Expired Postcards

[fiwipa]

I have sent twice the same card to Taiwan from 2 different countries (in 2 different continents), neither has arrived… one sent January 2022 and the other August 2022. The double sending increased my frustration

[Florallle]

@Johnk60

be sure to check whether the other person is still active, or hasn’t registered any cards since you sent the first one. If the latter situation, I’d advise you to leave it alone and move on.

Exactly this. I don’t send replacement cards to anyone who is no longer active on the site. And I don’t send replacement cards till day 90 or even later for places like Russia and Belarus. Over my 3 1/2 years on Postcrossing, I have sent a second card about 12 times, always to still active users, and all of those cards have arrived.

[cliffside]

@krayonica …no I never did. Once I mailed the card, I did my part and I let things develop.

[mezzanine2]

When I’ve sent a second postcard to a particular recipient, I choose a postcard that is quite different from the first one.

If the second one arrives and is registered, the recipient learns right away that it is a second attempt. The recipient can see what the first postcard looks like as I don’t change the postcard image and the message on the second postcard explains what has happened.

I’d support that idea of waiting to send a second postcard until after 60 days have passed. In the meantime, participation in the tag and round robin groups helps for those who want to actively send and receive postcards.

While postcards getting lost is part of the whole experience of sending and receiving postcards, it does become exasperating when it happens on a too frequent basis.

[krayonica]

Thank you so much for all of your advice. I received my second card today from Germany! I just love this project so much, I am just looking forward to get to send more cards! Since I joined I sent the first 5 then I had two people log theirs and got to send a few more. I just need to be patient.

I’m spending my time looking through the forum and building the trust factor on the site. There are so many nice people participating in Postcrossing. I learned about it through a TikTok video, I instantly signed up and got my post cards ready. I just love how people decorate the cards and tell their own stories along with just making connections with people from all over the world.

Thanks again for commenting and I am still learning but definitely will begin to take photos of my cards before mailing when I get to send more.

Have a great day!

[LC-Canada]

You’re welcome Sandi! I should also add if you’re itching to send more postcards while you’re waiting for your official ones to arrive - there are lots of direct swaps, tags & lotteries on the Forum where you can be exchanging cards too.

There’s some links here that give more info - enjoy!

I’m new and lost

There is a Help section Erica, but do you have any specific questions I can help you with now? The Forum user guide is a good thing to walk through to get oriented: You can offer for direct swaps(one on one exchanges) or find offers of swaps from others here: You can join lotteries where people offer free cards here: And there are all kinds of tag games here - where you tag someone or someone tags you & you send them a card or they send you one in all kinds of subjects:

Decorating the back of your →NON-HANDMADE POSTCARDS←

Hi! I would like to start this discussion here, because I don’t think many people have actually talked about it… When it comes to crafting mailable art, everyone always thinks of handmade postcards… What if the postcard itself is not handmade? Its immaculate back still offers infinite opportunities to make it as personalised as possible. This is my Postcrossing “philosophy”: I always have to make the backs of my postcards super interesting, which is why it usually takes me 1–2 hours to write on…

Not everyone is into handmade cards, but many of us are!

Show us your handmade postcards and Mail Art

You like making your own postcards or sending Mail Art? Here you can show your projects to other postal creatives.

[vloki]

I’m beginning to see a pattern (see picture). Russia, I can somewhat understand. But why do so many of my cards to the USA expire? Who has the same experience, or could it be something I did wrong?

[Johnk60]

Are the Americans registering cards normally from others? Or, are some if them relatively inactive?

[vloki]

The 303 day-user has been inactive for 3 months, but I resent around the 120 day mark as I usually do if the user is still active. The others are active. I noticed before that I had to resend cards more often to the USA. That usually does the trick, but is still weird.

[pcronn]

I’ve got three expired or almost expired to the USA myself. I think USPS is having a rough time right now for some reason.

[Johnk60]

I have one USA expiring, where they went inactive at the same time I sent my card.

[hankadl]

I feel so anxious every time I send to the USA. It is like a lottery for me. The card either arrives pretty swiftly or it takes forever/never arrives. I have such a high loss rate both sending and receiving from the USA.

[Tara_Bell]

You have DeJoy to thank for that. The USPS is being destroyed from the inside. I hope when he’s finally fired, the next Postmaster General can reverse the damage.

[elikoa]

@mezzanine2

I’d support that idea of waiting to send a second postcard until after 60 days have passed.

60 days is very, very short. I don’t even think about it until 200+ days.

Then I think, and think, and never do it
I sent 500+ cards, only re-sent twice. Once because the person moved from Russia, where my cards never arrived (years ago), to France - a reliable postal country. The second time… I don’t even remember but I think there was a second.

I only have one expired right now (and 4 travelling) because all the others passed the 365 days, there must have been 10-12 in the last year or so.

I don’t know why people are SO worried about being blocked from sending, I think it happens in really extreme cases and it might depend on your overall activity. I often had more expired than travelling (like 8 expired and 4 within the 60 days) and nothing ever happened to me.

[Johnk60]

It may not have happened to you, but others have said it’s happened to them! I’m concerned that the algorhythm goes by percentage, so a couple of inactive recipients refusing to register received cards might trigger that.

[wmiz77]

I am new to PostCrossing. Frustrated already with the mail situation.

The card I sent a few states away took over 2 weeks to arrive. I expected overseas to take a min, but only 2 have arrived and it’s been nearly a month. I use another postcard exchange and between both platforms only 3 out of 10 cards have arrived.

Hoping my next ones, especially the US cards make it and in a few days like they should.

[jaenelle]

USPS is super slow ever since DeJoy took over. I sell things on ebay and seem to constantly have customers complaining that items are late because ebay hasn’t updated their estimated arrival dates based on the new slower USPS and people think they should arrive much sooner than is realistic.

[Johnk60]

“Overseas” is a big place! Here are my realistic expectations of travel times:

Domestic USA: usually 3 - 5 days, after one week the card is either freakishly delayed or lost.

Canada, Germany, UK: 7 - 10 days.

Rest of Europe, Japan and Taiwan: allow two weeks minimum, be patient for another two weeks.

Australia: look at the recipient’s average USA arrival times, as that country has been the most unpredictable for me.

Miscellaneous: Brazil isn’t too bad, at least two weeks, but less than a month. Same for India and Maylasia, allow a full month to Indonesia.

[vloki]

Thanks for your responses. Preliminary observation it seems to be a USPS problem?

[vloki]

@Johnk60 Really interesting stats, thanks.