Hi, just wanted to reflect on that I currently have recieved more postcards than I have sent. I didn’t think it worked that way. I am new to this. It feels a bit stressful and also makes me feel a little guilty for not having sent enough. Anyone with that experience to?
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Hello @TobyPilgrim and welcome to postcrossing 
It is totally normal. Most of the time you have either more sent or received but the algorithm will always balance it out. When you send cards and they start arriving, you will suddenly have more sent than received and your address will be given to people. Then those postcards will start arriving to you and you will have more received than sent again… You receive more than you sent in case some postcards are lost. So that you definitely get at least the number you have sent so far. Once you have more received than sent, your address won’t be given to anyone until you have more sent than received again.
By the way, your statistics don’t affect other people, everyone who sent you a card will get a card from someone else in return. So you really don’t have to worry about fairness or feeling guilty 
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Thank you! @hankadl I first posted this wrongly so I hadn’t seen all these answers here. But now I think I understand about the algoritm. But I am comforted by what you say on feeling guilty! <3 Thank you!
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Right now I have 467 received and 460 sent. I haven’t sent or received for over a month so it will take me so long to catch up!
This weekend I sent 5 cards so still not enough. I have 9 expired but I think most of them will never be registered. So I’ll just wait. Good thing I like sending more than receiving
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Same here. I was 2 cards “ahead” today, with 10 traveling, and I assumed I wouldn’t see any more postcards until some of those got registered. And I was very pleasantly surprised to find FIVE cards in my box in a single day (and now I have received 7 more than sent). It made my day - like others have said, this is certainly not a complaint - I just like to know how stuff works, so I came with the question, too. I trust the answer from the moderators - that in the long run the algorithm works it out. But for today - whoopeeee!
Can you guys explain how it’s possible to have more cards received than sent? I’ve always thought your address was only given out when one of your sent cards was registered. Someone I’m sending to has something like 100 cards sent but 105 cards received, plus mine on the way to him. It happened to me too a few times, 1 or 2 cards difference.
Postal suspensions, PC rules (you’ll only be given the same member once), member options (not wanting several cards traveling to the same country at once, not wanting to exchange cards to/from your own country), and inactive and traveling members that send cards but don’t receive any limits the pool of addresses that can be given out.
To help solve this problem the PC algorithm will sometimes give the addresses of highly active members who have traveling postcards with a high likelihood of being registered.
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I almost always have more received than sent while my daughter (same address, separate Postcrossing account) has the opposite - she always has several more sent than received! We do have different settings (I mail within my own country, she does not and I have “repeated countries” checked and she does not). Every once in a while sent/received are balanced and we get excited before the scales tip in different directions for us again! Over time and in the grand scheme of things I think it all works itself out 
I have currently 20 more received than sent. My address was given out at least 21 times when I finally had one more sent than received (at least 8 times on the first day when I was owed 1 card and 2 travelling. I delibrately waited to draw addresses again to avoid the influx. Clearly it didn’t help). There may be even more postcards still on the way. I have currently 2 cards expired and full 15 slots travelling. Even if all the cards get registered, I will still have more received than sent. It is honestly annoying.
My guess is that the person has some travelling postcards at the moment and the algorithm gave you their address for one of those cards. 
I’ve noticed that Postcrossing gives out my address before many of my sent postcards have arrived.
That could be because I’m sending out many cards at the same time, that could trigger an ‘early release’ process to make sure I receive enough cards in time.
I think this only applies to Postcrossers who have a large numer of sent cards, because they can send more cards at the same time.
An example for myself: For World Postcard Day (1 Oct) I’ve drawn 50 addresses and sent out 50 cards at the same day. Before even half have arrived, I receive many cards given out.
The first Sent card arrived 8 October, one more 9 October and 3 on 10 October.
I have now received 41 cards that were sent on 10 October.
So my address was given out many more times(41) on 10 October then the number of my cards that had arrived(5), but the system knew my cards (50) were sent and were starting to arrive.
So it is quite ‘risk free’ to give out my address more then was really accountable for.
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Even if you are alteady in the plus and you must work your way of sent cards UP, you might receive more cards.
From slow countries. From slow postcrossers. From slow mailman. Or slow postcrossers in slow countries. And your difference grows.
Sent a card receive a card - just a very good slogan.
Once you’re in it is give and take. Postcrossing does our administration, so I don’t worry.
Travelling cards are often included to the algorythm. Especialy if you are a reliable postcrosser, like forum members or forum readers etc etc.
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It’s seems I have also been gotten by the “received more than sent” monster!
Only by 4 so far (and I do have 3 travelling) but given that one of my sent ones registered on the 8th October triggered (at least) 6 for me, I wonder how much higher the difference will grow!
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I’m so sick of receiving SO many more cards than I have sent! Right now I have nine more cards received than sent and it will take such a long time for me to catch up that I just don’t think it’s fun anymore to do official Postcrossing. One stamp is about $3 so you can calculate how much I have to pay just to catch up. I hate this “feature” so much! I’ve now set my account on inactive and hope I will not get any more cards. Also, cards traveling to Russia and Belarus are a nightmare. I don’t think they will ever reach their destination so that’s a lot of money for nothing… Sorry for my rant but I just had enough today when I found a whole bunch of cards in my mailbox when I was already having too many recieved. 
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In the past it was more balanced, but it is slightly more off because some countries send so much.
And that certain fast countries have a lot of members who sent a lot of cards. I mean a slow country that sends a lot of cards, is less of a problem I think?
I have felt as you do at times: “Why am I finding yet more official cards in my box, when no one seems to registering mine!” with an unbalanced account. However, eventually it does even out.
Is Russia really that slow? I joined the site just as the U. S. shut them off. I’ve had expired cards to Australia and Belarus, that did arrive later, as well as one to Portugal where the replacement card sent was registered promptly. At the moment, I have one domestic card about to expire, and one to Belgium about which I’m pessimistic.
@BrilliantDisguise Today I’m a bit annoyed about this too, I just found another card in my mailbox although have more received than sent for weeks already, and my own cards are mostly going to countries that will take a while to arrive…
In general I understand that there is always a shortage of addresses due to inactive users that still write cards, so addresses of everybody else (especially rare countries) are given out “in advance”. I guess the mail ban from several countries to Russia makes everything even more imbalanced, since the thousands of postcards from those countries that usually would go to Russia now have to go somewhere else and add up on top of that 
What annoys me most, is that it seems that traveling postcards are taken into account when my address is given out PLUS then some. In one instance my address was given out 16 times on one day, although I only had one more sent than received, and only 10 slots for sending cards (not sure if I even had the whole 10 travelling).
If there were at least a cap for how often the address was given out, for example the “really” owed cards + half of the currently travelling cards, that would make it easier to catch up, and lessen the feeling of being behind all the time
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Speaking for me, cards to Russia take about 3-4 weeks currently. Before the war they took around 2-3 weeks.
I think that travel time is ok, it’s still worse for other countries (e.g. some Asian countries seem to be really slow from here, I guess due to Covid restrictions etc.). With my last drawn addresses I just had the bad luck of nearly only getting countries that can take around 4 weeks or maybe even more, and if that keeps happening it can feel a bit disheartening if the difference of your sent and received ones grows and your address is given out again and again while you can’t do anything about it 
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I have the same too. And it always takes month(s) to have more send then received. I always receive my postcards in bunches 
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Oh wow When I received the card today I thought about going inactive for a bit until I’m caught up, but on the one hand I still want to be able to receive seasonal cards and not just skip a few weeks, and on the other hand I fear that this would produce even worse spikes in the future. Like if I stay active my address maybe is given out 10 times too much, but if I come from inactive to active maybe it is given out 20 times too much, who knows
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For me it is the opposite … I have 20 postcards sent but only 7 received…
and 7 more travelling so I send a lot more than I receive.
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