Please refer to paulo answer in this link
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Thanks for linking Pauloās answer. I just wonder about the reason for this 1-year expiration though, it doesnāt really state it thereā¦
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This is primarily for a very practical reason. If we never deleted (traveling) postcards at some point, we would by now have millions of postcards on our database that most likely were never sent in the first place, so with no useful purpose. Some of those would be sitting there for 15 years now! We run things on a tight budget (as access to the project is free), so removing unnecessary data to keep things as light as possible is simply a good practice.
āMillions of postcardsā may sound like Iām overstating it, but it is not wrong. Besides the ocasional expired postcards that we know to expect (for whatever reason), a large portion of expired postcards in the database are those that were never sent by well intentioned new members who joined Postcrossing but end up never participating. Like most websites, creating a Postcrossing account is fairly easy, but unlike most websites where you participate by clicking away, in Postcrossing one has to go out and buy a postcard, write it and post it ā and that gets a lot of people lost in that process of actually getting started in Postcrossing.
And sure, there is the ocasional postcard that actually gets to the destination after 1 year, but those are so odd that thatās why we end up hearing about them. But in practice, they are fairly uncommon and donāt justify that we keep millions more on the database virtually forever, ājust in caseā. One may say that 2 years would be better, but Iām also sure someone will find a handful of postcards that arrived several years later and ask for moreā¦
Ultimately, there needs to be a limit somewhere that can cover the vast majority of the cases. In my opinion, one year is already a very generous period for a postcard to arrive while being a good balance for us to not have a bloated database.
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Today, one of my postcards arrived to its destination, China, more than one year later. Itās recipient tried to register it and, obviously, got a message saying that it couldnāt be done. However, he has been so kind of sending me a private Hurray message thanking the postcard.
I obviously wish it could be registered, but I understand the reasons why there is a time limit and I agreed to it when I opened my account after reading everything. But I must say that Iāve really appreciated that message. More than an usual hurray message, actually.
So, I come here to ask you all to try to contact the sender whenever you receive a forever lost from the database postcard, for youāll make someoneās day.
Thanks.
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Received one from ID travelling 17 month.
Card written 8 month after address was given out. Card posted 5 month laterā¦
It was due to covid. I understand. If you can not go to the postoffice or you have serial funerals a postcard is not the most urgent thing.
@PatriciaOH I contacted the sender to say thank you and good luck and health. That is what we can do at least.
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My first expired card (to the USA) is now almost a year in transit. I have given up hope of it ever being delivered. What happens after the 12-month mark? Does it simply āfall off the pageā and disappear from the system?
If a card is registered beyond 365 days (assuming this process is possible), are you notified of the delivery? Does it count towards your āsentā total?
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yes, it āfalls off the pageā and disappears from the system.
It is not possible to register a card after 365 days.
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If the other user closes their account and your sent card is out there, Postcrossing automatically registers the postcard. Cards more than a year old ā¦sayonara unfortunately.
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You pour yourself a beverage of your choosing and make a toast to the fallen postcard. 
(Pour a little on the ground in its honor.)
One of my cards is approaching its expiriversary, tooāweāll toast them together. 
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If you took a picture of the card for uploading it, you could post it in this thread to make it unforgettable. 
I just had a look at my traveling cards - one will expire in 5 days forever. Iāll join too.
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The other day I got such a card and the website immediately came up with a link to the profile of the sender, so that I could write a private message to her. I did.
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I know some members put their expired postcards as a list on their profile, so why do we not all have this record as a separate column in the sent section? As Iām sure all members will at least sadly get ONE or more expired postcard as they do this hobby, I myself will have three soon. But as far as I know I wonāt be able to see these expired cards on my sent list as they are well expired, they no longer exist according to the system, and yet I sent them in good faith as it were to another member. Maybe itās time this feature was included?
Thank you.
Ed
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What should that be good for?
If one wants to keep track of them, then they can keep such lists in their profile, but for whom else should those lists be interesting?
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I think the admins said sometime that these cards are deleted to lighten the servers. Itās a free project after all and server space is very costly.
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Yes, I remember that too!
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Thatās right. I remember reading that.
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Hi all, thanksā¦ I must have missed thatā¦ lol ā¦
I also would like to add that āexpiredā are the cards over 60 days. I donāt know what the ones over 365 days should be calledā¦ālost foreverā?
I just think thereās lots of confused newbies so in case they get confused further 
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Maybe we should call them āghostcardsā 
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No, my cards are real, not ghosts.
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