Ever received a postcard that you had trouble registering? Perhaps the Postcard ID was hard to read or it was smudged from all the traveling. Perhaps it was wrong or the sender forgot about writing it in the postcard. It happens, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be registered! There are several things you should try do get those postcards registered and Postcrossing can help you – read on.
The following is an excerpt from our FAQ entry What do I do if I receive a postcard without or with the wrong Postcard ID? which summarizes the things you can do in those cases.
"Postcrossing can help you find the Postcrossing ID for your postcard. But first, please consider the following:
- Make sure that the postcard is an official Postcrossing postcard and not a thank you postcard or a direct swap.
- You can try to enter the correct Postcard ID many times without consequence. So, why not try a different combination? For instance, sometimes 1's can look like 7's, 3's and 5's can look like 8's, etc. Don’t worry, the Postcrossing system will not let you register a postcard that does not belong to you.
- If the postcard has information about the sender, you can use those hints to search for the user in our search users page and then contact them by private message.
- Note that postcards with postcard IDs over one year old cannot be registered. Postcrossing.com does not keep track of which member was assigned a specific Postcrossing ID so submitting an Unknown ID request is not helpful.
If you are still unable to register the postcard, you can submit a Unknown ID request (the link is also on the bottom of the register a postcard page). Fill in as much information as possible even if you are not sure. Sometimes if there is very little information, a description of the postcard can help. Note that the postal cancellation mark often displays the date and postal code/city. The Postcrossing team will try to find it for you using the information you provide, so the more details you submit, the more likely it will be found.
You only need to fill out the Unknown ID request once for each postcard. If you make a mistake, delete the request and enter a new one. It can take several days for a match to be found. Please be patient.
Additionally, if you find the Postcard ID and register the postcard before you receive a response, please delete the request. You can delete any request by clicking the delete button for the request on your received postcards list."
By following all the items above, most postcards with missing or unknown Postcard IDs can be registered. Oh, by the way, to reduce the chances that a postcard that you have sent has these problems, be sure to check out our recommendations on where to write the Postcard ID on postcards. That’s it!
Happy Postcrossing!
:)
21 comments so far
Paulo and the team helped me very often when I got a card without an ID or a wrong one - and they always found it very quickly. I want to say thank you for this great service :)
I have also taken advantage of this great service, more than once, and say "Thank you!".
Yes, many thanks, Paulo. I have used this service very many times! It must cause a lot of trouble to the Team when so many wrong or missing ID's are reported.
The Postcard ID lookup service is great.
I've used this service a few times. I wonder how many requests are made daily....
I was following the poll with much interest. I've seen notes to senders of "unregisterable" cards in profiles many times and it's always astonished me that they hadn't yet found the help option. I was amazed to see just how many people did NOT know about this great tool (thank you for it!!), and I hope that running this poll will have helped inform more postcrossers and reduce the amount of cards your team will have to track! Keep up the wonderful work!
This is a very useful entry. Thanks. (:
I have used this great help on more than one occasion and the correct ID has always been found and usually within the same day too and sometimes I had very little to go on as regards clues etc. It's such a fantastic service. I don't know where we would be without it. Keep up the fantastic work.
This helpful feature has found ID's for me for the past couple of years, and it is relatively quick. Thank you for the feature. Happy Lunar Year of the white-metal-rabbit (today FEb 3).
One of the impressive functions of this extremely well-organized site. Seeking assistance in identifying an official sender, not once have I been disappointed. If it would not give away any secrets, I would be intrigued to know how y'all do it.
Thank you. This service is just great. There is nothing worse than an expired card. This makes a little problem No problem at all.
Cheers
Gillian
I already need to ask for help, and it works! How comes that some people cannot register cards sent with so much care? This site is extremely friendly! Let's enjoy it!
I've used that service a few times and I was always amazed at how quick the answer came. Very speedy delivery of the ID! I also got messages when I forgot about the ID on my sent cards, or when I mixed up the numbers :) Thank you very much, postcrossing team, for your detective work!
I have also used this service a few times and the reply was very quick. Just like Fairyfoot I wonder how many request do you get daily/weekly? And how do you connect the request to the card?
Keep up the good work :D
Like kugusch, I was very surprised to see in the poll that so many postcrossers didn't know this wonderful service exists. I really hope the poll and this blog entry will increase awareness, because it's really sad to know that postcards are expiring when they don't have to, because they didn't get lost on the journey.
you know, this blog thread makes me wonder...in the statistics on the home page, IF you are able to track this...would it be possible to add these types of stats? Expired cards for a certain time period, searches entered vs. cards matched?
Sure would be interesting to see, and having this on the home page stats (maybe with a link to the help?) might also help get more people and future postcrossers that didn't see this poll aware of this tool.
Or, if not on the home page, in the explore/statistics page, maybe?
It is a great help for registrating cards. I have had to use it a couple of times and shortly after been able to register a card. And now I am going to use it again - just got a card with no ID!
Thank you for pointing this out. I can't believe how many people list cards on their profile they can't register but never noticed the link to the help system when they register other cards!
Hi Paulo,
As with others, I've had to use this service and the response times were very quick. The first time I had a card without an ID, I felt really bad as I knew someone was waiting for me to receive it and register it. Thanks goodness for this great service from a great team.
This service is great! I'm glad it exists, it has never let me down. Personally, I always put my username on the card so receivers can contact me if there's a problem with the ID.
The service is great.
There are still many cards with miss Id ,people can use
this ID tool to find out it.
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