I'm curious to know the general consensus on receiving postcard images from your own country, state or province! I know one of the main goals of Postcrossing is to learn more about other countries, so most people enjoy new and diverse images in their mail. For example, if someone from the USA sent someone in Berlin a postcard image FROM Berlin, do you think that's boring? Would it be less boring if it was an image from your home country but a different city?

I personally would find it fun if an international sender gave me a postcard from my own state. It feels like a little easter egg. I would like to know if anyone has had prior experiences with this, though.

Have you done this with a recipient before? If so, did you feel they were they disappointed or happy with the reference?

Although the holiday season is upon us, post-election season mail speeds do seem to be on the rise.

I went from having six expired cards to three and had two domestic cards delivered in under a week.

A bit of good news amid a lot of justified frustration!

I received my third hand-drawn/"artistic" card in the mail the other day. I just want to say I appreciate all the postcards I received, but for somebody to take the time and create art that then travels oceans to my doorstep, always amazes me. Especially with Postcrossing connecting strangers randomly.

Happy to have earned the first WPD (World Postcard Day) Badge on my Postcrossing profile! ❤️

A small badge, but a lovely reminder of the joy of postcards, connecting with people across borders, and keeping the beautiful tradition of handwritten messages alive.

Here's to more postcards, beautiful stamps, and wonderful connections around the world! 📮✉️

Happy Postcrossing! 💌

Kitties, dogs, and food - what more could you need! I can’t wait to send these out!

thanks to everyone who welcomed me to my first meetup!! loved every second of it. 😊💕

Title correction: not quite a traditional maxicard — my owl apparently flew off with the wrong label 😭🦉

My second official Postcrossing card, and it's a maxicard! 🦉💙
This little owl is heading to the US!
I saved this card for a special postmark event in Trezzano sul Naviglio, Italy. Finding the place turned into a whole side quest, but I finally got the postmark!
The postal staff even complimented my stamp collection when they saw how many stamps I'd brought lol.
Also yes, the stamp is Sergio Leone, so an owl is flying to the US with a cowboy on it.
At this point my maxicard collection seems to be multiplying on its own 😭

I put my first 5 outgoing cards in the mail yesterday! They all happen to be Netherlands-themed ☺️ Reading everyone’s profiles, picking out cards for them, and making something special of it was so fun. 💖

Postcard from Russia to Canada, sent in July.. arrived today with this stamped on the bottom. Looks like it had a fun journey haha.

Just send my first 2 cards. My colleague got me into postcrossing, she has been doing it for years. Can't wait til I receive my first card😄

I'm giving language lessons (mixed English & German, unfortunately just once a month, so she forgets a lot between lessons) to a Japanese lady and I showed her Postcrossing as a way to practice English and possibly German, since there are a lot of German members.

So far I've showed her how to navigate the site and explained how it works. We looked at a few postcard sets and current stamps online. We also practiced writing a short postcard message.

She's very interested, but the process of signing up and getting started seems to be a bit overwhelming for her.

This is why I'd love to ask for your kind help.

It would be so great (and I'd be super grateful) if 2 or 3 people could post a "mock postcard" in the comments so I can show them to my student.

I thought about 2 ways of doing this. (Any other way is fine, too. I don't want to be too much of a bother.)

1. (The easiest way) Just post a typical message that you would write on a card in English or very basic/easy German here in a reply. And maybe a picture of the card you might send her (only if it's not too much trouble).

2. (Much more effort, so only if you really don't mind) Write a typical postcard-length message on a piece of paper and post a picture of that. This way I could practice reading handwritten messages with her and she'll see what she can expect. (I already showed her a few of my received cards.)

(Please don't feel the need to use an actual postcard for it!)

Some info on the student:

Name: Yumi (she/her) (pen name for privacy reasons)

Age: Around 60

Interests/hobbies (that I know of): Metal music (she's a huge metal head, constantly going to concerts), playing the guitar, Buddhism (she's the wife of a Buddhist priest)

(The picture is a test postcard I sent to her. She liked the pretty pattern.)

Please help me recruit a new member from Japan! 🙏

Dear mods: If this kind of request isn't allowed or too weird, please let me know and I'll delete it. (Or you can delete it, whichever is easier for you.)

Got four cards stamped at a special mail art event today. Three feature characters from Wangchuan Fenghua Lu (忘川风华录): Gan Jiang & Mo Ye, Wang Xizhi, and Da Qiao & Xiao Qiao. The fourth is a Venezia Comics postcard.
I paired them with Italian renewable energy stamps, which is an unusual combination, but it worked out well.

India -> WW

To a user who said her two favorite things are dogs and the color pink!

My sister just got back from a trip to China and brought me postcards from Chengdu for Postcrossing! They are all in unique shapes. For those who send shaped postcards, do I need additional postage when sending these (from the US)? Thanks!

Just a little follow-up to my previous post!
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/postcrossing/comments/1xw7sfb/a_maxicard_owl_and_a_ladybug_heading_to_the_us/
I had another look at the FIP guidelines after reading the comments. Technically, my postcard doesn’t qualify as a traditional maxicard, since the postcard, stamp and postmark don’t share a clear theme.
One thing worth mentioning, though, is that a maxicard doesn’t need to have exactly the same image as the stamp. There’s room for creativity as long as the thematic connection is there.
I personally enjoy playing with colors and different visual elements, and I still really like this combination!
I can’t change the original title, so I just wanted to clarify the terminology here. 🦉💙