gsbrob1@apcvxa.uchicago.edu (10/26/88)
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Here's the scenario: I've got a nice shareware product, and I'd like to send
the author the SW fee he's asking ($10). But he lives in Australia. How can I
send him the fee, other than 1)Sending cash, which is risky, 2) Sending him one
of my personal checks, which would leave him with about nothing once he pays
the cashing fees at his end, 3) Getting an int'l money order, which I think
would about double my costs?
Any ideas?
Robert
gsbrob1@apcvxa.uchicago.edu
ra_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu
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. disclaimer: all opinions here expressed are mine and mine alone .
...................................................................ephraim@think.COM (Ephraim Vishniac) (10/26/88)
In article <530@tank.uchicago.edu> gsbrob1@apcvxa.uchicago.edu writes: >Here's the scenario: I've got a nice shareware product, and I'd like >to send the author the SW fee he's asking ($10). But he lives in >Australia. How can I send him the fee, other than 1)Sending cash, >which is risky, 2) Sending him one of my personal checks, which would >leave him with about nothing once he pays the cashing fees at his >end, 3) Getting an int'l money order, which I think would about >double my costs? >Any ideas? >Robert >gsbrob1@apcvxa.uchicago.edu >ra_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu As a small-time shareware author, here's what I think you ought to do. For one, you could share the overhead of buying an international money order by finding a few other people who use the same software and pursuading them to chip in on a joint payment. The same idea applies to sending a personal check. Alternatively, you could send something of comparable value, a couple disks full of recent US shareware or PD programs. Finally, you could just donate the money to a charitable organization and send the shareware author a nice letter explaining what you've done and why. Ephraim Vishniac ephraim@think.com Thinking Machines Corporation / 245 First Street / Cambridge, MA 02142-1214 On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"
jkjl@munnari.oz (John Lim) (10/27/88)
In article <530@tank.uchicago.edu> gsbrob1@apcvxa.uchicago.edu writes: >Here's the scenario: I've got a nice shareware product, and I'd like to send >the author the SW fee he's asking ($10). But he lives in Australia. How can I >send him the fee, other than 1)Sending cash, which is risky, 2) Sending him one >of my personal checks, which would leave him with about nothing once he pays > As a shareware author in Australia, i suggest you send a US cheque. The conversion costs in my bank are $2 Aus, and given the current exchange rate $1.25 Aus for $1 US, $10 US works out to about $10 Aus. I hate US cash being sent to me because the only use i have for it is to send to other shareware authors in the states :-) john lim sheerware author
Mike_G_Newman@cup.portal.com (10/27/88)
re: sending small denomination shareware fees to authors in foreign countries. I say, take the risk and send cash. For $10 or $20, it's the simplest solution and worth whatever risk there might be. Michael G Newman mike_g_newman@cup.portal.com
turner@sdti.UUCP (Prescott K. Turner) (10/27/88)
> Here's the scenario: I've got a nice shareware product, and I'd like to send > the author the SW fee he's asking ($10). But he lives in Australia. "The Sound Manager Package" contains explicit instructions that to pay the shareware fee you take a U.S. $10 bill and mail it to a person in Brussels. It must work for that shareware author -- I received an up-to-date floppy and documentation in the mail a few weeks later. -- Prescott K. Turner, Jr. 13 Burning Tree Rd., Natick, MA 01760 USA (508) 653-0357 UUCP:genrad!mrst!sdti!turner
macman@ethz.UUCP (Danny Schwendener) (10/28/88)
>Here's the scenario: I've got a nice shareware product, and I'd like to send >the author the SW fee he's asking ($10). But he lives in Australia. How can I >send him the fee, other than 1)Sending cash, which is risky, 2) Sending him one >of my personal checks, which would leave him with about nothing once he pays >the cashing fees at his end, 3) Getting an int'l money order, which I think >would about double my costs? I suggest that you send some goods proper to your country (being swiss, I send chocolates or Swatches, depending on the shareware fee :-) -- Danny
flowers@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (Margot Flowers) (10/29/88)
>... I'd like to send the author the SW fee he's asking ($10). But he >lives in Australia. How can I send him the fee... If he himself requested $10US, then sending him in some form of US$ is probably acceptible to him. One way to send small amounts of money between foreign countries is to use International Reply Coupons (IRCs), which you can purchase at any post office. Each coupon may be redeemed for the cost of sending a letter first class from any country to any country, according to some international postal convention. It is sort of the international equivalent of the SASE in that they are intended as a method by which the sender can provide reply postage to the recipient. (IRCs are nice to know about and use if you are corresponding with someone for whom the cost of return postage would be a hardship.) In some situations, people will accept them as a way of paying other small costs, e.g. the cost of duplicating materials which are being mailed. The situation is not so simple as that however. First of all, first class mail in many parts of the world is by slow boat, so often people who are expecting letters to reply to will specify 2-3 IRCs to be sent to them just for air postage. Secondly, the official purchase price of IRCs is not always equal to their value. About 5 years ago, in the US, IRCs were about $0.70 when purchased from the US post office, yet their value was about $0.35 (the value of postage they could be redeemed for in the US) -- I don't know their cost and value now. Hence, a lot of people will trade them as currency instead of cashing them in. Thus, you will find that outside of the post office (e.g. in DX radio groups) you may be able to buy them for a fraction of the price for which they are sold in the US post office. Finally, your recipient may not have any use for IRCs at all (they may not send any international mail, or may not want the hassle of redeeming or selling them) or they may not have any use for a large quantity of them that would be required to be equivalent for shareware fees. It boils down to: if the author is willing to accept IRCs and will specify the quantity of IRCs they want as a shareware fee, and if the sender can buy them at close to their true value, they are another alternative way of sending shareware fees.