You have to think it in a logical way
Assumption one: If you count all postcards of all users all sent postcards equals all received postcard. Because, all sent are received (traveling are not counting).
Therefore: If someone has more sent than received postcards, some other must have more received than sent.
It’s just simple.
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I think I’m being a bit immature about that and asking ‘why me?’, I’ve always preferred to be in the other category of more sent, well, as I said above that catching up takes some joy out of postcrossing for me, I wish I could put like coefficient to my profile to keep the difference.
and @ana_karp about in-active - when I did that, once I’m active it seems my address immediately is drawn by amount users equal to the difference of received/sent, I think my problem, that I’d prefer my address being drawn like once a day or something, so the cards won’t arrive in stacks but were more evenly distributed day to day
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I have that problem constantly: every time one of my cards is registered, I get like 10 cards, but my cards are registered slowly (I never stopped sending completely but they are just slow and I don’t send that much). So I receive a lot for a few weeks and then spend the next few weeks catching up. My address was given out in October and then by the time I had more sent it was mid-December and I put myself inactive to avoid receiving Christmas stuff, which is the only reason why I still have quite a few more sent than received.
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Yeah, in the US it would go back and forth a bit. Here, every time one of my postcards gets registered I seem to get 5 in return.
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Oh, location-wise, I had the same in the UK and in Singapore. Possibly a bit worse in Singapore (i.e. I get even more cards back). But also my sent have been slower from here.
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@elikoa, @saintursula oh, I’m not alone! that’s a relief
I don’t think I get really that much cards, but it surely feels like receiving 5 for each one I send. And then again, my sent postcards reach all their recipients in, say, Germany, on the same day, and my address is immediately given to that amount of people - and the loop continues
That’s genius! why I haven’t thought about it. This year I received so many Christmas-themed postcards, it will take another 10 years to write about them in my blog on the appropriate dates xD
It’s not very often that I have more received than sent. Usually for me, it’s the other way around. But in any case, I don’t really pay attention to other people’s ratios. It could be due to a number of reasons, many of which are out of the control of most Postcrossing members. And I’m sure the folks who are behind the algorithm that matches people are constantly tweaking it–but even they cannot control the rate of signups or leaving, how efficient the postal systems are in each country, postal prices (which would constrain how many postcards people can send) or random worldwide things like COVID-19.
Anyways, I think trying to have “perfect” statistics is an exercise in futility. This is the real world and not a theoretical simulation. And things are just going to happen that will cause sent vs. received to not quite match up.
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My stats say I have sent 148 postcards, and have received 152 postcards. I currently have 6 postcards travelling (which aren’t accounted for in these stats). But when those 6 travelling postcards arrive to their new homes, the stats will still be unbalanced. It’s been unbalanced for a while but I can’t remember when or how it happened…
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This is my main problem with the imbalance. I currently have 13 more postcards received than sent, so I need to send 13 cards before my address is “released” again. I receive lots of cards all within a few days, then I’ll get nothing at all for a while!
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Yes, I have same, 10 imbalance, 30 travelling (most to Germany and USA)
I really need to send postcards immediately after getting opportunity for new address, otherwise there will be a ‘dry spell’ period when my postbox is empty.
Another thing is when my address “released” again - first you get a pack of generic city views with printed text on the back, because people who don’t make any effort to choose nice one and write a message, send faster - so also I go through “nobody reads my profile” – “how amazing all these cards are” rollercoaster
Pandemic sort of made receiving interesting in a sense that you can say - oh yesterday a cargo plane from India arrived)) and today a plane from Poland (next plane will be in a month)
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I was finally catching up from my +10 received but it was mid-december, I hate Christmas and I saw on a Facebook group people complaining because they wanted to send Christmas stuff and getting addresses of people who didn’t want them, so I thought let’s just solve everybody’s problem with keeping inactive for 2 weeks. In the meantime, more of my cards arrived so I’ll probably receive loads this month and then spend other two months catching up.
I swear I once counted that my address was given out 10 times on the same day (or couple of days) - and it all related to the same postcard of mine that was registered.
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Postcrossing ways are mysterious xD I also noticed that it can be all users from the same country, like I have 4 users from India drew my address on 15th October (cards then delivered with more than 2 months difference!). And I now see many users who have two profiles - sending cards to two of my profiles simultaneously (or receiving, on pandemic postcrossing got less crowdy)
I really don’t like putting an anti-wish to a profile, I think it can come up as rude, so using your tip is like contraception instead of having the consequences of many Christmas stuff received (and you need to care about them, and find them a place in your received boxes). Even though it would probably mean to go in-active for whole December
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I don’t like it either but I had also put a disclaimer nicely, worded like “please no Christmas cards if possible” because I was doing some tags etc. on the forum and in case people looked at my profile… And then I thought why not just go inactive instead! (I also have one other non-wish because I have a phobia of insects).
I think you’d need to start going inactive in November even… I just didn’t need to because my difference was so big until mid-December.
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Indeed this formulation is okay. Antiwishes and phobias are whole separate discussion - some users use word ‘phobia’ for not receiving common themes. Even on this forum I already saw couple topics about encountering users with tricky wishlist, who don’t like any normal postcards, and everybody writes ‘by rules of community you can send anything’. My observation is that insects postcards are so rare, when I had some other wishes I never received any, so only if you state you are okay with anything or state you want insects - you get it.
Also once I saw comments of a person who sent phobic card on purpose, to ‘help to overcome phobia’, that was beyond inconsiderate. I believe, that some people with bad English just mix do and don’t sometimes too.
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Hi, does anyone know roughly how many cards you can send in inactive mode? I had a break from postcrossing last year and my account was switched to inactive. I’ve recently started sending again but haven’t reactivated my account as I’ll be moving house soon. I’ve already got about 30 more sent than received and am wondering if I’ll be blocked soon from sending anymore cards.
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It’s not a set number, it depends on how many you’ve sent/received overall. It may be a percentage, but I don’t know what.
During the worst of the pandemic here, when incoming mail was terrible, I went inactive and got to about 150 more sent than received before the mail improved and I went back to active (I have about 3000 sent/received in total).
I don’t really recommend that - it was pretty overwhelming when the cards started arriving again.
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Thanks - I currently have 483 sent and 448 received, so I’m guessing I may not be able to send many more. Yes, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of cards at once when I switch back to active but I figure it will be a nice housewarming present 
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I did that last time I moved too - it was nice!
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I have had my account on inactive for over one year, and when I reactivate it my address will be given out a hundred times or more. Just about all mail from overseas is taking around thirty days to reach me so I’m hoping people will be patient when they get my address. I might mention this on my profile when I reactivate my account.
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I used to have more received than sent, for two reasons: a slightly rarer country, and a new account which limited my traveling cards to 5~6; the balance only came once I set my status as inactive since I can’t receive cards atm. But I suspect once I activate it again, I’ll have more received again.
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