If postcards didn’t expire, the whole chain would come to a halt. I’ve only been postcrossing for under a year and already about 8 of my cards expired. If those 8 didn’t expire, I wouldn’t be able to send out any other cards.
5 Likes
I have 3 cards expired forever in the Netherlands and I still don’t understand what could have happened. Of 4 cards I sent there last year, only 1 made it. But mail to my penpal gets there okay, so I wonder if I should use envelopes to the Netherlands… Okay it is not a short journey but it is a usually efficient country and other places in Europe give me no problems. I am very puzzled. (one of the 3 will get to 365 days next week, one is at 200+, one at 100+. I don’t think they can still arrive because to such countries, if they don’t get there in a normal time then they never will. And yes none of the recipients has disappeared, they are all active).
I got a Netherlands address again last week, I am crossing my fingers 
2 Likes
Why do so few people from Russia give their address in cyrillic writing ? I always use it when available.
At the moment I have 12 cards to Russia expired. 11 of them did not provide their address in cyrillic writing. I don’t think that is a coincidence.
4 Likes
Just looked at my expired and long traveling cards to Russia and I must agree: none of them have their address in Cyrillic letters 
As you I always use the address in Cyrillic if it’s provided.
1 Like
Interesting, that you had the same experience! Like you I was very surprised because I never had problems sending to the Netherlands before. Maybe the ‘mystery’ will be solved one day (there is another thread about postcards being redirected via Asia!), and if not hopefully sevice will get back to normal soon!
Funny story: once I got a postcard from the UK inside a plastic bag with a sticker from a ferry company that said something like “the sender didn’t pay enough for the stamps and this postcard had to cross Europe by ship and train and we had to transport it although it is not our job to do it”. It took 3 months to reach me but the sticker with the explanation was awesome.
27 Likes
It’s not so difficult to transcribe from Latin to Cyrillic. Some letters are the same anyway, A=A, M=M, most letters have only one counterpart, S=C, R=P, the rest is possible to learn. Most difficult for me are some of the diphtongs like CH or TS …
Another trick is simply look up the adress online - many maps show both the Latin and the Cyrillic scripture (the postcrossing map does too, but of course you only see downtown, not the user’s house)
85 cards sent in December in Travel Mode Germany for the good cause. 16 expired of those. Fingers crossed for the last counting day of this analphabet project.
Total expired on today: 48.
@Galerna My mom had the same experience. I found that funny, too. 
@Lejo I wonder the same. My expired card to Russia also had no cyrillic…
1 Like
New to this…kind of bummed that a few of my cards have not been received…I take photos before I post them so I know I have included the information to register and correct address.
Welcome to Postcrossing! Mail is sometimes slow (especially around xmas) so they may all arrive eventually. 2 months is not that long so give it a bit more (but once in awhile a card does go missing for all of us).
Mail is exceptionally slow in many countries due to the pandemic and other issues. Depending on where the cards are going to and coming from it can be several months until they arrive. Also, yes, some just do get lost or not registered for whatever reason. Postcrossing teaches patience!
1 Like
I’d recommend playing some games like tags, lotteries or doing direct swaps on the Forum while you’re waiting for more of your official cards to be received - mail is mostly slow these days & it takes a while in the beginning to get some momentum going.
You get to send & receive more cards, meet more people & learn more about postcards, Postcrossing & postal systems as you develop your Postcrossing patience muscles. And have some fun.
Enjoy!
1 Like
It seems to me that the Cyrillic alphabet is very unusual and difficult for foreigners. Therefore, I write the address in the Latin alphabet familiar to the whole world
@Katerina_Nuikina People who can’t write it, have maybe the possibility to print it. 
(I’m always happy when a Russian Postcrosser has both, so I can exercise the Russian handwriting. )
2 Likes
Haha, same here. Postcrossing allowed me to write Cyrillic for the first time in over 25 years. I forgot almost everything about the language but an alphabet learned and used for so long is still there. 
2 Likes
Haha I do this all the time! When I’m travelling I take a break, sit on bench of a park, write down the things that i see and think at the time and send it to myself. When it arrives I love the memories of the moment writing the postcard.
10 Likes
I have 5 expired cards now .
2 was sent together, so I think they were lost together. That may because of one same mistake made by the post office here .
1 to Belarus: The receiver didn’t be seen since 5 months ago. And she had given Postcrossing up once in 2017, so I am afraid that could happen again…
1 to Taiwan: The receiver logged in 1 days ago, but he didn’t receive any cards since October 2021. There might be something wrong to his situation or the local post office. I tried to send an email asking if I should mail a new card to him, but he didn’t reply.
1 to Russia: The card traveled for 61 days. In my opinion, it is normal for a card to Russia. So I just wait.
By the way, the most crazy card to me is from Israel. It has a 169 days travel… I think that there are not so many airlines and ships between Israel and China, so the cards just have to wait for a long time…
Update: The card to Russia reach the destination yesterday. But there is another expired card to Taiwan now😅(61 days). The POST can deliver a card from China to Europe in 2 months, but couldn’t deliver a card to Taiwan (a country only 350 kilometers from my place) in the same 2 months…
I love this type of videos.
Here is the same kind, but for the Royal Mail (UK):
There is a version from the Australian post too!
More 90’-early 00’ style and less quality of image on the video, but they also provide more details of the system in general.
9 Likes
I loved watching these! Thanks for posting.
2 Likes