Australia.. How do I send there from America?

[flashman441]

I want to send a letter to a celebrity who lives in Australia. What do I do as far as postage?? and sase?? thanks!

[DanaRenoMBA]

I don't have a "correct" answer for you, but can tell you what I do when mailing to foreign countries. By the way if you want you should be able to find threads redarding IRC's and other related material in collecting help.

Generally what I do is take my requests to other countries to my local post office and allow the clerk to weigh and look up the rates to the specific country. As for the SAE (I do not send SASE's out of the country) I usually put a $5.00 bill on the SAE with a paper clip. I know that it is not recommended that any one send cash through the mail, but I take the risk and have had no problems.

[SilentEcho219]

Generally what I do is take my requests to other countries to my local post office and allow the clerk to weigh and look up the rates to the specific country. As for the SAE (I do not send SASE's out of the country) I usually put a $5.00 bill on the SAE with a paper clip. I know that it is not recommended that any one send cash through the mail, but I take the risk and have had no problems.

I read that you shouldn't use paper clips when shipping internationally because it could set off a metal detector going through customs and your letter would be opened. Don't know how true this is, but it seems possible, so I don't know.

Anyway. To send to Australia, you can use regular US stamps. However, you can't put US stamps on an SASE. The easiest thing to do is send no postage and just include a few bucks, like DanaRenoMBA does. IRCs seem to be more money than they are worth. You could also save the person you are writing to a step and go to your bank and exchange some money for Australian currency and send that.

You can figure out the postage to send your letter (and photos, if you're sending those) to Australia on the Postal Service's International Postage calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/
You will need to know an roughly what the weight of everything you are sending is.

[DanaRenoMBA]

Good point, but like I said, I know what they say about doing it my way, but it works for me.

[flashman441]

Thanks guys! I would be sending a 9x12 envelope. If i were to use usa stamps. Would it be about 6 stamps? I attempted to use the postal service calculator but I failed. lol

[SilentEcho219]

Thanks guys! I would be sending a 9x12 envelope. If i were to use usa stamps. Would it be about 6 stamps? I attempted to use the postal service calculator but I failed. lol

What are you sending? How many photos and what size? Are you sending cardboard? Let me know and I can weigh them and then figure out the cost on the calculator for you.

6 stamps does sound about right though.

[flashman441]

Hey thanks a lot in advance. I would be sending 2 8x10 photos, thin cardboard, and a sae, with some money.

[SilentEcho219]

Hey thanks a lot in advance. I would be sending 2 8x10 photos, thin cardboard, and a sae, with some money.

I got a little over 3 ounces, so I typed 3.1 in the calculator and it said it would cost $3.76 to send that to Australia... you'd need 9 stamps to cover that! A lot more than I expected.

You might want to take it to the post office to save a few cents or buy some 98 cent stamps, so you'd only need to put 4 stamps on the envelope (not saving you money, but at least the envelope is not cluttered with postage).

Also, make sure you write "BY AIRMAL - PAR AVION" on on the envelope somewhere on the top. Since it's going to Australia, it will probably go via Airmail anyway, but write it just to be safe. It would suck for it to be put on a boat instead. It would take forever to get there!

[dfreely]

I use IRCs with my Australian requests since a single one covers quite a lot ($2.10, or 50 grams). I've never been a "send cash" type of guy though, even if it has worked fine for some people.

Also, make sure you write "BY AIRMAL - PAR AVION" on on the envelope somewhere on the top. Since it's going to Australia, it will probably go via Airmail anyway, but write it just to be safe. It would suck for it to be put on a boat instead. It would take forever to get there!

USPS discontinued surface mail years ago, but I think Australia still uses it, so it should be added to the SASE at least. Certainly doesn't hurt to be safe.

[vjw0307]

Here is a very easy answer, just go to your local post office!