How to send a SASE abroad?

When I've traded in the past, it's always ben an exchange. But I am now in the situation where someone has kindly offered me some seed for SASE. As I live in United Kingdom and they live in US, how do I go about stamping the
SASE envelope?

Could somebody help me please?

Daisy_Chain, it may be best to send them enough US currency for them to purchase the appropriate stamps in their country. I did that with a Canadian trader and it worked great.

That's a bit difficult from the UK. US dollar bills aren't that easy (or cheap) to get in small quantities. You'll probably have to get International Reply Coupons at this stage, which are hugely expensive. You get them at your Post Office and send them to another country, then the recipient takes them to their local Post Office and exchanges them for a stamp. It's meant to cover the cost of a minimum rate airmail letter from wherever you're sending it to, but it's several (3-4) times that.

You might want to get prepared to do it again later. Offer some of your seeds for SASE in the US, but ask people to put the stamps inside the envelope, then use UK stamps to send the seeds to them. You then have US stamps ready and waiting for next time.

Thats a neat idea Mary, thanks I'll remember that for next spring.....trading time.

Sorry - was thinking of your trade in reverse (seeds coming from UK to US, not vice versa.) See if your trader is willing to accept your currency and convert it to US $, then they can purchase the postage. Exchange rates are easy enough to come by online or in most large daily newspapers; and the trader should be able to determine the cost of postage from the US Postal Service website (it includes overseas shipping.)

Hope that helps - sorry for the mixup!

Sorry to be a killjoy, Go-Vols, but exchange rates are almost meaningless on small amounts of currency. Reason: The banks almost all charge a transaction fee for making the exchange, and it's often far more than the amount of the money involved.

Best I can figure, based on fairly limited input, the transaction fee averages around five bucks. This hardly shows up when you're talking thousands of dollars. But for $2 worth of stamps, it's easier---and cheaper---to just eat the postage.

With Canada, things are different, because the money is easily exchanged; especially near the border where even merchants accept the other country's currency.

No apology necessary, Brook. Since I'm not the one trading you aren't killing any joy on my part; I was just bouncing around some suggestions on ways for Daisy_Chain to try to make good on the SASE. I figured the traders involved would figure out if it was worth it or not - but it wasn't my place to presume the trader should/would eat the postage.

Thanks for the input guys. A kind friend I met through a trade on DG who lives in US, has offered to send the SASE for me.

Problem solved.
Many thanks

Good to hear, Daisy_Chain! Best of luck growing your soon-to-arrive seeds!