Received a postcard that requested I send a postcard back

Postcrossing Help!
#1

I’m a new postcrosser, and I’ve just received a postcard that requested I send a viewcard of my country back to them because they sent me a postcard that fits my wishlist. Problem is I can’t send postcards to their country right now due to postal restrictions my country placed because of Covid19. I honestly don’t know what to do, would it be very rude to not send a postcard back?

I don’t even have a wishlist, I just wrote about what I liked in my profile. Like how I enjoy birdwatching so I included that I liked birds. Does that count as a wishlist and should I remove that? I don’t want people to think they have to send me cards about birds because I’m collecting them.

3 Likes
#2

You do not have to send cards in return. They will get a card, because you registered theirs and now their address will be sent to someone else. You should consider reporting them to admins, if you feel it’s a demand, as others they do this to may feel pressured.

11 Likes
#3

Your profile is good, you don’t need to remove anything, and you don’t have to send anything back to anyone, ever. Even if you had a wish list, and you get a card from there, it is the senders choice if they follow that.

I agree, if it sounds demanding or as they think it’s a normal thing to send a card back, you might want to report them.

5 Likes
#4

Postcrossing official is one way activity. You send card to random person, you get card from random person. No need to send anything to someone who sent you a card unless you want to keep communication with them.

Recently I received a card from a student account who wrote “Our teacher is using postcrossing to help us learn about English, other countries and cultures.” In the end of the message she wrote " Can’t wait to receive card from you."
I think she just doesn’t understand how postcrossing works and doesn’t mean to demand a return card.

5 Likes
#5

@S_Tuulia @yudi @borealis Thank you guys for helping, this eased my worries. I was anxious about writing the hurray message because I couldn’t reply to them. I don’t think they meant to come off as demanding. I might just be working myself up.

4 Likes
#6

Yes, I think they are just asking, and not because it fits your liking. It can appear so, because there are no clear chapters.

I wouldn’t mention anything about the return card in my Hurray and pretend the question wasn’t there. I think some people write this to every card. Or just write, sorry I can’t send cards to your country or something like that.

(But, as we’re not supposed to put the message side anywhere, I suggest you can take it away now.)

2 Likes
#7

Ohh sorry, I didn’t know I’ll remove it now.

1 Like
#8

I think I’ll just pretend the question wasn’t there. Thank you for your suggestion :smiley:

5 Likes
#9

That’s probably a newbie who doesn’t understand the randomness of postcrossing. I once received a message saying “I’m looking forward to your postcard” or something of that kind. They thought that the website gives two users addresses of each other.

2 Likes
#10

Welcome to Postcrossng.
I agree to what all the above comments say.
I just checked the profiles of your senders They are all ‘old’ postcrossers and know that you do’t have t send a card back. Maybe you misunderstood their question or it is because you’ve in your profile that you are in for a direct swap. You can change that for now and choose later if you want to turn it back on.
Just keep having lots of fun with postcrossing :smiley:

#11

When I receive messages like that from new members, I explain nicely that it is not how it works :slight_smile: It can be an honest mistake (though I think it would be good if people knew what they sign up for, but I know not everybody’s English is that good - in the case of kids, maybe the teacher understands but the kids got confused).

#12

I flagged the post and asked the admins to remove the picture from the editing history.

1 Like
#13

As everyone says above, you’re not obliged to send them anything back.

But seeing as you can’t send to that country anyway that’s a perfectly good excuse!

1 Like
#14

Ok well some people (like me) write “excited to receive your postcard” for people who are sending to you and read your profile. But it might be a good idea to say, “excited to receive or send you a postcard”

1 Like
#15

When I get people writing who seem very insistent on getting a postcard back and give their address to do so, I usually say the following in a P.S. to the Hooray message:

“I think you may be new at Postcrossing, welcome! Now that I am registering your card, instead of getting a card back from me you will receive a card from another random person. I think that is the great thing about Postcrossing, that you always get and send cards to completely different people.”

Honestly, a lot of times I am almost certain these are people who just are hoping to receive more cards and know exactly how Official Postcrossing works, but I figure I’ll give them the benefit of a doubt, and if they really are newbies maybe it will help them.

14 Likes
#16

But you wrote that on your profile. The person that is being discussed wrote that on the postcard that they sent.

1 Like
#17

Your profile is fine

Don’t worry about the request.
Since all your received cards are from long time user of Postcrossing they know the rules. So either someone was looking fir extra cards. Or the less cynical interpretation you misunderstood a swap request

1 Like
#18

Oh this might be why. I think I’ll go change it. Thank you for pointing that out. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#19

The person put an official track ID for OP to register the card as official though, so I guess this is unlikely that is a swap request

#20

A swap request apart from the official card. So the sender and the OP send each other cards after the original official card is registered. This happens sometimes.

2 Likes