I am designing meetup postcards, and my mom was worried that people wouldn’t like a square design. Are there generally opinions about square cards? I’m thinking a 5 inch square—which would not fit into a regular photo album I suppose, but should still mail just fine as a postcard.
I plan on having 2 cards available for the meetup so I just thought one square might be fun. Maybe this is even a question I should be asking the group that is coming, but I wanted to first see a general idea from more seasoned, discerning (and worldwide) members.
Yeah I agree. Square cards are fun in their novelty, but at least in the US you need to use non-machinable postage, when ends up being more expensive than regular Forever postage. It’s a trade off.
Oh I never realized that they would cost more (obviously haven’t tried to send any square ones lol). I’ll probably just stick to a 4x6! Especially for printing in bulk of 100 or more.
Besides the additional cost to mail square card as others already pointed out, I find that after sticking stamps and writing an address there is a weird narrow space left for the message so I’m not really a fan of square cards
To send square cards (at least to the size of 15 cm x 15 cm) does not cost more here in Austria.
But, personally, I am not particularly happy, if I receive cards with a shape other than the standard size (10 cm x 15 cm), as they are not likely to fit into my boxes (unless the cards are, of course, smaller).
So they won’t easily fit into other people’s box or album either.
That said, some people love shapes that are a bit less ordinary.
I welcome square cards as well, depending on the motive.
But I would not send them as they cost way more postage in Germany. (Unless it is for a special friend of course)
Besides the higher costs to mail them (at least from Germany) they also arrive here most likely with bend edges from the transport due to the non-standard format.
So from me to a no for square cards even though there are some very nice motives on them sometimes
These are all very great insights, thank you! I know I’m quirky and like to be different, but I acknowledge that not everyone appreciates that, so this definitely helped my decision to refrain from the square card for this. Now, for my own personal self I may make a square card in the future and just keep in mind these considerations
I’m personally obsessed with any kind of weird-shaped cards so I’d be really happy to receive one I’ve never heard that square shaped postcards would cost more, we don’t have it here in Russia thankfully. It sounds wild for me, if I’m being honest
I have no problem receiving square postcards with correct postage, I just won’t send any. The postage for international cards is 3.9 times higher than for cards with a regular aspect ratio, for national cards it is 2.3 times higher.
I love non-standard shaped cards but my only issue is that they cost more to mail within the US and internationally. It can be hard to fit in an envelope too.
I’ll buy square cards to mail to myself or as a special present or for a special occasion, but not as a meetup card. The postage is too expensive, and I need to do too much work to make sure the card arrives undamaged.
Square cards can be fun but they require the non-machineable surcharge, so a domestic postcard would be $1.19 and international would be $2.11.
However, if you put the square postcards inside a larger rectangular envelope, it will still qualify for the standard postage rates of 73¢ (forever stamp) for domestic or $1.65 international as long as the larger envelope is no more than 6-1/8 inches high x 11-1/2 inches long x 1/4 inch thick. Anything larger than that will require large envelope postage, which is $1.50 for domestic and $3.15 for international.
So it’s not necessarily ideal to have a square card BUT it totally makes sense to do so in some cases. For example, ages ago I hosted a meetup for the Hot Wheels Stamp Dedication and had round meetup cards printed to look like tires.
We had standard-sized postcards too, but these were available for people willing to pay the extra postage to mail them.
So I say don’t rule it out, square postcards for a meetup can be fine, but I will recommend sending them in a correctly sized envelope to prevent the non-machineable surcharge.
I like sending the cool Poland shaped postcards from Postallove, Postallove provides a square envelope for the cards so I always swap it out with a rectangular one so that the non-machineable surcharge is not required.
A7, A8, A10 sized envelopes will each hold a 5" square card and be eligible for standard postage rates, and are widely available
Having just started cataloging all of my cards in binders, I’m now very sensitive to non-standard sized cards. I wouldn’t limit myself to only standard cards as there are some pretty cool non-standard cards, but if I was choosing, I would design the typical 4x6.
Aesthetically, I don’t oppose square cards. However:
Where I live, the post office treats square cards and other “specially shaped” postcards as a different category of mail item from rectangular postcards, and it genuinely costs close to 4x as much, even if it’s the same weight.
I use a postcard album for the cards I receive, and anything that isn’t a standard size won’t fit inside the pockets.
Square cards and odd shaped cards are fun. If you feel like doing some, you should go for it.
In France, La Poste does not charges extra for a square shaped postcard, as I remember.
Fun fact about Non-Machinable surcharge fee in the USPS: there is still a high chance that the USPS process such items through a post sorting machine and getting mechanical postmarks and bar tags, no matter if besides the Non-Machinable stamp there is also a handstamp by the post office of origin stating that the item is non-machinable
I would love to send / receive square cards. Shaped cards are generally some of my favorites and I have never had postage due on them here in the United States
I’ve never heard that square shaped postcards would cost more, we don’t have it here in Russia thankfully. It sounds wild for me, if I’m being honest 