When will a Scribble card arrive?
You pick the date it should arrive by. Scribble works backwards and posts the card so it lands in a four to five day window ending on that date. We cannot promise an exact day — once it is with USPS the last mile is not ours to control — so we aim to be early rather than late. The soonest a card can arrive is seven working days from creation.
On this page
#The arithmetic
You give Scribble one date: when the card should be at the door by. Everything else is derived backwards, in working days, so a Thursday arrival date does not quietly schedule writing for a Sunday.
| Deadline | Derivation | Working days before the end of the window |
|---|---|---|
| Post by | arrive-by date − transit − post margin | 4 |
| Pack by | post by − pack lead | 5 |
| Write by | pack by − write lead | 6 |
| Card stock by | write by − artwork lead | 7 |
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Working days | Monday to Friday, minus USPS holidays |
| USPS First Class transit | 3 working days |
| Post margin | 1 working day |
| Pack lead | 1 working day |
| Write lead | 1 working day |
| Card stock lead | 1 working day |
| Window width | 5 calendar days, ending on your date |
#A worked example
A card created on Wednesday 5 August 2026 with no date requested takes the soonest date we can honor, Friday 14 August, and came back from the API with:
"arrives_between": { "earliest": "2026-08-10", "latest": "2026-08-14" }| Deadline | Date |
|---|---|
| Card stock prepared by | Wed 5 Aug (today) |
| Written by | Thu 6 Aug |
| Packed by | Fri 7 Aug |
| Posted by | Mon 10 Aug |
| Arrives between | Mon 10 Aug and Fri 14 Aug |
Seven working days from creation to the far end of the window, and the window covers the five calendar days ending there.
#Choosing the date yourself
Set arrive_on on the API, or an arrive-by date in the campaign wizard, and the whole chain moves to land on it. A card asked to arrive by 14 September 2026 is posted on 8 September and quoted:
"arrives_between": { "earliest": "2026-09-10", "latest": "2026-09-14" }Pick the date of the occasion itself. The window ends there, so the card is early or on time and never after it.
#Big runs take longer to start
A campaign of several thousand cards occupies several days on the machines, so writing has to start earlier than a single card's write-by date. It never changes the posting date, because writing early is free and posting early is not. The schedule step tells you the production start date, and the cancellation deadline is 9am on that date.
#How long a card takes, at a glance
| Request | Arrives by | What you are quoted |
|---|---|---|
| No date given | 7 working days out (9 to 11 calendar days) | A four to five day window ending on that date |
| An arrive-by date at least 7 working days out | The date you gave | A four to five day window ending on it |
| An arrive-by date sooner than that | Not offered | The date picker stops offering dates it cannot hit, and the API tells you the soonest it can |
#Common questions
- Why a window and not a date?
- USPS transit is not deterministic. Quoting a single day means either padding it so heavily it is useless, or being wrong a meaningful fraction of the time. A window that ends on your date is honest, and it fails in the only direction that is acceptable — early.
- Can I pay for delivery on an exact day?
- No. It is not something Scribble sells, because it is not something anyone can honestly sell on top of USPS. Give us the date it should arrive by and the card lands in the four to five days ending on it.
- Does the window include weekends?
- The window is five calendar days, so it includes a weekend more often than not — and USPS does not deliver on Sunday, which is why it is described as four to five delivery days. The production deadlines behind it are all working days.
- What does delivered mean?
- A carrier scan confirmed it. Not every piece of mail gets a delivery scan, so a card without one has not necessarily gone astray.
- Are holidays accounted for?
- Yes. USPS holidays are configured as non-working days and the derivation skips them, so a December arrival date is worked out rather than guessed at and padded.
Last checked against the product on . Something wrong or missing? Tell us.