I always had lots and lots of expired so I don’t find a lot of difference in recent times.
Wow! That is so few expired compared to how many you have travelling! And this is worse than usual for you? I wish I could do something to have so few! I usually have 8-10 expired and never more than 8-10 travelling with less than 60 days. So most of the time, at least 50% of my list is expired, usually more. And I had so many cards disappear after one year, like 3 of them in recent months and 2 more in the next month or so (members that abandoned the website so they will never be registered). It is sad.
Ohhh! I’m so sorry so many have expired for you. That is really sad.
Also, I want to thank everyone for the replies.
It’s sad that China is suspended on here temporarily, but I guess I understand why. Then work Belarus, I now understand. I hope some of your disappeared cards arrive for you
I guess that means other than those countries that there are known situations, I really only have one card that disappeared without a hint (because Germany typically arrived so quickly).
@xxxxyyyyzzzz, you brought up a good point. It’s pretty amazing thinking about the success rate.
I was curious about how people handle expired cards. In the case you receive a message from a postcrosser asking to register an expired card, would you do it? would you ask the other person if the situation was you had your card expired?
Hi @herr_luke! I moved your post to this thread, where we already discuss expired postcards. If you read through the thread, I’m sure you’ll find some useful information.
No! Please don’t register postcards unless you’ve received them!
No, I wouldn’t. Sometimes mail is slow or get lost. That’s life.
I just ignore such messages. I only register what I receive.
I sometimes ask if people received my card, but never write them the postcard ID as I don’t want a card registered that hasn’t arrived yet.
@herr_luke The answer to both question is “no.” I receive it…I register it; I don’t receive it, I don’t register it. The other side of the coin…once I mail it, I’ve done my part.
I recently had two cards ready to expire, I sent them from the US, to the US. I’m not quite sure why that’s been happening, but its been happening a lot more often. I ended up messaging both users, just in case my cards had made it to them and they were just damaged or the ID had become unreadable for some reason. Only one user responded and she told me no, it hadn’t been received but she said she was willing to register it as she was having the same issue with some of her cards and she lived 36 miles away (I didn’t ask for the cards to be registered, just if they had potentially received them)! I asked for her address again and sent her a new postcard to replace the missing one- as I felt bad she registered a card she didn’t receive. The other user never responded to me- I would have asked to send her a new card as well. I feel like you shouldn’t register the card if you don’t receive it, but communication back with the person if they ask if you had received the card is something I find very nice instead of them getting stuck wondering if card arrived and it had been forgotten about before registration, or if it got damaged, etc.
On the other hand, if a user is just straight out asking if you can register an expired card- I would more than likely reply with an apology and tell them you would rather not register a card you didn’t receive. I feel like this could throw off the system, especially registering cards that never made it to their destination.
For outgoing expired cards, I never contact the persons asking if my cards have arrived. I’ve only sent 2 “replacement” cards for the one that gone expired. In general I don’t resend cards (but I would if it’s just around South East Asia because the postage is cheap) other than the region, no
For incoming cards I’ve never had message asking me to register an expired card, but I would register their card if I got such request. I know it’s against the rule but I guess that’s not fatal and doesn’t harm the system, anyway it’s me who’s in disadvantage situation if I register postcard that I haven’t received (I am willing to do so and write it on my profile)
I write it due to reasons that our postal service is slow as hell, a lot of cards are stucked at the post office not getting delivered in months in some place, no mailman. It’s also helping my account not being blocked because a lot of cards going to me are expiring
I soon gave up sending a message to the persons who did not register cards in a timely way, as usually I received no answer at all, or an annoyed answer. For the would-be recipients who had not visited the site for several months, I felt it was useless because either they were unable to register the card for a strong reason or they had stopped caring for postcrossing, so it was useless.
As for those who log in regularly and also register cards regularly, I felt it was also useless to message them, as the card had obviously not reached them. However, in case of those who seemed most committed to postcrossing, I often send a replacement card, and usually this second card does reach them (and sometimes the first one too, after a longer delay!!!).
There was only one case which remains mysterious, I got that address from Florida and the person seemed rather strongly committed to postcrossing, so when she failed to register after several months, I sent another card, which she also failed to register. This person was logging in and registering cards regularly, so it was weird. I did do something very unusual and sent a third card… that was never registered either and the original one went out of the system after a while. If these THREE cards did get genuinely lost, it is a case of extremely bad luck.
Of course there have been a lot of lost cards in the last three years, to various parts of the USA, so…
Another weird story, I received a card from Kazakhstan, the sender said he had already sent a card but I had not registered it. Then a few months later, I received his first card, that had been sent over a year earlier!!!
are you talking about 60 days or expired after a year? if 60 days, there is still enough time for the postcards to arrive. I would never contact the person, only if the end of 1 year is approaching
I’m talking about the 60 days mark, but 5 postcards did fell off the system in July/August/September 2022. And one will follow on September 22nd. That’s pretty much in my opinion.
Lost or late postcards are just part of life. I never ask anyone to register a card that’s running late or never made it. The times that someone asked me to register a card that I haven’t received, I responded politely and told them that I would register it once it arrived.
Expired postcards are so annoying but part of the game and there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m about to have one expired card within my own country and it’s so frustrating. I rarely send a replacement.
There was a card from me to a member in Germany. She is quite active, but it’s confusing that she seldom received cards from PRChina (according to the official statistics). And after more than 150 days since I mailed my card, I sent a email. To make sure that she could recognize my card, I added the Post ID in the email.
I wrote: “If you receive it, could you please register it? If it didn’t, you don’t have to register it at all.”
In my opinion, it means that I won’t let her to register it if she didn’t receive in fact.
But she replied immediately and told me that she never received it. However, she still registered it for me.
I feel strange… I don’t want to have a “sent” card which never happened. But she was totally out of good intentions…
You could describe the card, rather than giving the ID. That’s how I do it (Yes, I ask after ~100 days - about 40% answers, for some it was a useful reminder)
In the past I received cards that travelled 100 days or so. But I never received a card that travelled more than a year. Yesterday I did. And I was surprised, that “the system” not only told me, that I cant register this card, but also who (user name) sent this card to me: A Chinese postcrosser in April 2021! This way I could at least send a thank you message (though the sender hasnt been active for 10 months).
I always thought that cards travelling longer than a year are completely out of the system. But they aren`t. And there is always hope
I’ve had this in 2020. A card from Italy was sent 1 1/2 years before. This sender was still active and she was very happy that in the end the card (a beautiful handmade) made its way to me
