Is there a way to cancel a travelling postcard?

If not, is it OK to just not send the card? I’m new here and I received a person who says in their bio that they specifically don’t like the type of cards I have, and I really don’t feel like spending money on buying new cards. I know people shouldn’t be requesting what types of cards they want anyway, but it feels like a waste if I’m going to give away one of my cards knowing the receiver won’t appreciate it. I’d love it if you could just cancel the whole thing, so that you can have your travelling slot back and the other person still receives a card from someone else, but I don’t think this exists. I feel rude if I just ignore it and don’t send the card, so what should I do?

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You should do what is required and send a postcard. Any postcard will do. But you should send one.

Cancellation of a „drawn“ address is not possible. Imagine what would happen if everyone could just cancel and draw again and cancel and draw again until they like the country or the profile or the name or whatever.

I agree that sometimes it may seem hard to fulfil a profile‘s wishes. You are not obliged to do that. But the rules say you are to send a card.

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You cannot cancel a postcard, but the cards in a persons biography are just guidelines. It states in the PC rules that you cannot request or deny a certain type of card. Send them what you have. Don’t worry about buying more cards.

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Dear @kyrku,

Here you can read the rules / guidelines :

Guidelines

Send your postcards.

Always send a postcard to each address you request from Postcrossing. There are no exceptions to this. The receiver is dependent on you to receive postcards back, so please send it as soon as possible.

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Could you cut a piece of cardboard and draw something on it? Maybe use food packaging for less effort. Still a postcard they have to register but won’t cost you a nice card.

You can create something they may even like!

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This!

Also, most of the time people have other things in their profile you can make a connection with.

Give it a little time as well, this profile might look a little bit better in the morning. :wink:

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as others had said already, you should definitely send a card. always. even if you think they’re not gonna like it. and you know, sometimes that’s true, some people can be picky. but most of the time people will surprise you with their reaction. i get a bit unsure sometimes when i think i don’t have the perfect card for someone but then i get the hurray message and most of the time people are very kind and happy with what you’ve sent them.

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Sorry, but no one wants to receive trash.

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All the answers so far have been spot on. The profile description is ultimately just a suggestion. Send whatever you have and if they don’t like it, don’t worry about it. You can focus on enjoying the postcards that you receive back :slight_smile:

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Sorry, but you don’t know what this person wants.

Maybe this person doesn’t like view cards, but they do like ad cards, free cards, handmade cards.

We don’t know anything about this profile and please, let’s keep it that way. We are merely making suggestions on what someone could send to someone whose preferred cards they don’t have.

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What’s “trash” to one person, is gold to another. It’s all a matter of opinion/taste/style. Indeed, there is no such thing as “trash” in this context.

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Write something interesting about thar card, and should be ok.

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First of all, welcome to Postcrossing, @kyrku! :heart:

I’ve had situations like this myself. I sent a card that I thought might be the one the recipient would like the least bad. :wink: As others have said, per the rules you must send a postcard but the preferences in the profiles are just suggestions, not requirements. Don’t let yourself be discouraged by such a profile, you will find ther profiles with no postcard prefernces as well, as some just enjoy interesting messages.

I don’t always get cards I really like. I’ve been lucky that I never got a card I found really ugly. :smiley: I like photo view cards, but it seems that in many areas of the former Soviet Union photo cards are difficult to find, but illustrated view cards are very common. In Germany it’s the exact opposite. Cultural differences… So my way to deal with illustrated cards is very simple: I know other Postcrossers who like illustrated cards, so I swap with them. They get illustrated cards for the photo cards they don’t like, so everyone is happy.

One time I got a card from someone saying there are no postcards at all of her really small village, so she went and drew a picture of her village’s small church. Yes, that’s an illustration, but first it’s a really great drawing, and second that was the first time ever someone made a drawing just for me. So this card is a very special treasure for me. :heart:

Bottom line: Even cards not fitting a person’s interests may be received joyfully. Every postcard has two sides, and you can use the back side to your advantage: Interesting stamps (if the recipient is interested in stamps), decorations, stickers, tape (if he recipient likes that) , and explain in the message why you chose that card (both that you don’t have one matching the preferences and why you chose exavtly that card) and what it means to you. Yes, the recipient may not love the card, but you’ve done your best to give them another reason to love what you sent. :smiley:

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I saw many Japanese members collect food packaging card in their flickr album.
I believe it is because food packaging in Japan is kawaii. What is not kawaii in Japan? Everything is kawaii :smiley:

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I requested some addresses not long ago but can`t remember the last one; I must of requested it and forgot due to tiredness however I will keep an eye out just in case this happens again.

@J-Francis in case it is an official postcard you can retrieve the address by clicking on the postcard ID, you can then see the address again.

And you don’t know which cards kyrku has available. The guidelines say you have to send a postcard. But it does not say, that the addressee has to regard food packages as postcards.
@kyrku I would send a simple viewcard. That is definately a postcard and I think the addressee will register it, even if it is not his/her favourite kind of cards.

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Indeed I don’t. We could go on forever about what we don’t know.

What we do know is that we want to help someone by giving them advice and help them in a positive way.

Which is what you did, you made a suggestion on what someone can do when they are in the position of not having a card that fits a profile’s preferences.

Edit to add:
And thank you for that. Even though I have been on Postcrossing for almost two years and I have literally thousands of cards, I still come across profiles that I have a hard time finding the right card for.

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People don’t want cardboard / cereal box creations. Send a genuine postcard, not trash. If you are just starting and don’t have a great stock, write me and I will send you free postcards. I have mailed out hundreds of Free postcards over the past 10 years. There is a solution; people just need to make a move.

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Some people like cards made from food packages, others do not even regard them as postcards.

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