I’m cutrently having an unusually high travelling time with a postcard to a neighbouring country (Germany) - now being at 37 days 
My average travel time regarding my sent postcards to Germany is 4 days.
Also I’m a bit ennoyed by the pressure to catch up - so that my sent-received-balance is even.
I’m now mostly inactive though
@AudieKay
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Relieved to hear that considerable mail delays are not unusual. I was beginning to think my mailman was tossing them in the trash. There is one lot in particular that I mailed in the same stack that is taking forever…approaching 60 days now. Which is weird since they all went to different countries, including my own. I guess I’ll just keep sitting here twiddling my thumbs 
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1/3 cards is not arriving. (40+/90+/200+ days)
I’m not sure where exactly to post this, please share if it’s the wrong place.
1 of 3 postcards is not arriving. I send from the Netherlands: 2x Russia 2- Germany, 2x USA and Finland and Taiwan.
I’ve send to all of these countries before successfully. I have no mail issues with other packages and mail.
I understand that not every card will arrive. But these odds seem a bit to much. I’ve send a little over 20 cards and I like postcrossing but if that means that 1/3 is not arriving that’s not very motivating.
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Hello @Jerha ,
I moved your post to this topic.
If it’s not posted in the correct topic, don’t hesitate to let me know.
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What are the travel times?
Some parts of Germany are slower than normal nowadays.
You can also check if the member have been online.
If they have, and the travel time is much longer than normal, you can ask them if they got your card, maybe describe it, if they get lots of cards. Sometimes members forget.
Also, did you use enough postage?
Is the address written with a pen that doesn’t smudge easily? If glued, does it stay?
But, in general, I think it won’t be 1/3 not arriving in normal situation.
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The travel times where written in the original Topic in the headline and I paste it now in the post that was moved here.
@Jerha
I recommend you to read this Topic Expired Postcards, because it seems that most of the cards you are talking about are expired.
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Yes, the services cuts during the previous Admin haven’t been restored & I gather parcels get priority now over letter mail. I’ve had 6 expired cards to the US in the last 6 months where before the invasion, only with Russia did I have that many expired.
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Not surprised by Russia & US cards being expired/lost/not registered - both postal systems are under stress right now.
And I have had a couple of expired to Germany for the 1st time in my 2 1/2 years of Postcrossing - some cards to Germany take far longer than normal now & I suspect that may be due to workers being off sick.
Finland & Taiwan are usually pretty reliable, but cards do get lost.
All postal systems & airline travel have been under stress in the last year so I would expect there are more expired cards. Yes, it is frustrating, but don’t give up - hopefully you just got your share of expired cards early in your Postcrossing journey & it will get better.
One tip for US cards - make sure the bottom 1/2 inch of the card is empty - US postal regulations require this for their coding info. If that space is full, the card can get kicked into the hand sorting system which would delay it for sure.
Just for comparison - I’ve sent 531 cards & had 25 expired cards so far.
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Hello. Could you explain what is wrong with the US Post? I didn’t quite understood what “duress” means.
By the way, there are also many delays between Russia and Belarus now. Two days ago a card was registered that took 215 days from me to Belarus.
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I should have used the words under pressure/stress instead.
The US postal system had major cuts made under Trump that haven’t been restored & in the last 6 months, the postal system made a decision to priorize parcels over the delivery of letter mail. Plus workers being off sick with COVID & flu - mail is delayed.
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I don’t think it is quite that bad yet, but those of us who care about postal services being well supported, public services need to fight for them to keep them that way.
Yes, privatization is always a threat - political leaders deliberately underfund a public service, declare it’s broken & then privatize so some donor can make millions/billions off of what used to be a public service. We have to fight this process.
I’m still angry that Biden hasn’t replaced DeJoy as head of the USPS - a man appointed by Trump to destroy the postal system. Biden’s appointees have had the votes on the Board of Governors since June but it still hasn’t happened yet.
You might want to get some other US Postcrossers together & start writing your Congress & Senate reps & the White House - start demanding better funding & services.
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Funny, my cards are going in and out pretty much as usual. I’d rather not have USA suspended, thank you.
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I think they have the data to see if it ever will be topical to think that.
My oldest expired now are to Russia and Germany.
Yes, expired to USA too, but this has always been the case.
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I understand that it’s upsetting to lose such a high percentage.
Maybe because I also thought its too much, when I had about ten percent lost at a certain time. But in absolute numbers it’s not so much (4 cards lost, travelling more than 365 days - US, Indonesia, India, China. And 4 cards expired, US, China, 2 Russia).
Then after a phase when I lost a lot of cards, I had a time, in which lots of cards did arrive. That made the numbers in percentage decrease to only about 7 percent lost cards.
So my conclusion: Just spend as much on the hobby as I really want to, and see, if over the time the numbers in percentage decrease. If that’s the case - great. If not - maybe take a break, instead of quitting.
The longest card travelling to me took 198 days. 
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@Izzy2018 Yes, it needs to change. However, I do not agree with suspending the US from Postcrossing. This is one of my only hobbies and suggesting taking that away from people due to the USPS moving at a slower pace (during the holidays too when the mail system is usually its slowest) is a little too extreme.
I haven’t had any cards other than one expire from the US to the US in the last year. Though, I have had 4 postcards to Germany all sent on the same day expire. Postcards are getting to me between 15 and 25 days from Europe, 5-15 days from the US and Canada depending on where they are being sent from. Everything seems to be travelling at a reasonable speed for me, other than to Germany.
I have noticed @LC-Canada that since Biden has taken office, the travel time of postcards has increased. I don’t necessarily agree that putting blame on Trump is accurate- especially when he was in office I had almost no issues with any type of mail. Cards were getting to me from CT to CA in less than a week. Now I live in Colorado and cards take around 2 weeks to get to me and I’m closer than I was before. Trump also hasn’t been in office in 2 years- that has been plenty enough time for the current administration to make changes. It may also be in their agenda to let the USPS fizzle out as they haven’t pushed specifically for it not to be privatized. On the other hand- privatization isn’t always a bad thing. With the price of stamps going up again, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if privatization would be the same price- if not cheaper eventually.
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Sorry Caitlyn, privatization is ALWAYS a bad thing. In order to make a profit, the company has to cut services, wages etc so citizens & workers lose out.
And I agree that Biden’s Admin may not care much about preserving public postal services. There were significant cuts under Trump & his appointee DeJoy is still in charge, but public services generally, including postal services across most OCED countries have been deliberately underfunded for years by gov’ts.
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Thank you! Think it fits 
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2 are 40days including germany which normally takes a week or 2. And the rest is 90 days or more.
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Hmm, yeah a few cards every now and then I understand. But this is 8 from 22 cards
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