I have a relatively small collection of cards from common sources (Amazon) – today I just realized that the cards that I am sending to users who have receive lots (a few thousand) are highly likely to be a duplicate.
[In one case, I found a duplicate card in their history when I went looking after I wrote & sent the card! ]
In your opinion, is it better to send a card that matches a wishlist but is/might be a duplicate, or to send something totally unrelated?
When they have a lot of received cards, I find it hard to check fully for duplicates.
I would not twist yourself into a pretzel over this. If you can match a preference in their profile, fine. But again, don’t stress about this. You can send people nice cards that you have as you build up your stock. I can also send you some FREE postcards to use as you please; if interested, just send me a private message with your contact information. Happy Postcrossing.
To answer your question, I’d rather get a card that matches my wishlist but is a duplicate, than something unrelated. And it’s not really the same card, since your message will be different from the one they’ve received before.
I agree with Cliffside, don’t worry about it. Of all the things to stress about in the world, this is not one of them.
I try to check the received cards and filter for my country if it’s a touristy card, but if it isn’t touristy and they have a bunch of cards already then I’d probably just send the card that matches… I haven’t been postcrossing for a long time but that’s how I’ve been doing it so far .
I have accidentally sent people duplicate cards and I’ve angsted about it for maybe five seconds before shrugging it off. While the number of postcards in existence in the world is enormous, it’s also finite and duplicates are bound to happen sooner or later. I would say, send what you are comfortable with–your only obligation is to send a postcard. Whether it’s a duplicate or not doesn’t matter.
Personally, it doesn’t matter to me if someone sends me a “duplicate”. I don’t view it as a duplicate because how people send that card and what message they write (or don’t) show as much, if not more, about their personality as the printed image on one side.
I wouldn’t be bothered by a duplicate! I’m in the same boat–I have a couple of boxed sets that are pretty popular. I usually check the first page or two of people’s Received wall to make sure they haven’t gotten that particular card very recently, but I try not to stress about it.
Most of the times I see the person’s received cards, I just narrow to my country. Of course there could be the case that they didn’t upload the picture, so it could happen that I send a duplicate, but I don’t think that’s normally the case.
In my case it’s easier because there isn’t so many received cards to check, but I do understand if the sender is from a country that sends a lot of cards and doesn’t have much time it could be distrassing.
Anyway, I don’t think they would be annoyed, it could even be a funny coincidence and they could enjoy that while the cards are the same, the message or the stamps are totally different.
I am with @Janewt on this. I usually check the first two pages of the Received wall of the Postcrosser, and also filter my country’s postcards on the Received wall. I will try to pick a card that the Postcrosser has not received, but sometimes the duplicate might have been sent by someone outside my country.
I think in general, as long as my card is not a generic World Postcard Day design, the chances of it being a duplicate one is rather low. I usually steer away from the usual touristy postcards too, so I guess that gives me a bit of leeway.
But I agree with the other Postcrossers here in that the postcard won’t be entirely the same because of the message behind as well.
I don’t worry about this too much, but one time–after the fact–I noticed that I had sent someone a card they already had. They were nice about it and didn’t mind, but I went ahead and sent them an extra card that was different, to make sure they weren’t disappointed.
I usually try not to send a duplicate but just recently it happened to me, that somebody sent the same card as me and it was already traveling but had not yet arrived when I picked my card. My card then arrived only a few days later. They are only two or three cards apart on the receiver’s wall. I was really sad because I took so much time to not send a duplicate. I even contacted the user after he received my card and apologized. But I really couldn’t have done anything to prevent it
That has happened to me too. I got tagged with Audrey Hepburn card from Lithuania and about the same time someone from Lithuania got my address on the official site and sent the same card. I received them on the same week and thought it was hilarious.
Of course the difference is that only one can be seen on my wall, but still. I hope the person who received your card thought it was funny too and didn’t get upset.
Tbh, I almost never look at the recipient’s wall to see if I’m sending a duplicate, only when it’s about a series they’re collecting, like Tausendschön or similar… I’m not willing to go through many pages of received cards. (I’m sure most of us have several pages of received cards from Germany!) On the other hand, I receive duplicates quite frequently and I don’t mind. Maybe I’m not taking enough effort here, but I always just go by the Postcrosser’s profile.
I do ask people to check my collection IF they have the time. I am not expecting this. Just the same as I spend more time going through someones collection if I have enough time on my hand.
Even if looking at a collection it can happen that you oversee a card. May it because of the lack of organization in this collection or because there are just too many cards it happens. It happened to me and probably will again when I am sending postcards as well does it happen to people sending cards to me.
I have a huge collection and am aware of that.
So when I receive a card that already is in my collection and the card is written on, has a nice stamp, maybe even nice decoration I am very happy about it.
I keep my cards in albums. Double cards are displayed side by side.
I think everyone is happy to receive a new card for a collection. However I also appreciate the effort someone puts into sending a card and that makes up for a duplicate.
I have received almost 3000 cards, and I absolutely love getting duplicates! My most so far is a card of an auto factory in England that I have received 3 of. If I received a fourth, I would be beyond thrilled. Like many others have said, each card is unique. (I get lots of cards written in black ink, too, but I don’t see people worrying about that part of it…)
I don’t check other people’s walls for duplicates unless I am considering sending a very expensive card for some reason, or if they only have received a few cards (like under 100 received from Germany) and I am trying to meet a specific request.
Few years ago I received 3 postcards from Russia sent around the same time from different platforms (official id, forum and surprise private swap outside postcrossing) displaying the same vintage world map. I thought it was so funny and kept all 3. I was also aiming for a fourth.
I never cared much for the front part, though. So I don’t see any issues with duplicates (photography, not messages as it happened before ). I usually take a good look at people’s wall but I try not to stress much about it - especially since I moved to Finland, since everyone seems to have lots of received cards from here - because, well, sometimes not all the pics are uploaded or it might be something similar on their way already. It will be what it has to be.
I don’t think it something to worry, as people here said, and I really hope the stress of it doesn’t take the joy out of sending a card to someone.
I would prefer to send one that is totally unrelated but they don’t already own. This is what I would prefer if someone was facing the same issue when sending a postcard to me. But I live in a country with few users so I need to check at most 20 postcards from my country, and this is if the receiver is super active and has like 10000+ received cards.
Someone recently looked into my favorites and intentionally sent me a duplicate. Ha! Had they not pointed it out, it would’ve been awhile until I realized it. I wouldn’t know if I sent duplicate because I’m not looking if I did or didn’t. Seems like an odd thing to notice either way.
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). I usually take a good look at people’s wall but I try not to stress much about it - especially since I moved to Finland, since everyone seems to have lots of received cards from here 