Postcrossing Blog

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:

1. Make sure that the postcard is an official Postcrossing postcard and not a thank you postcard or a direct swap.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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!

Ever wondered which of the postcards you sent are the most favourited? Or which type of postcards are the most loved? Now you can!

In your Postcard wall there is now a new Popular section with the postcards that you sent that were most favourited. The list is ordered from the most popular to the one that received less favourites.

We know this was on the wish-list of many Postcrossers so we are very happy to release this new feature. As always, your feedback is welcome!

Did you ever receive a postcard without a Postcard ID? Or perhaps one you couldn’t read completely? Perhaps you submitted your request for help, but you think you could find out who the sender was based on the clues written on the postcard?

Then put your detective hat on and come check our new feature: users search!

Now you can search for users by their username, or even just parts of it! You can filter by location, when they have last used their account, if they are interested in direct swaps, etc.

This has been, for a long time, a very requested feature and we are very happy to be able to provide it to you now. Your support and feedback has been very important to achieve this, so a big thank you to all Postcrossers!

Oh! And, as always, we like to hear from you, so go run some searches and let us know how you like it! Happy Postcrossing! :)

We know many Postcrossers take their yearly break in the upcoming weeks to relax and visit new places. If you are one of those and you’ll be away from your home address for a while, we recommend you to switch your account to the Inactive state – you can do that easily just by editing your Postcrossing account. When you are back, all you need to do is to switch it back to Active and you’ll be back in business again! This will tell Postcrossing to not give your address to any other member while you are away. Rest assured that when you’re back, they will be sent your way.

Oh, and don’t forget to re-stock with postcards from the place where you’ll be spending your days away!

Bon voyage!

During this week we’ve made a couple of changes that you might have noticed already. If not, here’s a quick summary:

Upload sent postcards

Many users are very proud of their postcards walls. They upload every postcard they received, but till recently, they could do very little about the postcards they send: if the user to whom they sent a postcard didn’t have the chance to upload it, then there would be some gaps on the wall.

Now, that’s easy to prevent: the sender is also able to upload the postcard image. This will help keep the walls complete. By the way, if the postcard is still traveling, then the image will be visible only when the postcard gets registered.

Direct swaps

We have revamped the edit profile section which was getting very long and a bit confusing. Now, there’s a separate edit account section where you can manage your Postcrossing account details and another one just for the profile bits. And together with it, we introduced a new profile option: interest in direct swaps. What is it? Simple: if you are interested in doing direct swaps with other users, you can check this box. This way your profile will indicate that you are interested in doing direct swaps. Conversely, users who are not interested will note so on their profile so that they don’t receive enquiry messages. Please mind that direct swaps are not tracked by the Postcrossing website and it is totally up to the users to coordinate those swaps. By the way, the default value is “not interested” so be sure change this if you are interested.

As usual, let us know what you think of the changes and keep submitting your thoughts and ideas on how to improve the project.