Receiving more cards than you send

Thanks a lot for the tips☺️I also use some postcard swapping sites within China, so I’m used to sending domestic cards there. It amazes me that a card to some provinces of China takes the same(or even more)time as traveling to European Countries…So the delivery speed of Chinapost seems to be quite uncertain. I don’t mind waiting for postcards for a long time-it will make the upcoming surprise more exciting-but sometimes I’m a bit worry that the long travelling time would cause trouble such as misunderstanding. Will it?

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Oh… So patience is needed, I see😉

Ok thanks, I guess I just never noticed that there may have been some sent on the date

To be honest, anyone who has been on Postcrossing a bit will know that travel time to China can be unpredictable. Maybe some new people will be worried and they might ask you if you received their cards but they will understand that it can take a long time.

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Yes I see. In China, delivery time in different regions differs largely- I’m in Shanghai so the case is relatively better. But it still… takes some time. I think I should add this to my profile :joy:

So I did the experiment we discussed @DarciNZ, @Stevyy I think it was you?

I went inactive when I was due one card and this is what I got

That’s 10 cards but maybe more are on the way?

The previous time it was 14, and 4 more the next day. At that point I was due more than one card because I had been inactive before to avoid receiving Christmas stuff, so that might have an influence?

So I’m not sure there is such a huge advantage in trying this, I suspect I’ll receive at least a couple more cards from the 25 March harvest.

The remarkable difference this time is that MY sent cards have become super fast and I’m already caught up and have more sent than received! I’ve had consistent travel times of 11 days to Germany, less than 30 to Russia and even one USA in 16 days! My sent list looks so lively for April!

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I think the theoretical advantage by avoiding 'too many ‘now you will receive’ is that your second and third and fourth due-card won’t trigger these ‘masses’ too.

But I admitt that there are more forces active than ordinary mortals like me can imagine.

Thanks, @elikoa, and I was thinking about this too recently! Here are the results of my experiment, where I switched my profile to ‘inactive’ less than 24 hours after my balance was one more postcard sent than received:

Screen Shot 2021-04-30 at 7.00.20 AM

As I received a postcard just yesterday, I might receive a few more from the 16 March sent back as well, but so far that is 6 postcards received for “one more sent than received.”

Before I did this experiment, the last time this happened I had my profile set to ‘active’ and had one more sent than received, this happened:

Screen Shot 2021-04-30 at 7.05.09 AM

The December postcards must have been related to the November ones, because by this time I was in a real postcard deficit for sure! 12 postcards sent to me for my “one more sent than received” postcard.

So turning my profile to ‘inactive’ less than 24 hours after I was “one more sent than received” turned 12 postcards received into 6 (or so). But same as you, @elikoa, this time my postcards are arriving far faster than they were in November/December, so I am already in a surplus! 4 more sent than received right now. (I send one postcard a week).

So… in summary I think turning my profile to ‘inactive’ helped a little in evening out the postcards sent to me all at once, but now than post is moving again at better speeds (for example, 2-4 weeks to get to Europe/Russia instead of 2 months+ that it was after Christmas), maybe I don’t need to do this again. I was hoping for a more definite result! :kissing_smiling_eyes: Or maybe the result is entirely positive, but I’m just not sure when to turn my status back to ‘active’ again … maybe I’ll be playing with the system too much by micromanaging my active/inactive status?!?

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Ah yes you’re right! I forgot because usually I only have one day that triggers most of my cards, might be because often I receive 2-3 cards before one more of mine is registered so I’m not due anything anymore.

This was also my reason when I was inactive last November - December :sweat_smile:
I was also inactive during first and second week of January to avoid New Year card :smile:

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It happened again.

This morning I had 4 more sent than received.
This afternoon I checked my PO Pox and found 8 official cards :sweat_smile:

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Oh no… they keep coming

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@yudi, you’ve probably got them all now! I never received more than about 12 postcards for the one that I was “one more sent than received.” And now how long will it take for you to catch up?! It’s funny, loving all the postcards in your mailbox but dreading how long it will take you to get back to a balance. Have fun sending! :slight_smile: I am about to turn my status back to active, and we’ll see how many come my way (I have a moderate overbalance now… will I get exactly what my overbalance is, or way more??)

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I’m living dangerously at the moment: I have 4 more sent than received, who knows how many I’ll get now :rofl::joy::rofl: (I haven’t gone inactive this time, I felt too bad not being available to receive when Malaysians can only send to Singapore and may run out of addresses like it happened once).

It’s such a rare thing, weirdly my sent cards are still travelling fast and my mailbox has been empty for ages.

Even though I have 2 cards traveling to ghostcrosser (last seen 1 month ago) I am still confidence I can catch up the number by the end of this month. And I will received card again in the mid or 3rd week of June :laughing:

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Hi - I hope this is the right place to ask. I have now received 4 more postcards than I have sent. They all have postcard ID numbers so they have been sent via the system. I love getting them but I want to be fair and send my fair share too! Is this a common thing?

Yes, that happens sometimes.

You csn read more here:

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Oh yes, it is very common. Usually the numbers even out in a long run, but especially postcrossers from rare countries experience this.

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Thank you!

@anon87497032 I moved your question to this existing topic that @Kanerva and @Jarana mentioned.

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