New to this, problems with getting IRC's and USD?

[LucyMoore7]

hiya

im new to all this, me and my partner have set ourself a challege to get 50 autographs from our favorite stars, for our 1year old son by this time next year so we started 2011 june and hope to get our target by next june 2012.

problem is most of our favorite stars are US based so as we are in the UK i read about using IRCs but i cant find them at any of our post offices, ive been on to the post offices all morning and they seem to have never heard of them so i thought maybe send us dollars but i cant get them either as the minimum covertion is £100 to dollars. i dont want to send a letter without anything as thats a bit rude isnt it to expect them to send it back out there own pocket.

ive tryed ebay but no joy there either

thought maybe do a buddy up and swap some us stamps for some uk ones? anyone no if this would be possible?

thanks alot sorry in new to this so i hope ive done this correct x

[leonel9]

Hello Well i have over 100 autographs already and have never used anything just a reqular stamp to send there and they use there own stamps to send back idk if you can call it rude but most of my replies are Postage paid and i am from australia soo it is harder getting some successes over here sadly if you wana chat add me and i will be more then happy to help you p.s good luck

[LucyMoore7]

oh right thank you for your help. so if i just send a regular stamped addressed envelope with my own countrys stamp will that get back to me?

[kimmylee]

No, UK stamps are not valid in the US. What the member meant was they don't send any return postage with their requests.

I did write a longer reply but it got eaten by the web lol.

Check out the Autograph sale/exchange forum where you can purchase or trade stamps. I get my US stamps from Packrat He offers set stamps but you can ask for any and see what he says (I for example buy $1 stamps from him).

As you're looking to do 50 requests that would be your cheapest way, that amount of IRC's (if you could find them) would be very expensive, as you'd need 2 per request. Or, you could maybe go to a Bank or Travel Agency for a smaller amount of US$ (in person as online currency has a high minimum exchange), but again for 50 requests that is going to be alot of money spent at once.

Good luck!

[LucyMoore7]

Thank you, i see what you mean now.
Id say about 10 of the 50 that were hoping to send to are US based the rest are uk so im ok with them sending 1st class stamped addressed envelopes.
Its just the US ones that are holding me back a little on how to go about sending them. I will have a look for the stamps on here, thanks again x