way to do postcrossing and I think that is fine.
I have sending to the US turned on at the moment. Over the years I’ve gone back and forth. It’s on now because I went to Italy in October and Southern Africa in February and brought home stacks of postcards. Since these are countries with few participants I’m sending many to Postcrossers. I used TouchNote to send postcards printed from my photos while I was away, just to family and friends, and am sending postcards to family and friends now that I’m home. Mail in both countries is a problem. I sent three postcards home from Italy and they arrived 6-7 weeks later. Last week I received a Postcrossing postcard from South Africa - sent last June.
Please be aware that many Postcrossers oppose that a sender shares their address with Touchnote etc. due to privacy reasons.
As a fellow American, I would be unhappy with getting a Touchnote from there. Send a commercial card if you can abroad, but save it until you get back to the States to make your own cards later, telling me about your trip. My recent experience with postcards from Italy is that while they’re not the fastest, they arrive well before 60 days.
I sent TouchNotes of photos I took in Italy and Southern Africa when I was there. Because it takes so long for mail to arrive in the US. I sent them to family: my aunt, my husband’s parents, my sister, … who would otherwise not have heard from me before I got home. I never send TouchNotes for Postcrossing.
I also think that those racking up numbers faster are mostly in Germany and sending within Germany (and possibly with repeated countries so they get more German addresses). For those in the USA, I don’t think sending internally would be that fast? Sure it might be faster than sending abroad but it’s still a huge country and as far as I understand, the postal service is not as good as Germany’s, so it wouldn’t get the same result.
I hope no one is under the impression that you have to send your max number of cards, it is entirely optional! I don’t even know how many I can send, all I know is that it’s way more than I am able to send (I usually have up to 10-12 travelling in one go, I simply don’t have the time, money and desire to send more. Right now I haven’t sent since January because I’m just too tired in the little free time I have. Maybe this weekend! I send outside of postcrossing too so some of my activity is not tracked in numbers, but I do love the official site as I love the randomness).