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.
10 Likes
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…
4 Likes
I love every card except nudity. I’d feel uncomfortable receiving such cards.
8 Likes
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.
16 Likes
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.
7 Likes
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…
1 Like
Removed. Posted to wrong thread.
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.
2 Likes
As I’m to clumsy to cut of the perf edge with a pair of scissors in a even line- so I never did. But now I use a cosmethic file to smoothen it. Works well
For the question. I basically love every card. I love some more than others, but what I hate to be honnest are duplicates, especially dissapointing on my main collections. I’m not a serious collector but still love to see different cards.
I’m also not very fond of war themed cards or clowns. And I totally hate if people just search any copyrighted image, print (bad) it on a piece of paper …
1 Like
Postcards that are not well designed are not my favorite, but I don’t actively dislike them. They’re just different. I actually care more about the message, so if the message is mean or condescending, I really find it hard to get motivation to write a thank you note.
1 Like
I have received some AMAZING hand-made cards! I am humbled that someone would take the time to create a card just for me - and am in awe of the talent of other Postcrossers. Below are two of my favorites (so far) The Felix Felicis card is cross-stitched! The bride is hand drawn - I joined Postcrossing a month after I got married and requested wedding themed cards. This one was so beautiful, it now lives in my wedding album!
43 Likes
Underpostaged means just that – the person did not put enough postage on the card.
The postals machines aren’t perfect, and especially with lots of stamps applied, they may get through. But even with only a few stamps, it happens. And because the postage checking is up to the home country, once it gets into the international mail stream it will be delivered.
Unfortunately (because as an ex-pat American, it makes me kind of cringe), most of my underpostaged cards come from the U.S so I will use that as an example. Say that someone uses a “Postcard Forever” stamp to send me a card (this is a stamp that is valid for domestic U.S. postcard and is worth 35 cents). For whatever reason, the U.S. postal machinery lets this card through, and I get it. Now I have to guess…is this a newbie who doesn’t understand that even though the stamp says it is for a “postcard” that doesn’t mean that they should send this to Germany, or is this someone who is gaming the system? And that is why this is the type of card I don’t like. No matter what the image, no matter how nice the message, I am left second-guessing the intentions of the senders. I hate these cards. Whether innocently or intentionally sent.
3 Likes
this. and racism, sexism, all the obvious i think. i don’t have a don’t-want-list on my profile though. i’ve never even seen such cards. oh and great white sharks. jaws traumatised me. but again, never seen shark cards.
i do say on my profile that i’m a vegetarian so hopefully people don’t send me food with meat. and i don’t like zoos and animals in a circus, that makes me sad.
but that’s about it. all the handmade cards i’ve received were made with care, all amazing. i guess i’m lucky but i never got a cut out food package or anything like it.
oh one time though i just got a, i don’t know the english word exactly but it was like a package of coffee with my address on it. no card. admins told me it was apparently quite expensive and as i state on my profile that i like coffee i should just appreciate it. but i don’t like most coffee to drink and i had already cut it open so eventually i just threw it all away.
7 Likes
I can’t say I like every card, but I don’t hate any of them. In any postcard there is something special, even when that special is to ignite in you an uncontrollable desire to share how horrible/boring/poorly-designed the card is. I remember the cards I complain about way better than I should, compared to really thoughtful ones I received.
Only thing that made me uncomfortable when I began this hobby is when someone sends a card he/she received through postcrossing from somebody else. Like long nice message with nice stamps just glued over with piece of paper with just ID on it, I felt offended for the initial sender, whose carefully written card was reused with far less ‘postcrossing spirit’.
Ah, and children’s drawings, just A4 papers in envelopes sent as cards. Usually school teachers wanting to do a project but misinterpreting the rules. I say thank you to all kids and suggest sending something for their educational process, but make admins aware, so they explain rules to the sender.
As for cards from not the country of origin: couple times I specifically swapped with my country’s postcrossers for cards they brought from vacations to compensate the cards I forgot to send to/bring for myself, when I was visiting the same place. And Eiffel Tower, Empire State, Notre Dame - I have more than 10K cards received, but still don’t have these (I had to send a Moscow’s Kremlin to myself to have one in my received cards, ridiculous)
5 Likes
It is fascinating to see the variety of preferences!
I agree with the sentiment that the beauty of this project is in the diversity of all of us and our different approaches, and so I don’t mind the sometimes lackluster or imperfect cards… I can’t think of any specific aversions or pet peeves, but certainly some just spark joy more than others.
Although, I must admit, sometimes I am truly delighted by the very bad postcards. Like one time I received a postcard that was so thin (even more flimsy than a regular sheet of paper), I was just really impressed that it even arrived at all.
And, in the past two years, I have received two separate pink slips with POSTAGE DUE for official 
ID cards, where the postcards were indeed held at the post office until I went up there and paid them $0.23 and $0.11 respectively. So, it definitely is still happening in some parts of the USA! I didn’t mind, I actually thought it was kinda cool just because it seems so rare.
8 Likes
I have on my profile that I like any card sent, including ugly and boring ones people want to get rid of. I can’t say I particularly “like” these cards but every card has some merit even if it is to talk about why it’s a bad card. Some cards I’ve seen you wonder why anyone even bothered to make a postcard out of it.
To be honest though there are things I’m not a fan of. I don’t particularly like monkeys. Some tourist cards are a bit boring, and I would really prefer not to get erotic cards. When it comes down to it though, I just love getting mail, love the stamps and like all the elements on the card together. I keep all my cards intact at this stage and each one is unique and special in some way, even if it’s for its boringness.
3 Likes
Underpaid is also the type of postcard I don’t like. Therefore I ask help from Postcrossing team. They see if the card was sent from someone who just started or someone who should know the right postage and if I need to register it. (For me it feels strange that someone would start sending cards, not knowing the right postage, and just put a stamp and hope it is enough.)
2 Likes
I mention on my profile that I’d be happy to receive a postcard from a place the postcrosser has traveled to - often people are much more excited to talk about places they’ve been than where they live. I’m happy when people are okay with that because I have a ton of postcards from various places where I’ve lived and traveled and mostly just have to use them for penpals.
9 Likes