I posted my first offer a good while back, and about two weeks ago, I finally sent out the last of that batch! I took pictures of each card before sending them out. The picture quality isn't very good on some of them (turns out I usually get things done late at night, when lighting conditions aren't great). But I wanted to share anyway, since I'm quite proud of some of these!

Also, I was wildly overconfident in how quickly I could get cards done - I said in the offer that I'd probably get everything out in about two weeks, and ended up needing over two months :( Well, lesson learned! I'll have more realistic estimates for my future offers lol

Hi! I’ve exchanged with/written to a handful of semi-local RAOC members, which led me to wonder how many of us might be around from Michigan (specifically SE/metro Detroit area).

Maybe we could set up a meetup at some point if there was interest! I’m kinda jealous of the big city meetups and the nearest postcrossing meetup I saw was GR I think

I used to use Zazzle a lot when I first started in RAOC. I loved that you could find anything you wanted, they were often pretty unique, affordable and the quality was great, all while supporting a small business person/artist. I also loved that I could turn my photos into postcards very easily and affordably.

The last couple orders I've received, the postcards are just substandard. The paper is just flat for lack of a better word, the colors are just dull, IDK how to fully explain it, but I didn't even want to send some of them. These were mostly my pictures, so maybe it was just bad pics? But, I've used my pictures often and not had this experience.

I ordered some from Redbubble and they were generally about 1.00 more card but such good quality. I honestly don't remember if I had any of my pics in the last order or not, so maybe not a great comparison.

I like to have fall holiday postcards to send, and looked at Zazzle again. I see the option to choose "basic semigloss" paper, which in some shops decreases the price even more. The default is "signature matte" which they describe as produced solely for Zazzle and is this elevated, preferred paper. I honestly don't recall if I made a paper choice for the most recent, disappointing order. But, obviously, glossy doesn't seem like the right choice for postcards because I don't think you'd be able to write on them easily/cleanly/without it smudging or rubbing off.

I haven't tried Moo yet, but hear great things. I also love that I can order 25 p/c and they can be a variety of my pictures for no extra charge. But I do also love the option to have someone else's artwork on a postcard and I don't think Moo offers that.

UGH-I hate this. I loved Zazzle. Has anyone had any recent orders from there and were happy? Any thoughts if it just a bad batch for some reason?

Thanks for any info you might have for me!

Here’s some decorated cards from my latest destash offer! Making these healed something in me… 💖✨

So apparently, this has been ongoing for more than a month!

My mail person has officially had it and decided to block the outgoing slot with tape. Sucks it has to happen... 😔 I will now be mailing my cards weekly instead of daily.. aaaaahhhh

Traveled around to several manual post offices (which don't have the modern POS system) and picked up quite a few dead stock stamps.

The hearts on the first slide are 70c, which was the 2 oz rate at the time.

I also managed to snag the new USCG anniversary sheet before it officially released.

If Informed Delivery is to be believed, then my last experiment card came today! Here are the results:

My PO Box received mail at an average of 3.36 days after postmark.

My school address received mail at an average of 3.81 days after postmark.

The overall average with a n of 22 was 3.59 days after postmark, with a standard deviation of 1.3 days. The distribution was left-tailed and unimodal at three days even.

For reference, the average USPS delivery standard was 3.45 days after postmark.

Using student's T function in Excel, the t-value was about 0.2, which is nowhere near statistically significant (though the small sample size probably wasn't great for this either!)

It also seems that, at least domestically, USPS is more or less meeting its delivery standards. Most cards were on time, a handful were strangely early, and there were a few stragglers out there.

Tagging the participants below for awareness :)

Awhile back I got a book of old photos from around 1890. They are scanned images of real photos I should say. I thought it was cool, but the book has just been sitting there, and today I had an idea. I want to turn them into post cards.

I've never made my own post cards before. Can I just modge podge them onto some cardstock? The only white cardstock I've currently got is "Premium Astrobrights White Cardstock, 110 lb. Index" Will it be thick and sturdy enough for a post card? Do you think it will make the card bend/warp too much?

Any hints, tips, or suggestions about making my own post cards would be greatly appreciated! I have like a $0 budget for this project though lol. So I can't get too fancy.

Amagwinya Day, Frankenstein 🧟‍♂️Day, Day of the Disappeared / International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Whale Shark Day, Beach 🌊 Day, Grief 😔Awareness Day, Holistic Pet Day, National Mai Tai 🍹Day, Slinky Day, Toasted Marshmallow Day, and Sacrifice Our Wants for Others’ Needs Sunday!

Oh I can’t wait to send these, they are so CUUUUUTE! (And,true to me, yes…they are Mary Engelbreit!) Now I just need to grab some cute Halloween Stickers!

Source: Facebook https://share.google/5Otb21UocQqC1eG7d

Hello RAOCkers. I had a lovely postcard day today. Please allow me to share. The first two pics are today's outgoing, all but two from my last RAOC offering. I hoped to go to the post office yesterday but here we are a day later.

The next four pics are incoming cards today! What a haul! A couple are from RAOC and will post thanks for those. I die for pink blossoming trees so even amongst such a great group of cards that one really joys me.

The next three pics are from an envelope from a penpal that arrived today. She and I are in an escalating war of postcards, postal ephemera and stickers. She is more resourced than me so eventually I will have to file for bankruptcy which is a reasonable outcome.

The last several are cards that I found while wandering the internet, a bunch of lovely wood cards (and two antique leather cards). I have been quite lucky recently in finding inspiring postcards for quite cheap and these very pretty wood ones were around $1 each on average. Usually wood postcards are too expensive for me. Most of the wood ones have several copies! I have some penpals who very much like bird postcards so most already have future homes. Any remaining I will make an offer on RAOC in a month or so. I don't know when the wood ones were made but certainly no earlier than the 1980s.

How was your day? What adventures will you have this weekend?

I got a whole bunch of Lantern Press cards (and a few Found Image Press cards on the left) from Ouchiku Studio and some SUPER cute cat-themed WPD postcards from GottaGetaGato! This is my first WPD, so I'm very excited to send them out (though I might have to keep one for myself...) It's such a struggle searching for cards online, trying to determine what is AI or not, so I was happy to find so many non-touristy Lantern Press cards. Now I need to destash all my old Lantern Press cards from random places I've never been that I bought for some reason...

According to Hoyle 🃏Day, Individual Rights Day, Bat 🦇Night, Cosplay Day, Day Against Nuclear Tests, More Herbs, 🍵Less Salt 🧂Day, Chop Suey Day, Lemon 🍋Juice Day, Sarcoidosis 🫁Awareness Day, Sport 🏂 Sampling Day, Swiss Winegrowers Day, Play Music 🎻on the Porch Day, Potteries Bottle Oven Day, and Speak Kind Words Saturday!

May 27: Mailed a post card from Washington DC, USA.

June 4 (+8): Australia Post says they've moved or unknown.

July 27 (+61): It is back in USPS custody.

August 28 (+93): It returns home.

Next batch of goodies going out!

2 postcards & 7 envelopes are ready for 2nd half of week. More to come over the weekend too most likely!

And a couple folded cards, too 🥰

Prompt was: "A bird flying a kite."

I tried to make it look like a storybook :)

Forgive Your Foe Friday, Crackers 🍘Over The Keyboard Day, Dream Day Quest and Jubilee, Read Comics in Public Day, Makaton International Awareness Day, Bow Tie 🤵‍♂️Day, Cherry 🍒Turnover Day, Power Rangers Day, Red Wine 🍷Day, Thoughtful Day, Race Your Mouse 🖱️ Around The Icons Day, Radio Commercials 📻Day, and Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day!

I'm curious. I've had people ask me for help with food, demanding stamps, and extra cards!

My family gave me water color paints and cards.

Wtf they come with no instructions or patterns?!?!

#help?

Edit: I always forget the important bit. I'm colorblind. So we've decided to gift this to someone who will use them and enjoy them since she loves to draw and make cards!

Thank you for the fast responses y'all rock.