I was wondering if other postcrossers have sent postcards that are not relevant to their country.
And this would fall into 2 categories:
1- Postcards about places from country B sent from country A.
2- Postcards about topics or designs clearly having nothing to do with the country the postcard is mailed from.
For example:
Sending a card about La Sagrada Familia (Barcelona, Spain) from the USA.
Sending a StarWars card from Lebanon…
etc
What are your thoughts?
Yes and yes. 1) is not liked by some Postcrossers, so I only send them to people specifically asking for this particular country or if they didn’t state that they dislike it in their profile.
2.) is pretty much irrelevant to me. For example, I often send cards of exotic animals that obviously aren’t native here. I think that Germany is so common that people will eventually get so many cards of German stuff that they’ll get tired of it.
If I was from Lebanon, I’d probably see it differently, though! (because it’s so rare)
I think It’s totally okay.
I prefer getting something related about the country I get card from but it’s not a problem if the sender doesn’t have. It sounds acceptable thing to me.
For me I try to send something about my country, but if the people wants different things from me I try to send my best for them 
For ex. Yeah, my country isn’t popular with Monet but if the person who I get her/him address likes Monet, I’d like to share my card with them! I guess there isn’t any weird thing. The important point is sending something that will be make happy the receiver I guess! 
(Forgive me if I did some grammar mistake, I tried my best.)
I send cards with topics not related to Germany (a ship with another country of origin or a lighthouse located in another country, Star Wars, wild animals, whatever) when the receiver has listed the general subject (ship, lighthouse, Star Wars, wild animals …) in their profile.
I would send a night view card I bought in Paris on my last business trip only under tags like „Not from my country“ or „Night view“ or „Last trip / vacation“.
I would not send it as an official card unless a person specifies in their profile that they would love a card from Paris and don‘t mind if it is not sent from the country of origin.
i don’t send viewcards or touristic cards from other countries because i know most people do not like that. i’ve bought some cards at belgium because i go there a lot but i’m kinda afraid to send them out.
i do send animals that are not native to my country, but only if profiles ask for them and not for ‘native animals.’ and then i send all kinds of illustrations and everything, like blue cats or harry potter. though i do have a lot of dutch illustrations as well, i love to share those with the rest of the world.
I personally don’t like getting a view card from Spain sent from Italy. I don’t send them out either unless the card matches their wishes or the user mentions they don’t mind.
For tourist/view cards I generally only send Canadian locales. I can see why people prefer to receive them from the native country, though I’ve made one or two exceptions to match desired topics.
For illustration or specialty topics, I think it’s fine to send whatever. I collect a number of themes and I don’t really mind where they come from.
Foreign views are fine for me, maybe the sender has been there or likes the place. That is more interesting than a picture of their local town hall any day. If it’s not a view, I don’t think it makes any difference where it comes from. I’ll take Moomins from Norway and Marimekko from Poland and like them just the same.
In terms of sending, I send both. If someone only likes view cards, I generally send them a random view from somewhere I’ve never been to. I haven’t got any other view cards so that is the best I can do. If they hate it, that’s up to them. I can’t magic up local views and I’m certainly not going to risk my life to find some.
I only send postcards that are not from my country if the person I’m sending it to is collecting specific themes or has a specific request that doesn’t pertain to my country. For example, if someone is collecting postcards of the Eiffel Tower or lemurs–both which don’t exist in my country (although one could argue that a replica of the former is in Las Vegas and there are several of the latter in zoos), then I would send those.
Personally, I don’t have a preference to what postcards people send me. If people send me something from a different country, I would like some sort of explanation if possible–like if it was from a vacation or if there is something interesting about it that is important to them. I do find it a little weird, though, if people send me postcards of MY location. I don’t need any more San Francisco postcards. I’ve got plenty of them already.
I understand why people might not like to receive a postcard from Spain, for example, from someone who lives in the U.S. or Germany or Italy. But if you’re like me, when you travel, you buy more postcards of a place than you might send and it might be a place you love! Personally, I would love to receive a postcard from a place you’ve visited that has an interesting story or is a beautiful site or has some meaning for you, even if you live elsewhere. Letting the recipient know why you sent that card would be important for me, so I understand the thought behind it. Even if you visited my city and found a special place here, I would not mind receiving that card and hearing your story! Be well everyone. Thank you!
I think @mazenfakih that because you are sending from a “rare” country most people would love to get a tourist card from your country and would be disappointed to get a tourist card from your vacation to Berlin!
In your position, if I could get tourist cards I would send them except to people to specifically say they don’t like them.
Otherwise, things like “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” animal cards, etc. are universal. I have no problem sending people who like giraffes a card with giraffes even though they aren’t native to Germany.
Only when people wish for it. (some collect cards about a specific country, no matter where it comes from)
Absolutely! I consider most illustrations (except for illustrated city views etc) as general topics… same for movies etc.
I try to avoid the different country thing and try to find interests first before grabbing a card from previous visits (and no-go when the dislike is mentioned). I did get some profiles lately from people who love travel and I can imagine that they also have many postcards that they got from their visits, so I like to send those cards and write about travelling.
I went through a Paris obsession phase and got way too many postcards from there 
but as I still visit occasionally, I hope to take these cards back one day and write them in travel mode.
I have no problem with getting a card not from the senders country. That’s the fun of Postcrossing, seeing what other people choose. And there are so many cards, why limit what I might receive?
A question regarding postcards sent from the US (and perhaps it would be relevant for Russia or other big country).
I have a collection of National Park postcards that I send out to people that might like them, but many of them are parks that I’ve never been to, nor have I ever been to that part of the country; however, it’s still the same country. Distance-wise, where I live on the east coast to California on the east coast, it’s the same distance as the crow flies (straight line) as it is from Madrid to Moscow.
So, is there a difference of me sending a California postcard (since it’s still my same country), versus a Spaniard sending a card featuring Saint Basil’s Basilica in Moscow?
I ask this, because sometimes I do feel some ‘guilt’ (guilt isn’t the right word, but maybe unease) in sending some of these national park postcards that feature places that are so far away from where I’ve been.
My understanding is that it’s fine as long as it’s within the same country. While it’s true that New York and California are extremely far apart, the two places are more culturally similar than, say, Madrid and Moscow even though the physical distance is the same. If we were to start requiring that “local” postcards can only be defined by distance rather than geopolitical boundaries, that’s going to be really strange. Someone living in northern Chile can’t send postcards about southern Chile while someone from Luxembourg could totally send postcards from every other European country with impunity.
I have tons of postcards from places I’ve been to. Like @madamemeanders I pick up postcards everywhere I go and so I have lots from places I am not currently in. When I lived in the US I felt more free to send those cards, but now I think I will be sending them only rarely. Too often I’m sending someone their first card from Turkey and I imagine people will be disappointed if it’s actually a card having to do with Croatia or Hungary or something.
I was disappointed when I joined, to find out that postcards from a different country are so disliked. Like others, I do buy lots of postcards from holidays. If someone collects a theme, I’ll send it even if not related to the country I’m in, usually they are happy with it.
I rarely send “generic” cards, I really don’t like them. I’d much rather receive Paris from Moscow than a cat or a card from a box set (though I understand some people can only buy online).
Admittedly, from a rare country, I’d also rather have a local theme than anything else… But again, I’d rather have a different place, that the sender has some relation with, than something generic.
I only received two from Luxembourg and they were both generic cards 
Oh, and I define local as same country, no matter how big it is, than local city/region. Trips within the same country are a huge source of postcard purchases for me, then I can talk about my trip!
(Well I now live in a country that is only one city, but before… I still have a gazillion postcards from a trip to Sicily, but never been in Italy long enough to send them…)
Same for me. But I noticed that some postcrossers even prefer e.g. state cards from the US (the series ones like state maps) from the corresponding state. Personally I totally don’t mind. It’s a US topic with a US stamp = great!
Dear Axoloti!
If you by chance get my proffile, send me , please, any view card of Germany! I have none.