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Hello,
You've really got to excuse my naivety here, I struggle enough sending in my own country, let alone sending abroad, and my knowledge of the postal system is incredibly basic. Maybe for me I'm being a bit ambitious here.
I'm trying to send a request abroad, but to be honest haven't a clue how really. I've read some of the threads here, but still don't completley get it.
Firstly, IRCs? I'm guessing you can get them in the UK as well ('international'?), and have read you may need to shop around a bit. What I don't get is what determins exactly how many you need- is it how far you've got to send the letter, how big or heavy the letter is, etc? And I understand the person who recieves them can kind of exchange them for their own countries postage, but is it possible that the celeberity won't reply because they don't want to go through the hassle of exchanging them or whatever?
Also, what postage do I put on the main envelope with like the celeberities address on, if any? Do I literally just write the address and put 'air mail' on the top or is there somthing else I should put on it? Or have I got the complete wrong end of the stick and is there somthing else I should be doing?
Thank you so much, and sorry about all the questions and the length of it all, my knowledge really is that basic- I just really struggle to get to grips with the post anyway here in the UK. Any answers to any of the above would seriously really be appreciated, or any other tips and advice which might help expand my simplistic understanding would also of course be useful.
Thanks again. ;)

Hiya!

Firstly - IRCs, yes you can buy them in England though as you already know, they aren't stocked at every post office. Make sure you ask for 'International Reply Coupons' rather than IRCs as some will have no idea what you are talking about! Please bear in mind that the current edition of IRC is only valid until December 31st 09 and then they expire. Though I belive that soon they will start selling new IRCs which will be valid up until 2013 (unless they already have started selling these that is.) Ask at your post office I would about expiry dates to make sure you get the right ones.

Some celebrities will not reply with IRCs, but a lot will as well. If you can't get hold of IRCs another alternative is to send a few dollars or whatever the currency of the country you are sending to is. If there are any, look at previous successes in the database to see what the celebrity's signing habits are like and whether they use IRCs.

1 IRC is worth the amount of postage to send 20g weight of your envelope back to England Internationally. So you should need at least 2 and perhaps 3 depending on the size of your self addressed envelope and pictures if you are sending any.

On your envelope with the celebrity's address you can either write AIRMAIL or get one of those free blue Airmail - Par Avion stickers from your post office. If you take your envelope there, along with your letter and anything else you are including and get it all weighed and they will tell you how many stamps you will need to send the whole thing out.

Does that make any sense at all? Just post if any of that is confusing!

Good luck, really hope you are successful! {thumb2}

Phoebe

Thank you so much (again)! That makes perfect sense, thanks for clearing those points up

EhSs01 wrote:Thank you so much (again)! That makes perfect sense, thanks for clearing those points up

Haha, any time! Good luck.

Phoebe