At 365 days, Expired cards are removed from the system, disappearing from the sender and recipient accounts. There is no way to access those from day 366 - gone.
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But why?
Is it just to save space on the Postcrossing servers? Why is a 366 day card different from a 365 day card?
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I am surprised at the length of time even to uk! I think that Germany has the fastest system, i get cards from there to Canada in 5 days!
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I think this is discussed in several topics, coming up every now and then, here one:
where someones remembered it’s to lighten the servers.
I remember it too being discussed, and that it’s not that much that travel over the year and are registered. (But I think this was a few years ago, situation might have changed.)
And the limit just needs to be somewhere, if a limit is done, so here it’s a year.
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I’ve had plenty of long travelling cards, unfortunately the average for me is around 25ish days or so. They always reach their destination (I’ve only ever had 2 lost cards) but slowly.
As you can see in the list, some have been sent from UK, some from Romania, some from Bulgaria, so it’s a mix and there are delays with all.
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Here is also reply about this (why a year), by paulo
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I would think most are lost rather than never sent.
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I have a card traveling from US to Canada now at 35 days. I live an hour south of the border…
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I was on holiday in France this September. I posted 19 cards all at the same time in the same letter box. The only two that didn’t arrive were to Germany and they are at 60/61 days each. Four others arrived in Germany, 6 to the US, and one each to China, Russia and Belarus. Bizarre!
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Are those two Germans registering recent cards received?
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Yes, they are. I think the cards must be on a mystery tour.
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I have a postcard to Germany that is on day 33. I know I am still new but I have not had one take this long yet. I think it must be lost. I have seen the person registering cards regularly so who knows where my poor postcard might be.
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@TrvlCat 60-day expiration is ser for a reason - most cards should arrive within that time. From USA, 33 days is high, but still within the realm of reason. If you find you have a decent amount of cards expiring, are you certain you put the postcard ID on it? Did you use a smudgy pen that may render the written side illegible if it happened to get wet? Has the intended recipient been recently active? All things to consider but until day 60, keep the faith!
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This postcard within Germany took 165 days:
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I again think most “lost” are mostly not registered, or not sent.
And then of course some also truly lost.
Some people are oh yes, I want mail, they sign, and ask, when do I start getting mail? not thinking they need to send first. And when they look where they find cards, maybe they don’t, or when they buy stamps, they consider it too expensive. So maybe they already have the five addresses, and then stop this hobby without sending.
And sadly, some people pick who they send to.
Before I joined, I read a forum where people openly told they won’t send to a new member, because they are likely to not continue, or don’t register. They told not to send, if someone was not online.
( But, this behaviour can’t continue long, which is good.) They didn’t register, if the card was not good enough, or they waited if the person sends a second, “better” card, or they didn’t register to “teach” that person. So when I joined, I was worried will I get a card, because of course I was a new member.
Some think if you open many accounts, click the addresses, you will get these cards too, not knowing they need to be registered.
This is also based on all my other mail, that hardly never is lost.
The “lost mail rate” here is unnormally high, so therefore I believe most are not just registered (either forgetting, not knowing how, not wanting etc.) and some mail not sent (they join, then find it too much work to look for stamps, cards, write it…or they pick the profiles where they send to, forget, use too little postage).
When I think it can be a whole year in my other mails, and nothing is lost, and here I now have 15 expired (yes, some will still arrive), it seems unlikely only Postcrossing mail is lost, and all other mail travelles better.
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I currently have two expired cards. Both over 100 days. They were sent at the same time as others that were received. One is to Belgium and one is to The Netherlands. These two countries would seem to be good. I did have one other that expired. This card was returned to me as I had put my address on the card. Postcrossing notified me that the recipient had moved.
I have “lost” mail in my own home before when it gets mixed in with the recycle papers so it may not be the post office at fault, and it may not be intentional on the part of the recipient. Maybe they will show up one day and the recipient will send me a note. I can always hope for the best.
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I have had Expired cards to Belgium and Netherlands. Around 60 days I sent replacements; both of those were registered within a couple of weeks.
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I sent one card on WPD and it’s still traveling. I’m a bit scared, but I have hope, since it’s traveling to Russia, what can take up to 60 days 
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Wow, makes you wonder where the postcard had been all that time. I hope my postcard eventually makes it to its recipient.
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