Postcrossing Blog

I once filed a request to find a missing postcard ID number...only to realize a few days later that the card was from a non-Postcrossing friend who had decided to send me a card while she was visiting the Netherlands.

This is not an accident, just a coincidence. A few months ago my teenage daughter and I both sent a postcard to the same lady in USA within a few weeks of each other.

I had accidentally sent two postcards to the same user with the same postcard ID,because I had forgotten the first postcard I'd sent.Then I received a "thank you" postcard back.It was a nice accident for me :)

This is also more of a coincidence, but I love Mark Ryden (an artist) and had been to the ICA in Boston recently and picked up a book of his work. On the way home I picked up my mail and had a postcard from Finland with a Mark Ryden work on it! I was astounded (I don't list specific artists I like on my profile)!

I wish I had some "happy accidents" to share, but maybe if I'm here longer I will have a fun story to share :) All the stories shared here were nice to read! :)

I did something similar to rhiannon808 - when going back to my parents' house for Christmas, I found a book I hadn't finished from the Christmas before. I was horrified to open it up and find a half-finished Postcrossing postcard as a bookmark. I immediately finished it, added a profuse apology and sent it off - only to have them contact me when it arrived saying they'd already registered that ID! I must have unknowingly written them a second one!

The worst accident that ever happened to me was when a received postcard got stuck in a catalogue I received that I didn't look at for a few weeks, so it was registered late. I would like to say how wonderful Postcrossers are at being understanding and generous when these situations occur (and always) - this is a great group of people! :)

Sent two postcards to the same address one for a parent and one for a child. Both within 2 days from each other.
Another time I received beautiful postcard and sender include her address - as my rule I always send Thank you card if there's an address. Well she received my postcard and had to contact me because I haven't register her card yet! I felt so bad, took me couple hours to find that card. I accidentally put in the "wrong" country box.

Last summer I thought two of my received postcards had been put in the recycling bin before I'd had chance to register them. I tipped out all the paper and card from the wheelie bin and searched through it in the garden with no success... then I found the cards on my desk! D'oh!

Once I got a lovely card from far Murmansk, just after I finished reading a book about this place. So I sent a thank-you card back. And a month or so later I requested an adress - and it was the same user again :-D so I sent one regular card too. I´ve never thought to be in such a "busy correspondence" with that part of Earth :-D But that´s a good thing about Postcrossing anyway!

I am from france and I sent a postcard to the us opposite side and it was received only 4 days later I was really surprised

A while back, I received a card from the US by a teacher who wrote for her class of 8-year-olds and the next card I received from the US 2 months later was by the exact same lady who had set up her own account in the meantime. Not an accident but quite an incredible surprise. :-)

well, I have a very happy coincidence. I'm studying in the university of Ulm and I did an exchange semester, so I lived and studied in Riga. During my stay in Riga I received a postcard from Ulm. First I thought that this was from a friend of mine, but it was from a postcrosser who was from North Germany and visiting Ulm! He didn't know that I was originally from Ulm, so it was a very lucky coincidence! And I was so happy to have a little piece of home in my room abroad. :)

A few times I've received cards with a very long traveltime, one card traveled for 312 days. When that happens, I always wonder if there is a funny story behind, and I start to fantasize like: "this card was lost in the postoffice and just recently found behind a shelf" or something like that... :)

I was on holiday for a weekend in a small german town called Bad Nauheim (3 hours from my home). From there I sent a card to an US postcrosser who told me after receiving my postcard that he was born exactly in this german town 64 years ago!

A very silly accident happend to me: the day I had written my very first postcard (selected with great care) for my very first address, my husband and I strolled down to the mailbox to post it! I was so proud and liked the idea that someone somewhere in the world would receive this card. But it was very blustery day. And guess what? Just as we past the canal boarding our neighbourhood, a wicked gust of wind got hold of the card in my hand and blew it into the wild streaming water. My beautiful card twirled and twirled went down and down...and it was gone. My first card got never sent!

My profile reads that I enjoy Ballroom Dancing. I received a card with balloons from a very excited postcrosser, saying that he finally found one because I like balloons. My heart went out to him. He miss read my profile.

Once an official postcard addressed to us was received by another postcrosser hundreds of miles away in another state. Our address was written correctly, so how it ended up in another postcrosser's mailbox hundreds of miles away is a mystery! She was kind enough to put it in an envelope and send it to us!

The other day I made the worst mistake! I had written about 8 postcards and was very excited to send them all around the world, carefully picked out for everyone. Into the mailbox they went, and the next day as I was standing chatting to a friend, I thought I had better buy some new stamps. A horrible wave of realistion hit me, I hadn't put any stamps on the cards!!!! So there were 8 cards, sitting in a postbox, and who knows their fate now. Perhaps the postman will lovingly send them on?!

Last year I got a Postcrossing card from China in my mailbox and it was addressed to an address in Russia (I'm in the US). It is not at all uncommon for me to get cards not addressed to me because the postcards often stick together, but usually it is the card addressed to me that is on the bottom, with the address showing. I was at a lost as to how the Chinese card with Russian address got to me. Two days later I got a Postcrossing card from the same Chinese member. I guess the card addressed to Russia was stuck to mine, but somehow came loose in the mailman's bag and he didn't find mine until two days later. I did send the card addressed to Russia along its merry way.

And I have addressed cards to AUSTRIA instead of AUSTRALIA and vice versa. Since I put my return address on outgoing, the cards do eventually make it back to me to correct. Once someone in Australia DID get a card I addressed to Austria, though. Post office in Austria must have been on the ball and realized the mistake, sending it along to Australia so I didn't have to pay postage twice.

Something similar to wanderluster happened to me! I quickly wrote two official postcards and dropped them in the mailbox close to my house only to realize as the cards dropped into the bin that I had forgotten to put stamps on them....so I quickly ran back home and grabbed some stamps and waited for about 40 minutes in the cold for the mailperson to come and collect the mail. After explaining to the carrier what I had done, we both searched through the pile of mail and she allowed me to put the stamps on the postcards. Now I always double and triple check that the postage is affixed before dropping them in the drop-box!

I sent a postcard to a fellow postcrosser and it became EXPIRED. The next day I read someones PROFILE about how they sent out a second postcard at the 30 day interval, so I thought I would do the same. When I went to write the second postcard I realized that I had written the wrong [incomplete]
address.

On a Friday evening one of my two postcrossing daughters sent me a sms to let me know one of my cards was registrated.
I required a new address and it was hers, so I had a special weekend living with this secret. In December a Lithuanian postcrosser asked me to swap cards, we became friends, and in January I had to send her an official postcrosser card.
And there is a postcrosser family of 4 members in The Netherlands with the same address, I had to send a card to all 4 of them.
All these coincidents gave lots of smiles by all people I tell this.

I have sent a postcard to Russia on 28/2/2012 at a mini post office which is nearby my house. However, I have received such postcard on 6/3/2012. At first I thought the postcard had returned to me due to I have written the wrong address. FYI, I have written my returned address on the left bottom of the postcard. Then I noticed that actually it was not due to I have written the wrong address for my postcard, in fact the postcard has been sent to my home address instead of to Russia.
My postcard has been stamped by the post office dated 2/5/2012 and then delivered to my home address. Gosh, I was shocked for it. FYI, I was using a different colour pen to write the receiver’s address on the postcard, whereas my returned home address was written at the bottom left of the postcard. I even written “TO, MS.XXX” (the name of the receiver) on the first line and followed by the receiver’s address on the next few lines.
Since my postcard had been stamped, I could only send the postcard to Russia again which enclosed with an envelope. I put my postcard into the envelope and have sent again. Of course it had cost me more for the postage this time! I wish that this time my postcard is able to reach my Russian postcrosser, and would not be returned to me again.

A month ago I received a postcard, registered it and put to my postcard storage. Yesterday I was showing all my postcards to my friend and she told me that there were no street name in the address. only my name, city and house number. I live in Moscow and it is really huge.
So I think it's impressive that this card arrived in time. and I still don't know how our postmen found me)

I was reading the profile of a Russian Postcrosser, where she mentioned that she likes choppers. At first I was very happy, as I have several cards featuring helicopters, but then I thought it was kind of strange for a girl. Moreover, her profile picture showed her sitting on a motorcycle. I looked it up in the dictionary, and there it was - chopper also meant "a customized motorcycle". Almost blew it :)

I once sent a postcard to a friend, but forgot to put the address. I know the Post Office is very helpful, but they did not manage to deliver this one!

Accidents? Well, look at:
http://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/BY-210246

Last year I sent a card to the Netherlands on April Fools' Day. I wrote an incredible story about my childhood, allegedly spent in Egypt wrapping and unwrapping mummies etc. Unfortunately the receiver didn't get the joke, and believed it all!
Next time I draw an address on April 1st - if it's to a country where they have the tradition of fooling other people - I'll make sure to mark the date all over the card, and write JOKE JOKE JOKE.

well maybe not an accident but I sent a card before christmas to a member in St Petersburg Russia.It was a zazzle card that I had printed for christmas.So devastated when it expired so I contacted her and sent her another one.
The the first one arrived over 100 days and the second one arrived two days after the first.....! still laughing.if only the card could say where ot had been.

Great stories. Is there a record for the longest traveling card??

Once i had 4 slots open and i was so excited that i forgot to write the addresses :)

Haha! I like the April Fool's Day one! I'm going to do that this time around!

my "accident" is, that our postman always puts all postcards for the neighbourhood in my mail box, so I have to deliver them. Actually it's his accident ;)

And someone asked for the longest traveling card, mine was 290 days to Belarus (only 1000-something kilometers away)

I was reading this blog and realized I had not mailed the postcard on my desk. I ran out to the postbox - only 1000 feet away. As I went to put the card in the box, I realized the color was wrong and stopped. I was mailing the card I got today not the one I was sending to Germany.

Back when I was fairly new to Postcrossing, I had some miscommunications with a German Postcrosser. She wanted a card with a person on it. At that time, the only card I had like that was a Valentine with a little cherub's face on it. It was early in February, so I thought that it would be appreciated for Valentine's Day. I sent it, and later learned that her request for "a card with a person" meant that she wanted a picture of a celebrity. And when she received my Valentine, her husband became suspicious and started asking her about her old boyfriends!

For a long time after this, I avoided sending Valentines through Postcrossing. This year, I made an exception and I'm glad I did. Everyone who received a Valentine from me this year liked it. One lonely lady was especially grateful, and said that my Valentine was probably the only one she would receive this year.

Okay...I just checked and one of my cards took 348 days!! What was cool about it was that it was sent close to Christmas and had a Christmas theme so it just made it by the following Christmas!! Works for me...ha ha!!!

A postcard from Korea traveled 337 days, until it reached my mailbox. And I sent a postcard to Ukraine. This card was 248 days on the way, until the user found it in his mailmox. A long journey....

I was so excited to send my first card out that I forgot to put the ID on it. Luckily I realised it in time and send a message to the receiver with the ID :).

When I started postcrossing, I saw cards of Jetoy and I totally fell in love with him. I wrote on my profile that I'd love to get Jetoy cards. Until a few weeks ago I still hadn't received a Jetoy card and I was thinking of changing my profile to say that Jetoy is my absolute favorite in the hope someone would send me a Jetoy card soon. When I checked the mail that day, a Jetoy card from Korea was in my mailbox!

This is not a mistake of me, but still a story.
One of my first postcards when I started postcrossing was sent to China, but the girl said that she was a student in USA at her profile. As I understand after a while where that she just had moved and hadn't change her address yet.
After a year - 354 days - she registred the card, when she arrived to China again.

Postcrossing my first card I came to China on the back of it is written in English and Chinese. the postman deliver it to my mother by tomorrow. My mother was surprised to see the card look your reading glasses to read the back of the card and the surprise was that it was written in English and Chinese, angrily told me I will have to learn English to read what you write. That's my anecdote

This was a surprising accident for me:
Back in 2009 I received 2 postcards from Taiwan with successive IDs.
Since I am a good girl, I register them in the proper order.
Taiwan is an country with many active postcrossers therefore I think that one person receives postcards with successive IDs from there is pretty rare, especially since I am not the most active user.
Maybe luck was on my side.

No accidents as yet - no doubt there will be one sometime. We have a fantastic postman, he told me he loves delivering cards to me because of all the beautiful stamps. Now I think he plays games with me as he knows I love my cards. If we receive a lot of 'junk mail,' which happens nearly every day, Adrian puts my cards in the middle of it all. I have to be so careful my lovely cards don't end up in the re-cycling box.

I had a card to send and packed it into an outer pocket of my rucksack. Unfortunately I lost it somewhere. But a few days later, the card arrived at the receiver. Some stranger must have picked up the card from the ground and thrown it into the postbox. Thank you very much, stranger!

I've got a postcard via private swap from India and realized that an other postcard got caught on my postcard. I've sent that card again to the correct destination and the card arrives.

I got two different postcards from the same Postcrosser :-)

I got a handmade envelope from a US postcrosser and decided to try the same thing. I spent ages making a beautiful envelope from a calendar photo of a koala and stuck my stamps on - the next day the envelope arrived back to me as the stamps had fallen off. I realised the high gloss calendar paper meant the Aussie stamps wouldn't stick. So I put a blank label on and then put more stamps on. As this was a big envelope with swaps in it - this was a costly silly mistake and one I haven't made again LOL

My mother and I have both had private swap requests from the same Postcrosser in Cuba. My mother and I have different surnames so they would not have know we are related, oh, and we live 2 hours apart.

Well, maybe some words about not accidents, I think, but just my experience))so...
-I forgot to take a picture of my 1st sent card!Just put in a box then recollected!
-The sweetest cards I got were from Nico (Finland, 5 y.old), Sophie (USA, 6) and Daniil (Russia, 8):)))The card I waited much was from South Africa: I just thought about it and the next day (exactly!) it came;
-I got cards wrote in Russian two times from girls named Olga, too, but from Germany and Australia!
-Once I got a card-a picture of a Dutch artist which he made :)I also got a card of the picture painted by a child and the card painted by a disabled artist who used her mouth to paint it:(
-Three cards were with my address WRITTEN in Russian but sent from USA, Finland and Vietnam))and Chinese member wrote greetings in Belarusian;
-The girl sent a view-card and put/glued another card on the top, the first card arrived without that on the top))lost))
-I get lots of cards from teachers like me)
-A Brazilian girl was so kind to send me not one, but three cards in an envelope)thanx!
-I got a card with incorrect ID from Lithuania but managed to find this girl easily)
-Sometimes people mix up my house number, flat number, postcode)But everytime the card reached me. Our postwomen know me)and on March, 8 when I did not hope to get anything (a day-off!)but early my neighbour came and gave me the card he took of his box!thanks!
-Only once I got officially doubled cards, but recently I've got the same card as my card-pal sent me some months ago!
-I was to get a card from Germany, but it lost somewhere, so the girl asked me to upload the card and then he would send me another one. I did and received the 2nd card only a few days later;
-First I got a card from Thailand and then, some months after I sent mine to the same person but on another account!
-I met the girl (she is a friend of my friend)from another place and a month after I got a card from her here)how could it be?
-The first card I got in 2012 was a wedding card! Does it mean anything?:))
-Some strange/unusual thoughts/questions on cards:
A Dutch member dreamed of becoming an owl and fly away)
I got a card from a cat Sylvester (USA)!
A Chinese member asked what people think about waiter's job in Belarus and if it is a low level;
Members from Austria and Korea first studied there is such a country and a nation as Belarus (thanx, postcrossing!)
A Belgian woman wanted to read 100 books in 1001 days))
The funniest case was in February when I got a Birthday card from Russia and this girl asked me to pretend that I didn't see it as I have it in August)))OK, I will!

Thanks for reading it!:)))

I love this card, it only traveled 5 km, what are the odds to that: http://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/US-1536217

I once looked at the Flickr photo side from a member in South Africa for hours. I wished to get a card from there and the next day I had an official from exact that person in my mailbox!

Nov 2011 I received a postcardboardcard from Taiwan, here it is www.postcrossing.com/postcards/TW-402792
beautiful isn't it - although half of the box, what would be on the other half? The grass is always greener at the other side - just be happy ...
March 2012 I received another postcardboardcard from Taiwan which I thought I had seen before... this one www.postcrossing.com/postcards/TW-441602
From a different user, but it turns out that the first Taiwan postcrosser had kept the other half [see comments]!
well it's not an accident, more an incident. Or luck.

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One of my received postcardboardcards was discussed in Chineese, it made me curious to know what they are talking about. If a quarter of the population knows Chineese I must be able (with googletranslate) to read it as well. So I learned about douban www.postcrossing.com/postcards/CN-307934 - since then I write addresses to China in chineese, it's realy fun to do and becomes easier every card [if you use sent to repeated countries you can practise chineese and russian a lot so you won't forget easy, recommended to try now and then - I change it every 10 / 11 sent cards].

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Happy accident: after returning from my sister abroad I felt sad & started postcrossing and.... received her name! One out of 200,000! www.postcrossing.com/postcards/NL-493098 the problem was if she would register the card as I usualy write fake-ID's on cards to her. So this one I sent anonymous in more bad handwriting then usual, her daughter recognised my handwriting though.

One of my postcards was delivered to a postcrosser that lived down the street from the postcrosser that was supposed to get my card! Apparently this happened often! :)

Someone sent me a handmade postcard. The image part was gone, so I received a very thin piece of paper with a message and my address, saying she hoped I liked the image. Another card arrived in three pieces in a post office envelope. I still loved it!

When I first started postcrossing, it seemed to take ages before my 1st card arrived. I was checking the post as soon as I got home from work. Disappointed again I opened the fridge to start making tea and there was a postcard looking at me. My daughter had put it there and continued to do this from then on. It became known as fridge mail. Recently my daughter left home and I missed my fridge mail.Having been away for the weekend, we arrived home last night and my daughter had called to check the house, and yes I had fridge mail, What a lovely surprise.

One summer I took a computer class in make Power Point presentations. For my class project, I told about postcrossing. Then I contacted Ana (of the postcrossing team) to ask if they would like to use it for promotional purposes. She sent her address and I mailed a CD with the power point on it. A few days later I requested new addresses, and one of them looked very familiar. From the random selection of postcrossing, I had received Ana's address to send a postcard! Such a coincidence!

For a long time I didn't know what is a maxi-card. So, when one postcrosser asked for a maxi-card, I sent him a really big card :)

Once I recieved a card from China, with Chinese stamps, but it had been postmarked in a small village in Lapland (northern Finland), roughly 1000 km from where I live. It remains a mystery why the card had not been postmarked in China, why it had traveled to Lapland and why they postmarked it there (Finnish postmark on Chinese stamps)...

Today I was sending a postcard to Taiwan when I realized I was all out of 45 cent stamps that I normally use. So after a while I realized that the only stamps I had left were 5 cent stamps, so by the end I had to use 21 5 cent stamps! That's more than an entire sheet of them! So I only had room to write the ID and a little message, (Hi) and the address, which was 6 lines long. I'm really hoping that it makes it there alright and that the person who gets it won't wonder why they got a card with so many stamps.

Well, it was my first batch of 5 post card's to send out, 2 of them I filled out wrong, and they were mailed right back to me! So, I sent out 2 new one's and learned a lesson! But this is great fun.

I had two address's to send cards to. I carefully checked both profiles and selected the most perfect card I could find for each of them. I then wrote my messages to both addresses and duly posted off the cards happy in the knowledge that I had done well. It was not until both cards were registered by the receipients that I realised I had sent the cards to the wrong people. Thankfully, however, both postcrossers loved the cards they received and I'll never know if they would have like the cards which were actually intended for them. I've not made that mistake again . . . . . well, yet, anyway!!

Wow, it is so interesting to read everyone's stories!
I once made the mistake of writing the postal code wrong, but the card eventually made it to the correct person (she did reprimand me though!)
What I love the most is the happy coincidences, because both my daughters and I are Postcrossers. We have often received cards from the same person and have also sent cards to the same people, once even on the same day!
I have also done a private swap with a lovely lady in China, only to receive her address a couple of months later to send her an official card.
I also love it when I receive cards from South Africans living abroad, especially when they write on the card in Afrikaans.
Oh, and I know what wanderluster & Krazy4Krsna feel like - I have also put cards in the postbox without stamps - an expensive mistake to make!

I recently received a card from a boy (who made an account for his girlfriend) who stated that it would have been faster to deliver the card himself, because we live only 4 km apart as the crow flies!
It took just one day for the card to arrive, which is a miracle with the Dutch postal service nowadays. ;-(

I recently sent not only a card to a man in Sri Lanka, but also 8 different small coins an a little plastic sleeve with used Dutch stamps, because he collects them.
I don't mind to pay more postage occasionally to fulfill requests like this, but in this case the man only received a torn envelope with a card and only 1 (forgotten?) stamp.
All the other stamps and the coins were gone.
I had taped them on a sturdy piece of cardstock and also included a piece of Dutch newspaper with an article on Napoleon founding the street where I work nowadays.
So I don't think they could have felt exactly what was in the envelope, but I think they just opened it, found out what was in it and took it.
No need to say that this was a big dissapointment for both of us!

OOPs nothing to bad but I just sent a card today with the ID# and the address and forgot to write a message on the card.

An unlucky coincidence a few weeks back: I got the address of a lady in Taiwan who likes art and has Dutch ancestors. So I randomly chose a Van Gogh painting card from my big Van Gogh stock and sent it to her (hasn't been registered yet). A few days later I got a new profile with a wishlist which was very different from my stock. I looked at their favourites and the card I had just sent of to Taiwan was there, too. :-( That was really unlucky for me and I hope they'll like what I sent them in the end...

One time I sent a card of a snake from Amazon basin to someone who has phobia of serpents. I apologized and sent another card one.

When I just started Postcrossing I sent about 3 maybe 4 postcards all of them without airmail stickers as a kid I didn't actually what they where myum just told me I had to put them on once I'd realized I hadn't put them on I started crying it was for a long time and finally my mum told me that they would probably still get there unfortunately they didn't and I went of for another 30mins of crying out loud

i always write description of received postcard, but today i wrote it in the field of thank you message, and understood mistake only after registering :) then i sent my thankfullness in a separate message

I once got a message from a lady in Germany as her card to me didn't arrive yet. She felt that 14 days going from Germany to Belgium was quite long (and it is). A few days later I got her card with 2 postal marks: one from her village in Germany and one from Cairo, Egypt !!! It is a mystery to me how it got there.

That is so weird!

I was inspired to create a design using the name of the girl to whom I was sending the card. I painted onto the back of the card and used a spray to make sure it wouldn't wash off as it traveled. Unfortunately, the design survived, but the address and ID washed off! That was one card that had to be trashed, and I sent a new card - minus the artwork :-(

Today I had a really nice postcrossing experience - I received two cards from Canada with the same photo of moose on each! The cards are slighty different - different text and layout on the front of the cards - but the photo is the same. I have moose on my wishlist, so how nice to have two people send me moose cards at the same time.

I sent three cards with a note to Russia as a private swap. They stole the cards and the envelope with nice stamps in Russia. After that they put my note to a Russian envelope and wrote the receiver´s address there. This envelope was originally travelling from some Russian member to USA, but they had stolen this card, too, and put my note there. So, there is a member in USA, too, who will never receive a card, which belongs to him. I just wonder, how much trouble they had, when taking these envelopes and send one of them to a new address. Luckily so, then my Russian friend get to know, that I had tried to send her cards, but they never arrive to her. Of course, we were both very sad and angry. I have sent her new cards, but they never arrive to her. So, it is very difficult to make private swaps to Russia, which is a pity, because, there are many beautiful cards, which I would love to exchange.

Another accident, but happy one this time. One girl from Taiwan asked me for a private swap. And only a few days later, my daughter got her address as an official address.

Once I asked for a private swap, and received this member´s address as an official address only a few days later.

I have sent several times cards to members in same family, and also received cards from family members. For example, I received today a postcard from a girl, whose sister sent me a card only a week ago.

Hello, one of the postcards who was send to me from Finland, was burned in de postbox,and the Finish Postoffice send it to me with a very gentle letter to apologize.

I had pictures of my first cards all ready to go- and the files got lost in the transfer to my computer, after I'd mailed the cards. *sadface*