I spent lunch today bouncing around area Post Offices until someone could definitively tell me that, while the USPS honors International Reply Coupons [1], they do not sell them [2].

So now sending a SASE to Omsk involves finding an online market for these products, knowing someone in a country with a postal service with a more rational posture toward IRCs, trying to navigate a foreign country’s postal service web site, or just throwing US currency in with the envelope and hope the person on the receiving end has decent luck turning that into appropriate postage.

This was a problem solved in 1906 [3]. Why the Hell is it no longer solved?

A cursory glance at eBay shows stamps are going for about twice the face value with shipping & handling being yet another multiple of the nominal value of the stamp. Russian Post [4] feels a little intimidating although I think I’ve figured out I need to purchase ₽27,14 (68¢) worth of postage. I’m just not sure how to get that paid for and shipped to me.

As for shipping US currency—I’m not morally opposed to it. I just don’t know how convenient that is for someone living somewhere north of Kazakhstan to deal with. And, really, this is the biggest obstacle to getting the QSL card that I’m really into receiving. Judging by the guy’s signal [5] and looking at his online logging, the guy probably gets scores of cards a week. I want his sending a card this direction to be as painless and brainless as possible.

So any of my Canadian friends want to engage in a little international commerce? Tariff is negotiable.

[1] http://www.upu.int/en/activities/international-reply-coupons/about-international-reply-coupons.html
[2] http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/immc3_020.htm
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reply_coupon
[4] http://www.russianpost.ru
[5] http://www.blackfez.com/2014/10/06/omsk-on-20-meters/