Say I am sending blocks from continental USA to Australia for a swap -

Does USA postage work for the return?

Does Australian postage need to be used?

How would I pay for it?

Just wondering - - -

If you were sending it to Ireland, then return USA postage wouldn't work from here. If it's a swap, won't your swapping partner pay the postage for her book to you?

you might want to post this on the black and white swap or shout out to blue chicken.

she's in the swap and lives on that side of the planet.

When I participate in swaps from Canada to the USA, I send a couple of US dollar bills (which I have leftover from vacations in the States) with my blocks, to pay for return postage. That probably wouldn't work for you to Australia, though.

There's something called an "International Postal Reply Coupon" that you can buy at your (US) post office and send with your blocks, and then in Australia (or wherever) whoever's hosting the swap can trade it in at their post office for Australian stamps to send your blocks back.

Jan

Actually, I was using "australia" as an example -

and this would be for like the block swaps where we send everything to one central place and the host has to send back to the participants

and was hoping for a "generic" answer

well i think the generic type answer is US postage only works from US to some where else.

the US postage can't be used for a return package

Which makes sense - but if I'm from somewhere else, how would I acquire US postage?

ask a US friend to send you some - about twice a year i send care packages to my canadian, hong kong, japanese and australian friends