I’m honestly not a big fan of multi-view cards or touristic cards, because they often look a bit like someone with no experience in graphic design made them. Sometime I think they used a couple of city pictures, scaled them down to a card size, put a colorful background to it and wrote the city name underneath it
I can make such a card in 10 min.
BUT, of couse not all of them are “bad”. I’ve seen really good and beautiful multiview cards too. So I neither ask for them nor say I don’t want them. If I receive a multi-view card I’m fine with it, like every other card.
I have seen profiles who ask for multi-view cards of small towns because they received like a bunch of NYC or Berlin cards.
I have some cards from south tirol laying around, but I would never send them because these are not cards from where I live. I would not like to receive a card displaying Paris from a person living in Moscow.
There is a whole thread about the “No homemade cards” as far as I know.
It seems like a lot of people had some bad experiences with “crappy” made cards, cut out cards from cereal boxes or similar. Some people like such cards, others don’t.
There are so many talented people out there, I would risk receiving one “bad” card, instead of no handmade at all.
But I would simply respect the no-homemade-wish and use my time for someone who would appreciate such a card.
For me personally, I don’t like snails or slugs or worms, even caterpillars are somewhat a no-no, but that’s just because I’m afraid of those animals.
I always add many stickers to my cards, but I don’t expect senders to do so as well. I do it for myself as well, as it’s a lot of fun choosing the right stickers. So don’t feel bad for not doing so.
I would like almost any card. My favorites are homemade cards actually! Recently someone sent me a cute photo of their friends cat! It was adorable. Although I do prefer longer messages. I understand if are not good with English or don’t like writing it’s still fine honestly. Uploading: 16110726232398072542679318796244.jpg…
I don’t like a card showing food (meals), because I feel sick looking at the food, that for me looks cold and weird. Even if I know I don’t have to eat it. (And I was really, really surprised food related cards are so popular!)
Also animals in cages makes me really uncomfortable, even a zoo postcard when the animal is in “freedom”. I don’t know why.
Not a fan of cards with perforated edges. That fourth side looks messy/cheap/unfinished/choose your adjective, so that’s why Harenberg calender postcards - yes or no? is a no for me
I prefer single-views just because then I can see the place / attraction properly. To my eyes multi-view cards might be a bit too crowded and some have like 15 different pictures on it and then it’s just messy and I can’t focus on the views as much as I would like to. This is why I prefer single-views but I have received some very nice multi-views too.
I’m also one who doesn’t like cards showing food. For me food is just a thing I need to stay alive, haha. Same is with restaurants, I really don’t care where and what to eat, I just eat because I’m hungry.
There are few multi view cards that are nicely designed. But most of them are done very badly. Also, the images are so small that, if you don’t know the places, you won’t enjoy the views.
As for handmade cards, there shouldn’t be any problem with that.
One thing that came up in this thread is sending postcards from places other than where you live. Some people apparently feel strongly to not get a postcard with a scene from Germany if the card is coming from the USA, for example. I understand the sentiment, which is why-- as I learn about Postcrossing --I am now sure to have local postcards at the ready. But for me, image does not have to match source. For me, it’s mostly about the image, so if you are from Japan, and have a striking image or card that you want to share from, say, Argentina, please do!
I received that card recently and quite shocked, i don’t mind handmade card, at all, in fact i love them becouse people put a lot of effort on them, usually, but a carton with a huge ID number on the front and a happy postcrossing on the back… it’s just making me sad.
I get lots of cards I don’t like a lot, but very few that I actively dislike.
The only cards I don’t like as a class are underpostaged ones. I hate receiving underpostaged cards. I have to guess - is this person just ignorant, or are they a scammer, should I just go ahead and register the card anyway or should I report them. Even if I do register, the fact that the card is underpostaged leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and then I have to write a message that is polite even though I am having negative feelings about this underpostaged card. So much negative energy goes into registering these cards…
I once received an envelope without any stamps at all, but with traces of glue and scratches. So that was definitely sent with stamps, but something happened during the postal journey. And I saw several messages about stamps stolen by postal workers recently. The postcrossers in our Russian VK group discussed it a lot, they even located the sorting centre where the commemorative stamps disappear and get replaced by definitives with less value. So, what I want to say is: it’s not always an unfair postcrosser.
Back to the topic. I’m not a fan of religious and political things, but I don’t want to limit anyone by writing anti-wish list in my profile. Anyway, churches and temples can be really beautiful and the cards about women’s rights are cool.
As for multi-views, I don’t mind them, but I prefer those with 4 pictures, I agree with @nnniiina that many pictures will be too small.
I haven’t received many handmade cards. Only the one from my groupmate was a “masterpiece”. The strangest was just a piece of cardboard without any pictures, only parts of letters and numbers, but there was an interesting message on the other side The one I like the most was from a child, it’s simple, but lovely.
The thing I like the most about postcrossing is the opportunity to communicate with people from different countries and backgrounds, so the most important thing for me is the message.
I don’t like cards larger than a standard card because I have nowhere to store them. They get left in a box that I never look at or I might cut the stamps off and donate. Obviously underpaid postage and fake postage are not good either and I do not consent to anyone giving my address to Touchnote or similar services.
I also don’t like bible verses. They offend me personally. Similarly I would not like war, violence or gun themes, hate speech, gambling or cruelty to animals. As an exception, if these cards are particularly ugly and mock the theme rather than glorifying it, I am quite happy to get them.
Underpostaged? Can you explain further. Seems obvious, but maybe not. In the US, many, many years ago, well before I was even born, it’s my understanding that a letter or postcard could come ‘Postage Due’ and in order to get it you’d have to pay the carrier the amount to bring the card to the appropriate postage level. At least that’s how I think it worked. But that system is long gone, and for postcards, that don’t typically carry a return address, I assumed hey just get trashed. A letter, which would typically carry a return address, would be returned to the sender for ‘Insufficient Postage’.
From your post, I gather that the German postal system has some system in place to get you an underpostaged card. How often does that happen? Also, it brings to mind more questions that relate to a thread I started just moments ago here…
Plenty of countries don’t check or even cancel stamps anymore. I’ve received cards with little printed pictures, STS (Student to Student) and a domestic quantity of stamps on instead of real postage on several occasions. The local postal system would lose money instead of gaining it if they started collecting each penny.
I enjoy 99.99% of all cards I receive. The one thing I dislike is to receive a tourist postcard but from another country, like the Eifeltower from China, or a spanish beach from Germany. But in that case I also say very friendly thank you. I would prefer an ad card from the country of origin or a food package over a tourist postcard from another country. Handmade cards or even double cards are fine by me unless it’s a thin piece of paper glued on a piece of cardboard. But then again I say very friendly thank you.
So don’t feel bad for not doing so.
(I’ve received ~10 Harenberg cards, and they all have the perf)