This happened to me as well, exactly as you described.
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I’ve really struggled recently with sending cards only to almost the same countries: Germany and Russia, then USA.
These are my current traveling cards. And no, I have not crossed the opinion to send several cards to same country.
I would prefer not hearing how it doesn’t matter what countries you send to etc. I know it’s not the main thing that matters. But for some of us part of the hobby is reaching new countries and a real variety of places, cultures and people. That’s how it keeps the excitement. So if this isn’t a problem for you, please, no need to respond!
But for me it has started to get really annoying getting the same countries over and over and over again. When I started in 2020 I got more variety. Yes, I sent to these countries too but when I sent 5 cards, it was mostly 5 different countries, not just to Russia and Germany like now.
Do you struggle with the same thing? Have you tried different things to get more variety?
I can send 13 cards so I don’t have the option to take 20 addresses the same time. I’ve
tried taking one card as soon as my card arrives to someone. I’ve tried different times of days. But still, I really rarely get addresses to other countries than these three.
And I don’t want to be overly negative. I love to send cards no matter what. When the profile is nice, it doesn’t matter to me what country it is. It’s just lovely to write them a card and make them happy. But I’ve seen a change in the algorithm and I don’t know if it’s this year, covid or because of how long I’ve done postcrossing, as I’m not that new anymore.
I wish this didn’t bring down my excitement but it does. Not always, but too often. Especially when the profile is negative and picky (which isn’t the topic) it feels like a waste of time to send a card to same country again to someone who I probably can’t please enough.
I also know some other postcrossers who feel this way but wanted to make a forum post to reach even more people.
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I get you. It is always a thrill when I get a different Country than my usual top three that I often get.
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Sometimes I have similar feelings with you.
However, I think the moderator may close this topic because of an another existing topic.
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Yes, the moderator did it 
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I just wanted to send you here but @Bille was faster.
You can also check out the answers here:
That thread is about the repeated countries option but the discussion is kind of the same 
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Thanks! I will go check that one out, I tried to find one but I guess I didn’t look hard enough
That is quite polarised opinion how to solve this.
My problem isn’t that I don’t get enought addresses to rare countries. Of course I don’t. My problem is that I get rarely to other countries than these three, no matter if I take 1 or 8 addresses at time, how often etc.
Also, I didn’t say I have a problem with sending to these countries. I have a problem with how I used to get more variety but now I rarely get any.
You have sent 2000 more than I have and you have crossed the opinion to send to your own country, which has the most postcrossers. I don’t think it’s fair to compare.
And this isn’t a discussion of “who has it worse” but just to bring up the issues I’ve noticed with the algoritm that once actually had variety in coutries to send cards to.
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I am new to Postcrossing.
So far, I have received these countries to send to:
Germany, 4
Russia, 2
Taiwan, 1
US, 2
Ukraine, 1
Belarus, 1
I had the box ticked at first so 3 right away were to Germany. I think so far I have received a nice variety of countries but of course, I am just starting. I really think it is only luck as to which countries you get.
If you’re interested in sending or receiving to a particular country, you could make a request on the swap forum or look for users from that country who are interested in direct swaps.
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Coming from the country sending most cards …
Though it isn’t easy for me to read it, … I get the problem.
Maybe people of those 3 countries should not have the option to exclude their own country?
Or as long as they have should not chose it?
… then at least the very active postcrossers would also be part of the solution of the problem.
Anyway there are some times during the year where sending cards from Germany peak. Which means several days or weeks later there are plenty of Germans waiting for receiving cards.
I don’t know if I got those times all, but it’s about the milestones of reaching certain numbers of sent cards from Germany (12 Mio for example isn’t that long ago). Or this month (Dec) German post has a special offer to give 10 cent of each card to charity or so.
So check out when German postcrossers go hunting for special numbers
(and please don’t take this advice too seriously)
Happy postcrossing!
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(First of all - I send to my own country and I like it)
I think this wouldn’t be fair.
There are a lot of people all over the world who exclude their own country because they feel uncomfortable to share their address to people within their own country. They feel it’s not far enough of distance. It’s discussed every now and then.
And so feel also some people from Russia, Germany, USA. But if they cannot choose the option of excluding I think some of them will definitely quit.
I think if someone just wants to send / receive from certain (more different) countries the best option will be to do direct swaps with.
I think there won’t be a proper solution which satisfy everyone.
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Also, if members would send to their own country, they would perhaps get more sending slots faster, meaning more cards to them and these countries.
Maybe something like when you can have 30-40 travelling, you can’t choose if you send to repeated country anymore, but everyone automatically would have it then. Or a pop up question every now and then, like “Would you please like to help in this and that and choose repeated country?”
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Another point may be that there are countries who suspended mail to other countries, e. g. India to USA (I just read it in the mail suspension topic).
If there are less countries who can send to the “big three” so of course the remain countries will get more often addresses in USA/Russia/Germany.
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I somehow find this a bit odd. Many of these postcrossers motivate their choice with the small size of their country, but for example in Central Europe, distances between different countries can be quite short. If a postcrosser lives in a good spot, they might receive cards from someone from a neighbouring country closer to their home than a fellow country(wo)man in the same country. And still seem to be comfortable with it. If they are afraid of fellow postcrossers from the same country popping in at their doorstep, what would prevent a fellow postcrosser from a neighbouring country doing the same if this pc-fellow lives closer, albeit behind the country border? This is a thing I quite cannot wrap my head around.
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Maybe they are not so comfortable with it, but they accept it because there is no choice (but not Postcross at all).
I don’t think they are only afraid of a postcrosser coming to their doorstep.
It just gives a little safer feeling knowing at least not someone in the same country gets your address.
Maybe making a bit more sure their stalker isn’t “joining” in hope of getting the address.
Good thing, in Finland (and in many more countries) is this “domestic privacy”. If you are asked to leave, you must. It’s not ok just go behind anyone’s door.
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Why … am i sending to mostly to Russia and Germany in the last 11 postcards I’ve sent and not other countries ?
Probably just luck. Out of my 11 travelling cards at the mometn 4 are going o USA right now as well so it works the other way too. These countries (USA, Russia and Germany) I think are the highest volume senders so there are much more people partocipating in Postcrossing than from other countries. I have sent most of my cards to Russia, USA, Netherlands and Finland, in that order. 
But you will et some other countries are well, at least I have. And when someting new does appear, it is even nicer!
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I found that when I hit 50 sent postcards, the variety of countries I was sending to significantly decreased. Before, I would rarely have two cards travelling to the same country. Now, 8 out of my 10 travelling postcards are going to Russia, the USA or Germany. I think it must be something to do with the algorithm.
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I think @geo_ is right, it is the algorithms, and that fact that Germany, Russia, and the USA are the top three participating counties by a difference of 3 million+ postcards sent. You can see the statistics on the Explore Postcrossing Countries page. Here are the top 4 countries. The first number is how many postcrossing members there are, and the second number is how many postcards they have sent.
Germany - 58,078 - 10,537,642
Russia - 115,317 - 7,749,994
United States of America - 70,889 - 7,410,970
Netherlands - 39,831 - 4,796,939
Germany is almost 3 million postcards in front of Russia, and the difference between the Netherlands and the USA is, again, about 3 million. The shear number of postcards sent by the members of these four countries dwarf all others. Even when you add the number of postcards sent by #5 Finland and #6 China, together, they still are less than the US, Russia, and Germany. For the algorithm to work, for every one postcard sent by someone in those 4 countries, someone has to send one back. It is no wonder that the vast majority of postcards
There is one thing you can do to decrease the number of postcards you have to Germany, USA, and Russia. In your preferences, disable or uncheck, “Check if you prefer to have several postcards traveling to the same country at the same time.” This will decrease the number sent to these four countries at the same time. That’s about all you can do.
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