[NJARC] slightly off-topic - International Return Postage alternative to IRC?

[Matt Reynolds]

All,
Many of you on this distribution are licensed HAMs, and I figured at some point in time some of you have collected QSLs from international destinations.  I was hoping some of you still do this today and could offer some advice.
One of my non-radio-related hobbies requires using the postal service, including sending SASEs (Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes) as a courtesy to the recipients.  Most of the time this is done domestically, and is not an issue.  On occasion though I've sent a few pieces of mail internationally with SAEs and International Reply Coupons (IRCs) in place of a US stamp, and this was successful.  Unfortunately, I no longer have any that are valid.
I recently started this hobby back up again, and found out that in late 2013 the USPS decided it would no longer sell IRCs.  However, the Universal Postal Union (which the US is a member of), is required to honor the last production run of IRCs until 2017.
I have been doing some reading and this is a point of contention in QSL collecting circles for awhile.  It looks like many HAMs have switched over to "green stamps" (US currency) for the return postage alternative, but this is apparently a grey area and there is debate on the legality\morality\risk on doing this.  Unfortunately, without IRCs, and the fact that US postage is only good for within or to leave the US, I don't know of a legal alternative.
I was just wondering if someone had any advice on the subject (besides changing hobbies...).  Does anybody out there still collect QSLs and deal with this?  Maybe some of you are familiar with resources\alternatives I'm not?
Any help\advice would be appreciated.
Regards,
Matt 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/private/njarc/attachments/20150201/945ecea8/attachment.html>