Last week I had a card which had been ripped in half, stuck back together with big white tape, put in a plastic bag and then through the letterbox. The plastic bag also contained an apology from whichever mail company had damaged it. 
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It happened to me twice… (but there were parts missing).
One card lost one of it’s edges (not too bad: NO-197646) and one missed a third, but it was really bend etc.
And lately it happened with one of my outgoing envelopes. Luckily enough only the chocolate (and the envelope…) got damaged.
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Another received card has been through some machine with cogs? Most of the writing side on the reverse had been ripped off, but the address side was intact, so it arrived but I could hardly read the message. 
Not that many cards, but I once received a packet that had had hard time during the travel. I was suspecting that something was going on when the tracking suddenly halted in Denmark for couple of days (the packet was from friend so I was tracking it). It finally arrived with “sorry for the damage” sticker, and somebody had very carefully done their best with fixing the envelope with tape.
I recall only one damaged card but it was just little of torn in middle of the pic, like if somebody pushed it over rough surface. I thought first the card itself was just old and had natural colour mistake there, but the pic the sender had uploaded didn’t have the damage so it had happened during the travel.
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I ask for cards in an envelope because they so frequently get damaged – mostly by the machinery either grinding off a part of the picture on the front and leaving white smears, or instead leaving black “tread marks” on the picture. I’ve received really damaged cards (put in plastic bags so that they can be delivered) only rarely, but it does happen.
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I sent a postcard to Ireland (a trip that usually takes 6-14 days). The card arrived 82 days later, missing all three postage stamps (the sticker kind, not the water soluble lick-n-stick kind), and missing the picture side of the card. The recipient described it as a tan rectangle with only the address and writing still on it (hurray for black fine-point Sharpie!)
I would give anything to know what the heck happened to that card along the way… 
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Almost sounds like it bathed in alcohol or another dissolvent?? That would explain the missing picture and stamps.
I wondered if it was in a solvent as well, either on purpose (to steal the stamps?) or by accident. The postcard may have been among mail traveling by boat rather than airplane during the summer pandemic lockdowns.
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The only other badly damaged card which I can recall, had nearly all the text blurred with ? rain ? Fortunately the ID number was intact. I think the sender shouldn’t have used a fountain pen. 
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I think the worst one that I’ve gotten was when the postcard had been left outside in a rainstorm and the front had peeled off. I was lucky that the sender had already uploaded the picture onto the site.
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Well quite a few arrive with the picture slightly ground off always in one specific place, I’m guessing those are the ones that get stuck in machinery. I’ve had one with a corner torn off, and some with minor damage, but most recently I received a card from the US, torn into three pieces of which I only got two - the USPS had carefully put it in a clear bag with a standard explanation, and as the piece with my address was still intact, it made it. It was not even noticeably late at all.
Edit: I’ve just looked through some of my recent cards, and nearly all of them are in perfect condition. In a pile of about 100 (wild guess) I only found a few with grinding marks.
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I was thinking that maybe they were cleaning surfaces with alcohol and the card somehow fell onto the wet surface or so? Only thing I could think of
I have recd quite a few cards, which were torn, stamps missing, damaged in rain water, misplaced and delivered in some other city and that receiver redirected to me. More than 5 to 6 cards were recd after one year of post, hardly readable, unable to register.wonder what happens to such cards in transit so long. Is is postal lapse or some mischief.
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Not likely to be ‘mischief’, more like bad luck.
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I love the signs of travel on postcards (although not to the point of being completely torn!).
This is one of my favourites. Clearly got wet and stuck to another card - you can see part of the ID of a different card (not from the same sender) in the ink that transferred to my card.
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I understand it is not mischief but definitely some postal staff possibly was not careful in handling the mail and the particular card gets lost in some remote corner of postoffice. SO it is human error. Just imagine, one takes so much pain in selecting card,stamps, writing his feelings or some interesting facts to share with total strangers and it never reaches receiver or reaches in a very bad shape.
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Oh, looks like I never posted the card I got a few weeks ago, and her evidently traumatic journey…
It was raining a lot that day so my theory is that the card got wet and stuck to something and the picture was ripped when removing it. The back was 90% readable, including the id number!
The sender had uploaded the image, so at least I know what it was 
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It would have been funny to have uploaded your image of it, to see if anyone 
d it. 
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I think the orangutan just fled the card. Freeeeedoooooommm! 
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I think he must have drowned 
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