Probably because Germany and the Netherlands are the countries that have the 5th and 6th most members, which means there’s higher possibility of getting an address from these countries than the other ones.
Of course, there are members from more than 200 countries on Postcrossing. But if you look at the statistics, most of the members are from “major” countries on this website, such as Russia, Taiwan, China, USA, Germany, the Netherlands, …etc. Members from those top 5 countries(RU, TW, CN, US, DE) are already more than half of the total number of users. Considering that now Chinese addresses are suspended for a while, the possibility of getting German or Dutch address is higher than before. Moreover, many members from “rare” countries haven’t been active for long.
I understand that it might be boring if you keep getting addresses from the same countries, but still it doesn’t mean that the addresses are not given randomly.
Have you ticked the repeated countries box in your profile? If you’ve got it ticked you will rarely get any other country which is part of the design to balance it all.
I gladly kept the box ticked from the start of the pandemic to February when the Russian addresses got a bit overwhelming. Since then I’ve kept the box unticked and enjoyed the variety.
Resuming my activity on Postcrossing, I requested 10 addresses, first one was, yeah, Germany, but surprisingly I got overall 9 of 10 unique countries, four of them (Estonia, India, Belgium and Canada) were never in my “sent” list before. I only got the USA two times in these requests. Oh, most of the countries are in Europe, but almost two weeks had past. I wonder how fast our post works right now. But I am sure amazed that Ukrposhta still sends to almost everywhere (however, some of these countries don’t send mail to Ukraine, for example, Kazakhstan due to absence of the direct flight): must be good international relations.
According to your stats you sent only about 1 in 4 cards to Germany in the last year. Maybe it just feels like it is a lot more. Either way, if postcrossing doesn’t bring you joy anymore, you should take a break! That’s totally the right thing to do. There is no point doing hobbies that aren’t fun
I’m in the US, so the situation is a bit easier for me. I have removed the option to send to my own country, so I don’t get American addresses. And USPS doesn’t accept mail headed to Russia, so I’m not getting any addresses there either.
Here is my Travelling list (as of yesterday morning):
Wow! I never knew that about direct mail flights. Thank you for telling me. I am so glad you are home. I rode a humanitaruan bus helpung to evacuate women & children from Ukraine in April. I would do it again! Willing to swap a postcard?
Well, I really don’t know how I would change it. I’m frustrated is all because I want to learn more about other countries not the top 5 which I already know. Maybe postcrossing needs to do a little more advertising in the little known countries? I do tell people about this organization & many think its too expensive. Thank you for responding.
It is not like a flight for mail only. As I understand it, Kazakhstan only sent us mail via the direct flights from one of the Kazakh cities (not sure which: Alma-Aty or Astana, or both, or some other city) to Kyiv, like you know, there are also passengers in it. As for Ukraine, we might as well hace used the flight for sending to Kazakhstan, but after Fabruary, 24th there is no point in making Kyiv a distribution center, cities by the European borders are better suited for this right now. Most surely UkrPoshta mails to the neighboring countries by trains or trucks, after that these countries’ posts send it futher.
I know my own country very well and have traveled to all 50 states & several territories. 86 countries and I thirst for more than the top 5 or 6! No offense to Germany.
Haha! Jordan. Lucky you!! Gues what happened the other day? I received a postcard from KZ, then realized it was addressed to someone in College Station, Texas. I live in Maryland. What are the odds of that happening and I happen to be a postcrossing member? Wow! Well, I have forwarded that postcard with great disappointment.
I once got a beautiful postcard from the Bahamas with a very nice colourful stamp and everything. It was for my downstairs neighbour from his parents…
Would it help you to think of the recipients as interesting individuals rather than representatives of their country? I find that my cards go to people and not countries.
If you want to collect particular countries I would recommend the swaps section on the forum.
Well, when the top5 countries have sent more than half of the all Postcrossing cards ever source and they still are the most active countries, it’s kinda obvious we get mostly the same countries all the time.
I have noticed that when I keep all my slots used, I get more variety. I have never had more than 6 cards going to same country. So after Finland haven’t delivered post to Russia, my travelling cards have been mostly 6 to Germany, 6 to US, 2 to Netherlands, UK and Japan and 5 to different random countries.
Maybe try private swaps if you’re eager to get more of those rare countries?
I guess that depends on where you receive from rather than where you send to?
They tried actually but the result was thaf nothing changed. Many countries simply don’t have postal culture and people are not interested. Or postage is expensive, like you mentioned, and thus people are not interested.
I am sorry you had a bad day and feel frustrated. Sometimes there is a lot going on in life and 3 cards to Germany in a row can be the last drop. However, I am afraid that nothing can be done at the moment. Once China starts delivering foreign mail and Russia stops the war in Ukraine, you will have two more countries to send to (I believe you can’t send to Russia from the USA at the moment, right?). I honestly don’t think the variety you get is bad at all but if you want more, you can always arrange directs swaps. That’s the best solution I can see now.
I’m still very new to this and at first when I realised some countries were far more likely to be received/sent to I wondered whether that would impact on my enjoyment. Even just a few sent/received postcards has shown me I had no need to worry - its the people that matter and I love that I can connect and learn with all these different people while finding out about where they live, the regions, things of very local significance. Then if a new country turns up its an added bonus.
If it is having more countries that is important to you then maybe you would enjoy some of the forum activities where you could request/send a bit more specifically?
I think there’s a big difference between, well, being excited to get a not-so-common country, as we all are, and losing the enjoyment because of so much Germany. If the latter is the case, then postcrossing official is not for you and as others have said, you can just arrange swaps with more countries. Because I can promise, Germany (and the USA for those who send to it) is never going to go away
Though I have to admit I switched off repeated countries because I can’t send to Russia so it’s literally only Germany and USA. I got two addresses without repeated countries but I might put it back on again because I feel guilty and greedy when I don’t have it on
