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I am pretty sure there is a post about this already, but I am having a bad brain day and couldn't find it. If anyone has any info, please let me know or direct me to the forum.

I live in the US and I'd like to try sending some requests over seas, but am not quite sure how to go about it. I checked with the post office about International Reply Coupons, but was told the post office no longers does that.

What is the proper (or most efficent) way to send a request over seas? Do I need to purchase the other country's postage to send or to receive? Would it be easier to use something like UPS or FedEx? Should my shipping materials be even sturdier than I normally use?

I haven't been able to find a solid answer so any assistance is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I'm in the UK and send regularly to the US, so similar principles apply.

IRCs exist, but can be tricky to find, and are expensive compared to stamps. Depending on where you're writing to you should be able to find someone on here to trade stamps with, it will make it easier for the person you're writing to as well as they won't have to cash the IRCs at the post office counter.

I definitely come down in the sending stamps category, if I were being asked to sign something and then also to have to drive to the post office and queue up to be able to send it back I might have second thoughts about it, while stamps make it simple. Make sure you've put enough on for the return journey. (If you send to the UK and there aren't enough stamps to get it back to you the post office will put a sticker on it for the sender to add extra postage. If they haven't written their return address on it will be sent to the dead letter office and before long it will be destroyed).

You need to check the website of the post office of the country you're writing to quite carefully, different countries have all sorts of odd regulations about sizes, weights, there are probably even some which charge more for tasteless coloured envelopes. From the UK it's done purely on weight, which might save you some time hunting around for catches.

You will need to make a judgement about protecting the item you're sending and the weight of the envelope that you're sending (as well as the one coming back). Board backed envelopes are probably as sturdy as you will need (unless you're very unlucky), although they are heavy compared to an ordinary envelope with a piece of reasonably thin but sturdy card for protection, and can put the cost of postage up quite a lot. I use the same protection that I use for the ones I send in the UK, and even though the edges of the return envelopes are usually a bit more beaten up on the overseas ones, I find that the card is enough to protect the photo.

Good luck

Thanks for the information! You have no idea how much that helps!

I happen to want to try for a few in the UK. Trading postage is something I never even considered but it makes perfect sense. Is it American postage to send to the UK and UK postage to send back or the other way around?

That's right, US postage on yours, foreign stamps on the ones coming back. I've just posted on another thread about how you can reduce the postage back from the UK by using Small Packet rate instead of airmail postage, link is viewtopic.php?f=2&t=228553.

I can't remember which forum it is on here to request trading stamps, I think it's "Autographs for sale/wanted", but would appreciate it if someone could either confirm or correct that please.