SASE
From Fan History Wiki
A SASE is a Self Addressed, Stamped Envelope.
[edit] Historical Definitions
The SASE or SAE (Stamped Addressed Envelope in the UK) was the automated 'reply' button of the pre-internet age. SASEs were considered both a courtesy and a necessity in fandom - if someone wanted information or a response to a question, they would send an SASE so that the answer would be pre-paid and pre-addressed (and, hopefully, tended toward assisting a speedy return since most of the grunt work was done).
[edit] History
SASEs were so much a part of the media fandom landscape, that many fans purchased rubber stamps they could use to place their name on an envelope. Publishers would often have rubber banded stacks of SASEs ready to be filled with flyers when fanzines were ready for publication.
Uses for SASEs included:
- Notifying a publisher of a reader's interest in a proposed fanzine. The SASE would be used to send the reader a flyer with the purchase information upon publication or a deposit form when deposits were being taken.
- Sending a written submission to a publisher. The submission would be returned as accepted (with editing marks) or rejected.
- Sending an art submission to a publisher. The originals would be returned to the artist (for possible sale or storage) using the SASE.
- providing the means for a convention/publisher/editor to return requested information or confirmation of registration when it became available.
Within the United States, the SASE was a way that a fan could increase the chance of a speedy response (or any response) to their communication.
The problem, however, was that someone from outside of the United States would often have difficulty procuring US stamps (only US stamps can be used to mail an item from the US using the United States Postal Service) or would not be able to guess what the SASE would cost (this in the pre-internet days when US Postal information could be acquired in person, by the phone (with difficulty) or by having the current copy of the USPS rate booklet (good luck on that one!). In addition, someone from the US who wanted to send an SASE overseas as in a similar situation - no way to purchase the foreign stamps and only the vaguest guess at what the cost would be to return the requested item.
The answer was the International Reply Coupon or IRC. This was a coupon that could be purchased within a sender's local postal network that could be mailed to the recipient in a foreign country. The recipient would take the coupon down to their local post office and would be given the appropriate local postage, which could then be placed on the SAE (self addressed envelope - no stamp).
Keeping in mind that many post offices were only open during daylight business hours, Saturday hours were rare, and self-service machines had yet to be invented, a fan or publisher would often have to visit the post office on their lunch hour to purchase or redeem an IRC.
What once required time and effort via postal mail now requires a few seconds of typing and punching a send key - the internet has directly led to the death of the SASE as a useful tool in fandom for matters of inquiry, although it is still used to return art originals to fan artists (when digital files aren't used).
