I received a great postcard from Paulette in Gatineau, Ottawa (Canada) today. I have no idea how it ended up in my mailbox, because there is no address on the postcard!
The space on the back of the postcard where my address would be placed was blanked. There may have been an address label, but there is no residue from a label on the postcard. A label could have been torn off, but there is no damage to the textured paper.
How did this postcard travel 1,485 miles (2,390 km) in about 10 days to my mailbox with no address?
Mundoo is right. If the barcode was put on before the address came off, the post office can deliver mail.
I once got a card where all that was left of my address was
K
2
S
and somehow, the postcard made it to my home in the USA which includes 2 in the ZIP code and K in my name. I’ve done Postcrossing long enough that I’ve learned not to try to understand how mail works. It just sometimes does.
Apparently some pens are heat sensitive and disappear when exposed to heat. Somewhere the forum one mentioned a trick to put it in the freezer and it reappeared!
Also some glue sticks dry, and the item falls of, looking like there was nothing. I have had address labels almost fall like this, only sticking from one corner because stamp was little overlapping.
Also once I thought why is the card written strangely, and then saw stickers on the floor of my mail box. Somehow the stickers survived to Finland, but being in my box they fell of the card
Once I received a Yellow Postcard without any address, and it was Postmark of my city, I wonder how it reached me and I don’t remember If i dropped in mailbox without address with Postmark
You’ve got a few thousand sent and received cards, so it’s possible that the postcard made it to your local mail sorting office before the address came off, and the staff simply made a best guess that it was yours. I’ve received a few postcards from abroad with poorly-written addresses that weren’t for me, but I guess the staff in the sorting office know that I receive the vast majority of postcards from abroad so they played the odds and made a guess that they were probably meant for me. It does leave me with the fun job of deciphering the handwriting and delivering the cards to their intended recipients though!
UPDATE: Sender confirmed there was an address label and there was a bar code at the bottom of the postcard. So the label fell off at some point after reaching the USA and the bar code was used to delivered the postcard to my mailbox! Thanks to everyone who responded!
