It was a slightly better month for me regarding postcards: In June, I sent 84 Postcrossing cards around the world and received 68. That brings my lifetime totals to 11,326 cards sent and 11,300 cards received. As a matter if curiosity, I calculated just yesterday my loss rate: over the past year, 3.2% of cards I send are never registered. That means they were either lost in the mail and were never delivered, or were delivered and not registered by the recipient. In the past, I've noticed a significant portion of these unregistered cards go to Postcrossing members who appear to be active for a very short time after they join and then become inactive. It's as though they lose interest quickly and don't bother to register cards they receive. Another possibility is that the ID number written on the card is wrong (my mistake) or becomes unreadable (from damage to the card or obscuring from postmarks or other labels). Postcrossing has an online form that I use often which assists recipients in obtaining an ID number via a search with other information (date of sending, city of origin, my name, etc.) and I am careful to write the ID number clearly in a location most protected from tears or other damage to the card. I also ensure that date, city, and my name clearly appear on the card. But I fear many Postcrossing members are unaware of this search feature or are too lazy to use it. So when I am back up to my target of sending 100 cards each month, it's sad to think that three of them are wasted effort. But that's how life is. Write on!
