Can I just ask why you feel it’s important to keep track of actual sent date? As long as you know you’ve mailed it, surely it doesn’t really matter in the long run.
8 Likes
Hi wow I’m surprised I only pick a card knowing that I’m going to send it that day so I can keep the travel time accurate and I always register my cards the day I get them unless some that I’m too busy to do it to be honest I thought most people would do that because this is why we have travel time and a lot of work goes into keep this accurate on our account for example we have no mail here Saturday or Sunday I would make sure I pick my name either Sunday night or Monday morning and have it right in the mail Monday over Easter or post office was closed for 4 days as much as I would have loved to pick a name on Thursday but I waited until I was able to send it I enjoy watching stats sent and received how many days from different countries etc etc
I have to say I’ve been astonished, and somewhat dismayed, that so many here think it’s so important. Because of illness, I generally only leave the house once or twice a week, but I also can’t write masses of postcards just before I leave the house. So I draw one or two addresses most days and have the postcards waiting in the hall till I go out. It can be as many as six days before I post a postcard. I had no idea that the recipients might be upset that the figures are skewed.
19 Likes
I assume for most it’s only curiousity or interest-in-data and such. If one really gets upset (like real rage) about a few days difference between drawing adress and posting card, well that def. is their problem.
So don’t worry, folks can deal with differences.
(Worst case: it’s the first card a user will get, and they lose interest in postcrossing because they have to wait some extra days. Well, then I suppose postcrossing isn’t a good match for their impatience anyway)
10 Likes
Yes, I understand that, and your method seems reasonable to me too. I am also surprised so many people seem so invested in the date accuracy so specifically.
For me, I draw names when I have time or motivation or energy to do the cards, then I get them to the post office as soon as possible.
I can not mail from my home because the postal delivery people have proven themselves both unreliable and very slow, and it is also not secure to leave mail on the porch due to possible mail thieves. There are no street mailboxes in my neighborhood, which is sad and strange, but I moved here last year and am getting used to it.
So I have to take my mail directly to the post office. I can walk to the closest one only if I have the time, because it is in the opposite direction of everything else I need to go to, so I usually drive to a different post office that is actually on the way to somewhere else I am going.
Mailing here in my new city is very different and much more complicated and inconvenient than my hometown, where I worked a block away from a large downtown post office, and where there was a reliable mailbox on a corner two blocks from my apartment.
2 Likes
Yes, you’re right, and that is a good way to look at it.
I have noticed there are definitely some members who are really into data and stats. I am not, even though my former job was working in a membership database. Maybe it feels too much like a job to be analyzing this information, and it feels very controlling to me too.
There are too many unpredictable forces in the world that affect us and the mail. I can send one card to Germany and it takes ten days to arrive and be registered, then another card I send at the same time to Germany is still not received after two months. Who knows why?
For me, Postcrossing is for connection and love of postcards.
6 Likes
It’s a wee bit of a leap to say that keeping track of things must be a controlling behaviour. However, that statement made me reflect on my own reasons for tracking these details. I suppose there is a grain of truth to the assertion: analyzing data to understand systems better is a form of control, in its way. But that doesn’t mean it’s without value.
I track RRs (round-robins) and postcard exchanges and tags, along with official Postcrossing. On the official site, I will only ever draw a unique individual once. There is no particular benefit to noting (say) any difference between assigned and sent dates, except for mild curiosity, and perhaps getting a more realistic sense of how long the mail takes to travel here from their country. For example, over the last couple of years the time it takes to send cards to and from the USA (our nearest neighbour) has doubled. Knowing this delay is systemic has helped me to be patient.
In addition, I often take part in RRs where we have a recommended window for posting our cards (“Please send it within the next 3 weeks”). The facilitators may periodically ask people if they’ve sent and received the cards in their group. A spreadsheet helps me to track my own sending date (because I’ve been known otherwise to log an outgoing card, then forget to put it in the post!), and also ensures I don’t lose track of the ones I’m expecting, or fail to follow up as appropriate when I receive an RR or tag card. When I’m juggling a whole host of these exchanges, a spreadsheet helps me a lot! But I acknowledge it isn’t for everyone. As a professional data analyst, though, it’s my bread and butter.
3 Likes
On the letter boxes there is written that they are emptied every day monday to friday at 12pm, but it’s never true (my favourite place to extract addresses and write postcards has a letter box just outside, never seen someone there at 12pm), so I will never know when a mail carrier will actually pick up the mail from that box so that it can start its travel, and I never know when it will be postmarked unless I go to the post office and send with a postal worker there, but they print stickers for the postage, don’t use stamps, so I never do that for postcards. But if I have postcards and letters to send together, I may leave also the postcards at the counter, already stamped — only in that case I am sure of the postmark date. Though I am not doing much penpalling lately so that’s never for now.
1 Like
I did not intend my comment to cause insult or hurt feelings 
I realize for some people, the word controlling is seen as negative, and may even cause an emotional reaction to that word.
I appreciate you sharing that my use of the term gave you an opportunity for self reflection. Thank you.
My comment did not say that it is without value, so I apologize if that was somehow implied? It is of great value to those who are interested in tracking data and stats. It sounds like this comes naturally to you, and perhaps is enjoyable? Whereas for me, it is a lot of work 
I hope this clarifies my previous comment?
My sister is a former analyst and she loves spreadsheets too, and even uses them for planning holidays. I am the black sheep of the family in that sense, despite having worked in a membership database for seven years.
Yes, I have also noticed the extreme delay in mail between the USA and Canada. It makes me so sad and I don’t understand why it is like this now. My mail to Germany and Japan is faster than to Canada.
3 Likes
Usually I draw addresses when I have time to choose and write the cards, and then send them that day or next, but there are definitely sometimes where I don’t have time to write as many cards as I thought I did, or forget to drop them at the post office, etc. I write the date on the card as part of my writing process so that’s generally pretty accurate, and I guess I just don’t worry too much if travel time is a day or two off.
2 Likes
I do try to only pull an address when I’ll be able to get it out in the next mail (because there are no fast destinations from Aus and I don’t want my long travel times to be even longer), but I believe the travel time will have to include multiple weekends regardless, so I don’t feel the travel time is skewed by me pulling an address on Friday when it won’t actually be collected from the postbox until Monday. I feel the posting date can be accurately counted from when I put it in the postbox, so if I post it Friday afternoon or Monday morning, the travel time numbers will be different but I feel they are both accurate.
3 Likes
It does, and is much appreciated, thank you 
About the delay between Canada and the USA, these are my own activity stats on official Postcrossing:
Postcards received from the USA (2019-2023) took 13-13-17-24-21 days respectively.
Postcards sent to the USA (2019-2023) took 13-19-28-20-27 days respectively.
Take 2023 with a big grain of salt, as I haven’t received enough cards for those numbers to mean much. But, it does seem that in general it’s taking at least 50% more time for postcards betwen our countries to reach their destinations than before. Perhaps this is post-COVID normal everywhere?
1 Like
Yes, it’s completely crazy. Especially since my cards between the USA & Europe/Scandinavia are routinely in the 5 - 9 day range.
Are people not uploading a picture of the card right before they put it in the mailbox? Thats my routine. Finish card, photo of both sides, upload photo side to postcrossing, put in mailbox.
1 Like
I think at least half of postcrossers never upload a photo, either sent or received. I do as you do, but I’ve only been photographing the written and stamped side for the last few months.
I have never photographed the written side, but try to do the front as soon as possible so I don’t forget.
I’ve run across a sort of “middle ground” where the sender uploaded a photo, but I changed it to a higher quality one of my own.
1 Like
I sometimes wonder if my mail carrier even picks up every day. She was at my community box for about a minute the other day. How could she deliver mail to 20 boxes plus get outgoing that quickly.
Plus it seems my outgoing are taking extremely long
Could it be that what you saw was not the regular delivery, but that she returned for a forgotten or misplaced item?
I didn’t with my first card or two, but since then I’ve always uploaded the front of the card. I just recently started taking a photo of the back side for my records