[Dx-qsl] INTERNATIONAL POSTAL RATES AIRMAIL VS PRIORITY

[Alfred J Cammarata]

This is intended mainly for USA hams but if any non-U.S. hams can shed
light pls do.

I recently mailed a CD in a safety envelope to  a ham friend in Europe
(couldn't have weighed more than 4/5oz). The postal clerk 
asked if I wanted to send it air mail or priority which was about USD $3
cheaper than air mail. When I asked what priority mail was and how long
it
would take post clerk said priority handling would take maybe 5-7 days
longer than air mail and that it would still go via air.

My friend got my priority mail 5 days from the day I mailed it which
isn't much different  from my experience than international air mail time
between USA-EU.  Don't know if any USA hams have noticed but with
increase in postal rates overseas and the controversy of sending more
than 1 IRC (even though 1 IRC should be good regardless) that most of the
envelopes from overseas are marked "priority" or have
that blue "priority" sticker on it? So, question is:  if I could send
that light CD priority can you send your international QSL/sase's
cheaper using priority rate vs airmail rate now that ours will increase
to USD$1.05?  What is the price difference? And is it worth
looking into it  especially for those that send a lot of international
mail?  Maybe some QSL mgrs could answer this best??  Tnx 73 al W3AWU