[Dx-qsl] Using IRCs bought from QSL managers

[Patrick STODDARD]

Hi!

In general, it can be a nuisance exchanging IRCs.  At US post
offices, it can require some education of the postal clerk on
how to redeem them (documented in the USPS International Mail
Manual, publicly available online and cited occasionally on 
this list).  

Specifically to one of your comments:

---

1) You can't send an IRC from country "Foo" to someone IN country Foo. I 
believe they are not exchangeable. For example, I can't take a US IRC that I 
bought at the PO, and redeem it at another US PO. Only someone in another 
country can redeem it.

---

This may be correct for other countries, that an unused IRC is 
not valid for anything if returned to a post office in the 
country of original purchase.  Specifically in the US, you 
*can* do that.  As long as the box on the right side of the IRC 
is not stamped, you may return it for a refund of the original 
purchase price - less 1 cent.  

This is why those extra stamps on the IRCs sold by US post offices
are important.  It doesn't matter when they are redeemed in other
places, but for a refund it does matter.  On the US$ 1.85 IRCs,
you would get US$ 1.84 back from the US post office (or US$ 1.99
for an IRC sold by USPS for US$ 2.00).  Keep this in mind in late
2009, as one way to get some value for those IRCs - 2 US stamps 
for worldwide airmail, at current rates - when trying to get rid
of the IRCs before they expire.  I was able to get $$$ for some
ancient USPS IRCs in late 2006, when they were not being honored
in many places overseas.

I usually hold onto any USPS-issued IRCs if I get them for QSL
cards.  I know I can get more for them locally than reselling 
them or using them for my cards going overseas.  When visiting
the US post office, I bring a copy of the IRC sction from their
International Mail Manual, so the clerk(s) can see what I am 
talking about.  

73!



Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/