I started postcrossing last year in November in midst of the pandemic. I have send hundred postcards so far, but the majority of them was only to three or four countries. I know, there is a discussion amongst some postcrossers about the algorithm not chosing enough different destination countries and what the reasons for that might be. Yes, one might be, that there are some countries with really large member numbers. But this is not my point. When I looked at the postal monitor I saw that at the moment there are so many countries not offering a postal service to other countries due to covid. I wondered how this was before the pandemic and if the restrictions have a significant influence in the variety of postcard destinations. In other words: is there a chance that with the end of the pandemic and restricitions in postal services the variety increases again? Maybe some of the longer active members here can estimate this issue?
Thanks for help!
Even before the pandemic most cards went to Germany. Russia was always big as well. The US were a lot but at least this is my impression they have gotten much more active.
So I don’t think there was a big change about that.
I have been a member since 2008. Granted I took a few years off but if you look at my sent and received cards, I have great variety before and after the covid 19. I do miss getting cards from South Africa, Fiji and other lesser known areas. Finland was THE top country when I first started. I enjoy sending to every single Postcrosser out there!!
If you’re interested:
You can look to the stats of every Postcrosser to see to/from how many countries they cards sent/received and how many cards from/to each country.
I’m a postcrosser since more than 8 years and have sent and received more than 3400 cards.
Here are my stats - you see that I’ve sent to 69 countries and received from 70 countries https://www.postcrossing.com/user/Bille/stats
Before my 5-year hiatus, when I started out in 2010, Finland and Netherlands seemed to be the countries I drew quite often. When I returned in mid 2020, Germany and Russia became the most common countries for me.
For sure, before the pandemic, there was a wider variety of countries, and it was more ‘common’ to draw the address from a ‘rare’ country, without the postal restrictions.
I can see that postal services in certain countries are definitely picking up speed again, and postal borders do seem to be opening up. Hopefully we’ll all return to normalcy soon.