Many Postcrossing members exchange postcards between them besides exchanging the official Postcrossing ones. We call these direct swaps. They are exchanges organized by the Postcrossing members themselves, often in the forum and are not tracked by the system and hence do not have Postcard IDs.

To help members know if another member is available for private swaps or not, we allow members to configure that on their profile. This way, members who are interested in doing direct swaps are easier to find and members who do not wish to participate can clearly state that too.