Not sure what you mean or why bump an old topic as OP lives in the UK and we haven't had IRC's for over 5 years.

They were expensive and hard to get hold of anyway as most PO Staff didn't know what you were on about.

Yes it can be tricky at times without them, but for mainstream countries like the USA US stamps are easy to get hold of online and not that expensive, especially compared to IRC's IMO.

There are other methods such as enclosing cash.

Hey, you are lucky. I live in the Republic of Ireland. An Post (the national postage service) did away with IRCs. This means I have to either continue to buy Forever Stamps or drive up to Northern Ireland and buy a lot of IRCs at a time. This is only for every other countries than Great Britian, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Foreign stamps are always going to cost.

For an average SASE you'd need 3 standard US First Class Forever Stamps (49c each), which exceeds the value of one global Forever stamp($1.20)

I'd suggest using the USPS online calculator to work out which stamp is most cost effective.

There is more general information here:

http://www.fanmail.biz/mboard/viewtopic ... 2&start=60

I know the forever stamps are expensive at around £1.00 each but they are worth it for the weight and sizes they can be used for, the chances are any other stamps will only cost the same or you'll need to add the same amount money-wise, you still pay either way.

Best thing maybe to buy forever stamps in bulk or root out the best deal you can.

Hi,
I live in the United Kingdom and there are loads of U.S. addresses I'd like to send to (including a SASE).

I have a couple of Forever stamps I brought on eBay but these are really expensive. On the USPS store, I don't really get it... what stamps do people use in America at the moment? I'm not a stamp collector, I just want to buy a cheap first-class usable USA stamp, either from in the U.K. or online.

Please help!