Unfortunately I noticed that in my country(Greece) stationery stores don’t usually sell postcards. I just started with both this hobby and the website and the only ones I found are tourist postcards. I’m not a DIY person so I would prefer to buy than make my own.
What about you? Where do you usually buy your postcards from? Do you prefer to make your own? Do you like tourist postcards?
Welcome to the Forum Maria - we have an entire page with links to online stores where you can buy postcards from, including Greece - many of these stores listed sell & ship cards to other countries though, so you have many, many choices.
I order from some of these online stores all the time. I also take photos or find images I like & get cards made up by online printers like MOO or Zazzle or you can use a local printer.
Take some time to think about what kind of cards you’d like to send & then look for those. There’s a lot to learn when you’re just starting Postcrossing so, take your time - it will take months to learn it all. There’s no rush & people in the Forum are quite friendly & happy to help with questions. Enjoy!
I don’t do series cards like MOTW (Maps of the World), I just send view cards of Canada and I’m fine with that, but as I said above, you need to take time to decide what you want to send to people or offer for a swap.
Personally, I like tourist postcards, but after a year of Postcrossing it is getting harder to organize. Here are a few suggestions of mine when picking tourist postcards:
People tend to like A6 sized postcards, because it fits in a postcard album
As tourist postcards is a very wide range, there are specific type of tourist postcards people look out for, such as
UNESCO
Map cards
Flag cards
City view with name of city
Ethnic clothing
Famous Buildings
When buying cards, buy only a few of each design, then after a few swaps, when you can identify the “popular card”, then only purchase more of it (if you like swapping cards on forum or on social media sites)
I usually buy touristy postcards online here in Malaysia, as bookstores here don’t sell them, or even if they do, the selection is very limited. (Like they may have many designs of Petronas Twin Towers and only one postcard featuring orangutans, for instance)
Touristy sites here tend to not sell postcards too But I’m kinda lucky because Petronas Twin Towers and Islamic Art Museum, two attractions, have official high quality postcards at a price similar to other cards. People normally enjoy “official” postcards of a tourist destination more compared to “generic” postcards sold at bookstores as the presentation is more appealing.
One of the places that almost always have postcards, is museum shops. You can also get very specific postcards that people wish for (e.g. wild cats, marine life, planets) that only the science museums or nature history museums would have. Botanical postcards. Check your local museums and you may be pleasantly surprised you can find many postcards there.
Try local photographers that may be selling their own postcards, that will not be found in stationary stores, but maybe on their own website.
Sometimes in bookstores, sometimes in tourist places.
Sometimes in unexpected places - like, second hand store or sale of used items, where they had postcards they never used.
I can add another topic with a collection of online shops in the German part of the forum. If you use a browser which translates websites, you could read the hints too.
Hi! So when I started (around 10 years ago) I used to by all my cards near the office, in Downtown BA. There were a lot of shops on the streets where people buy mostly magazines, newspaper, etc. and these places had at least 3 different collections of postcards. In the present, I usually buy them in Gift Stores (those places where tourists buy t-shirts, gifts, etc, all about Argentina, touristic stuff).
I do not buy as many postcards as I used to. When I buy, it’s usually to stock my online store; I recently received two large (for me) orders from there. On Saturday, I plan on going to a postcard show here in New Jersey. Most of the dealers sell vintage postcards, so I raid the $0.25 boxes for the more modern cards. Infrequently, I buy collections from folks who have left the hobby. Years ago, I acquired (via auction) about 3000+ PostCrossing cards from a member who left.
Usually I order postcards in online stores, where they are very diverse. But I also like to go to souvenir shops, there is also something to see there.