In Settings > Profile > Postcrossing Options, the default for new members is to turn “receive from own country” off. But it seems like most people turn it on.
I was curious if there are other members like me who never turned it on.
Have you only ever sent and received outside your own country? What is your motivation? Do you think you’ll ever change your status?
I’ll go first: I have only ever sent and received outside the USA. My original reason is that I saw this as more of an international project and wanted to connect with folks in faraway places. I was driven to learn more about the wider world and less familiar customs and traditions. Now that I’ve been here since January 2014 and have sent (including expired) about 1800 cards, I’m reconsidering my motivation.
Who else only ever sends outside your country, and why?
(PS: I am particularly curious if you’ve sent/received 1000+! )
Not quite, but I only send international most of the year! From January until WPD (Oct 01) I deactivate the option to send international. I turn it on after Oct 1, but pause with sending officials until Dec 01. In December. On Dec 31 I turn that option off again, but most often don’t send (m)any cards in January.
I have multiple reasons for excluding my own country most of the year, one of them being that I’m quite active in the German community and receive lots of cards from Germany through other means than official Postcrossing, another being the same than your reason. Learning more about other cultures.
Why do I turn it on for every December you may ask? That’s because the Cards for Literacy campaign Postcrossing and Deutsche Post have every December. Usually cards within Germany travel insanely fast and I’m able to write far more cards then
I did it more or less the way you did. At first I wanted only postcards from abroad, as my Polish collection was already quite big. But after some 1000 cards or so, I switched “receive from own country” on - because I realized there were still lots of Polish postcards out there I would like to receive, and also because I thought it would be nice to receive mail from fellow Polish postcrossers… ButI still hardly ever receive any mail from Poland or draw any Polish addresses… Guess it makes sense that Polish addresses are first of all given out to postcrossers from the most active countries - who’d have be sending mainly among themselves if people from rarer countries got a lot of adresses from fellow countryfolks
I’ve never turned on that option because HK as a territory is quite small and it would be a security issue for me personally, even though I now have a PO box. Still too close for comfort. I presume that other HK people feel the same as me and I like to respect that space. I’ve been a postcrosser since 2007 and have over 1000 cards sent. I’m never going to change my mind about this either.
USA is 330 million people over several thousand square miles/km. Why would I exclude a huge number of people living in a very different environment than the view out my window? Moreover, I have found many of them have written interesting messages that I would’ve missed out on.
Also, the average travel time is less than a week, rather than 2 - 4 weeks outside North America.
i live in italy and before knowing postcrossing almost every postcard i received was from my country, postcards from abroad were rare, unless sent by friends of mine on holiday.
when i joined postcrossing i decided to keep that option on, because i know there are many beautiful places in my country that i will never be able to visit.
italy is the 22nd nation in postcrossing ranking and there are less than 4800 members, i’ve been here for 4 years and i received and sent 536 postcards; i sent the first (and only so far) official postcard to my country only after more than 200 postcards sent and i received the first (and only so far) official postcard from my country after more than 400 postcards received
I never turned it on. I feel like I can pretty much buy any card in my country so I wouldn’t want this “non personalized” experience of postcrossing from Poland. I do swaps, RRs etc. on my country’s postcrossing forum and there I can be… more demanding, or specific in my likes.
Adresses are not given to senders within the same city anyway, so this option should not make any difference in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Andorra or San Marino.
I only send outside from where I live since beginning of my Postcrossing, and don’t see a reason I would change this.
Because: I like to think it gives a little more safety, I like getting international mail and my family etc for example sends me card from Finland already. Edit. Also we don’t have much cheaper mail within Finland. (2,10€ within Finland, or 2,25€ anywhere (2,10€ economy)).
I’m in the US like you, and like you began Postcrossing that way, for pretty much the same reasons.
Then with one of the recent postage hikes I decided to see what happens if I turned on the local option. Over the next 4 months about 40% of my cards were to and from the US. That was fun for a while, but then I decided to go back to international only, for the original reasons of getting glimpses into other cultures and viewpoints.
When I want more US contact I can go to the North American Tags and Round Robins and get as much as I like. But I like my default of international cultures and connections for most of my Postcrossing experiences.
I’ve always had the option to send and receive within my own country selected, but this thread has inspired me to deselect it for a little while! I don’t think it’ll change my experience too much, as I don’t often pull Canadian addresses, but I’m curious to know if there will be any other changes
I never turned it on, because fellow Indonesian postcrossers aren’t that many and I’m in part of the local postcrossers groups that did exchanges as well
This was when the domestic postage fee was cheap and flat
After the price hike that’s tremendously absurd, I have no plan to exchange domestic postcards anymore
Sending postcard to other cities locally is just as expensive as sending card internationally, some even way more expensive (to other place in different island)
I had it turned off for a very long time. I’ve lived in many parts of Canada and didn’t see much point to receiving cards from those places.
Then I took part in a Canadian round robin, which changed my mind. I realized that it can be as much fun to hear from fellow countrypeople as anyone else, and that not all Canadians send view cards (and it doesn’t hurt that domestic post is 1/3 the cost of international!).
Nowadays I go back and forth, according to my mood.
I like to send and receive postcards within my own country, so I have always had this option active. Nowadays I don’t receive cards from other Finns as often as before and that’s a shame.
I have the option to send within my own country switched on. However I have only sent cards to fellow Canadians while on travel mode in other countries. But I have received a few from within Canada before.
Thank you all so much for your warm and generous replies, and for sharing your experience and considerations with me! You’ve definitely given me new ways of thinking about our hobby.
I’m never going to change my mind about this either.
and I’m in part of the local postcrossers groups that did exchanges as well
(and it doesn’t hurt that domestic post is 1/3 the cost of international!).
You’ve definitely given me new ways of thinking about our hobby.