It’s definitely not that simplistic. At a minimum it depends on how many cards you are sending, where the expired cards were going, and what else is happening in your country’s post, and in the recipients country.
If a lot of your cards are expiring, it’s worth trying to work out whether there could be an issue in your post (a box that is not being collected etc) and checking that all the recipients are active (maybe try sending a repeat card if it’s an active person in a country that normally has good mail links). But don’t assume that you will be blocked from sending.
I’ve had more than 10 cards expired recently (mixed countries but China and Russia covered 6 or 7 of these) and I’m still sending cards normally. Some have since dropped off at more than 1 year, and some have reached their destination.
I think the idea is that some people might get addresses but never send, so they will all be expired, so they are blocked from getting many addresses.
But like others have said, it depends on your activity. If 0 of your sent cards where registered and 10 expire (so you send 10 and they all expire), it’s likely that there is a problem. But if you are active then it won’t matter (with different combinations, depending on the situation). I have never been blocked, and I often had 10-12 expired (and I only send 8-10 cards per month so it’s not like people sending 100 per month)
I’m not sure about this, but I think how it works is that at 365 days they will drop off the system entirely, meaning they will no longer count against you as “expired” and you will be able to start over with a clean slate.
They just disappear. One day they are there, the next day they are not. I lost count of how many times it happened to me because I don’t keep track.
A few months ago I had a lot of expired, maybe 8 or 10. Now I have only one, because the others all disappeared (one or two were registered very late, but the others didn’t).
i’ve resisted writing here as i have been unfortunate to draw addresses of inconsistent postcrossers for years and i’ve always had lots of expired cards - it’s at a point where i can predict which is likely to expire
and yet i keep on sending (i can have 100 travelling at one time)
i’ve been here a long time and for the first time ever i have been blocked from sending cards - because 7 of 10 cards to china have expired - it looks like it won’t matter that any of the other 100+ cards travelling get registered until these 7, and the next 3 to china, get registered - i’ll be blocked til who knows when
i have more expired to usa and germany, but 7 of 10 to china threw up the block
i sometimes write to those long travellers and rarely get a response - i will not send a duplicate unless i get a response to that message
Is it worth talking to the mods, maybe? I know that you can sometimes get postcards removed/get the slots back if the person seems genuinely inactive, or that’s what I’ve heard.
That’s so unfortunate, and from a naive perspective it feels like automated rules potentially might be working in unintended ways. Of course, that’s little comfort when you’re blocked over 7 postcards whilst your other 100+ are travelling elsewhere with most likely to be registered.
I’m so new and have only had 28 postcards turn up - there are another 3 expired postcards at present so the ratio isn’t great, and I was worried I might get blocked. Fingers crossed.
I understand you are frustrated, but you are writing about this now in three topics. (It can become confusing if members try to help.)
How many expired do you have in total?
And does the block explanation say it’s because of these to China?
This yellow box like in this post:
I would contact the Postcrossing team like suggested, this doesn’t seem to make any sense that to some country you can’t have some amount expired, but to other you can have even more.
Hello!
Last week I was reading this topic, I got panicked because at that time I had 12 postcards expired. 6 of them have less than 100 days traveling and other 6 les than 100 days. Suddenly two of my postcard were registered, one to Germany with 94 days traveling and another to USA with 36 days.
If you ask me all of them are traveling to USA and Germany, both countries are the fastest where my postcards used to arrived.
As I read the system could block me, I ask for one address and it was gaven to me yesterday. So I can realized I’m not blocked.
I started to realized there were troubles on April because there were some postcards of RR that haven’t arrived at that time. I got into Mexican forum to see if someone knew what was happening and there was people complaining about the national mail. There’re troubles since December. It seems postcards is not mail (for them), mail is inside an envelope! That’s why post mail doesn’t have as priority to send postcards. I figured out with my own post office too. When I asked them why my postcards haven’t arrived since I know the average time to, they said that it will take a lot of time to arrive because it wasn’t the priority . And it was better for me to send it inside an envelope . National mail is commonly used to send packages inside the country, it’s the cheapest way. When they see me coming they know I’m carrying postcards (the only around).
My last postcards for a RR, I paid 2.87 dollars for a tracking number on each of them. It’s 4 times the price regular price.
Mexican gallery is full of postcards with more of 100 days of traveling and those with less days are sent from the capitals cities or from USA (as far I know some Postcrossers). I’m not from a capital(main) city. So, I’m on big troubles to decide if this hobby is my happy hobby or not anymore. It develops patience but this is too much.
Still 5 more postcards will got expired into 10 days . And I’m thinking about sending my Mexican postcards from another country or to use the travel mode and send them from abroad. Still, it’s going to be fast to sent and received but it will take longer for me to write postcards again (about 4 months each time I travel aboard) or maybe quitting Postcrossing and only arrange swaps from my Instagram, but again sent from another country. Help!
I guess🤷♀️. If I were to get blocked it would save me money.
Can’t we request to exclude certain countries? Maybe the person that has so many China expired cards should block China on their profile (or however it’s done).
I’ve been lucky and my China cards make it, now I get worried with addresses I get from Netherlands as the only two I’ve gotten never got registered.
I’m frustrated with a same country person as she won’t respond to my message and I’ve sent two cards to her. She has been on the site well after the second card was sent and the first card is now past 60 days.
I’ll enjoy what I can til I can’t.
Thanks for the tip on sending cards in envelopes for RR country.
Sounds like you’ve hit some bad luck as I find Netherlands one of the most reliable destinations. How long ago did you send the second, replacement USA card?
Currently, I can mail 28 postcards and I have 7 expired postcards, soon 8. Now I’m worried that I will be blocked from participating. I usually mail a second postcard after the first expires. I don’t private message the postcrossers unless they mention on their “about “ me page that it is okay to do so. In my experience, the second postcard is not usually registered.
I’m losing hope in one of my cards to Germany: 86 days! Followed by one at 76 days. This is so surprising to me; cards I send to Germany are usually fast and reliable.
Are you replying to my comment? The recipient has been registering cards. Tends to do large batches infrequently, although it’s been long enough now that I assume it’s lost. I messaged them to follow up but they didn’t respond.
. And it was better for me to send it inside an envelope . National mail is commonly used to send packages inside the country, it’s the cheapest way. When they see me coming they know I’m carrying postcards (the only around).
. And I’m thinking about sending my Mexican postcards from another country or to use the travel mode and send them from abroad. Still, it’s going to be fast to sent and received but it will take longer for me to write postcards again (about 4 months each time I travel aboard) 
or maybe quitting Postcrossing and only arrange swaps from my Instagram, but again sent from another country. Help!
