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I know this has probably been addressed a number of times, but I've done some searching and found multiple different answers so I'm a bit confused as to what exactly I'm supposed to do here.

I live in the US and I'm trying to send two 5x7 photos to Damian Lewis who lives in Britain.
I've written a small letter to him and put the photos in a padded 8.5x10 envelope (which I might change because it will probably cost more)
and also a piece of cardboard. I heard they will charge more if you include cardboard but I haven't checked with USPS.

Now, I'm not sure how to make is as hassle-free as possible for it to be returned, but since IRCs are no longer available do I have to go somewhere to get my USD exchanged for GBP and just add some British notes in the envelope? Or would it be better to purchase stamps from Royal Mail's website, stick them onto a different self-addressed envelope and fold it into the first one? If so, how many stamps do I need?

I want to get this done as soon as possible because I'm getting his autograph as a gift for a friend who is joining the military. ANY help or thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Hey there! I've sent to multiple people in the UK and have had great success. I send everything in a 9x13 manilla envelope (costs about $2.50ish to mail first class) and have an 8x10 self addressed stamp envelope inside for the return. Since IRCs aren't available, I ordered a few books for first class UK stamps. Those took a few weeks to get here.....I was actually worried because they hadn't even charged my card for like, the first week! But I eventually got them just fine. I use 3 stamps for the return. Good, bad or indifferent I've had successes. Here is where you can order them: http://shop.royalmail.com/stamps/stamp- ... cat/cat157

If you don't want to wait for Royal Mail to ship stamps to you, you could always just send a few American dollars and explain in the letter that you want that to go for postage since you don't have any UK postage yet. I've also had success with that when I sent to people in Australia, New Zealand and Germany. Good luck!!!!!!

The Royal Mail website will also help you out as they have a price calculator, guides and stamp values etc

Thanks for the replies

I ended up ordering a book of 10 first class stamps, which is probably way more than I need but they came in today. I'll probably just slap about 4 of them on the return envelope, that should be enough I guess

I think you need to use the calculator on the Royal Mail website to be sure.

Anything over 5mm in width now has to go Small Packet (as opposed to letters) which is much more expensive.

Why guess and risk your item not getting back when all the info is there?

I just mailed it today, I used a 6x9 envelope for the return and put like 5 First Class stamps on it just to be safe... I'm starting to regret not using a larger envelope for the return because I've heard that he sometimes uses his own photos instead of the ones provided and if that's the case I can only hope his own photos fit. Anyways, too late now haha. thanks everyone

When you mail from the US do you use US stamps first?