[Dx-qsl] IRC's

Fri Apr 9 23:37:30 EDT 2010

Well, for the first time in my life, I actually purchased brand new IRC's
from the Post Office. Since I know some of us have had problems (to put it
mildly) in the past in dealing with local clerks who aren't familiar or are
misinformed about IRC's, I thought this might be of interest.
The good news is that I was able to order them online from the "Postal
Store" at https://shop.usps.com. The actual link to the IRC page is pretty
lengthy, but your best bet is to select from the Home page the "For Mailing
& Shipping" drop down menu and select the International page.
The SKU code for IRC's right now is 330800. That, of course, may change at
any time.
The unit price is 2ドル.10 right now. And for the small quantity I ordered,
the 1ドル.00 shipping and handling charge is quite reasonable.
So what's the bad news? Don't believe the implied delivery time. They are
sent via First Class mail from Kansas City, MO. I ordered these on the
morning of March 31st, they were actually shipped on April 5th (so much for
"mailed the next day") and arrived today. Still, 9 days isn't all THAT
bad... just don't expect them in a hurry.
All 10 IRC's that I ordered are properly stamped in the left box with Kansas
City MO as the point of origin. 
I still prefer to buy them on the "gray market" from QSL managers at the
usual discounts, and as more of these get into circulation, I expect they'll
be easier to find. But in the meantime... if you need them and can't find
them locally, there IS another way!
73, ron w3wn