There’s more to envelopes than meets the eye. To give consumers a broad overview of envelopes, I went to a local expert. Today’s column comes to you courtesy of Linc Spaulding. Linc is VP of Sales for Sheppard Envelope in Worcester, MA, a specialty envelope converter (http://www.sheppardenvelope.com).

Here’s what Linc had to say about envelopes:

When buying envelopes, you get what you pay for - and prices are all over the map. It pays to shop, and knowing where to shop can be critical.

By far the least expensive envelope for its size is a #10 (4 1/8” x 9 1/2"). It's the perfect size for mailing business correspondence, because your standard 8 1/2" x 11" letter fits easily inside when folded twice. All envelope-inserting machines can handle #10s, and they easily hold a business reply envelope, also known as a #9. Of the billions of envelopes manufactured every year in the U.S., more than 35% are #10s. They're the ultimate envelope commodity and are priced accordingly. Office supply stores are great places to buy boxes of 500 or cartons of 2,500.

If you're doing direct mail and you don't want your mailing to end up in the trash, try to make the envelope distinctive, either with a design or with a specialty paper. It's key to getting a good response rate. (Consider including a reply envelope as well, since the increased cost on the total mailing is negligible.)

There are fewer than 80 envelope plant owners in the U.S., many of whom own more than one plant. Due to a trend toward consolidation, envelopes have become even more of a commodity. Finding a plant to manufacture a custom envelope in smaller quantities (up to 25,000) is increasingly difficult.

Look up “envelopes" in the Yellow Pages and you'll find countless listings. It's impossible to tell which firms are manufacturers and which are simply brokers (or jobbers) with minimal printing capacity or jobbers with pretty good printing capability but no folding capability.

Keep in mind when designing your envelope that it's important to find the right source. The more sophisticated the printing, the more exotic the stock, the more difficult, time consuming and expensive it will be to put the package together. Find a manufacturer who likes to work with commercial printers, or a commercial printer who's comfortable working with envelope conversions.

On the other hand, if all you want is plain vanilla #10s or 9 x 12" booklet envelopes printed in one or two colors, make your decision based on price and delivery. There are tons of “envelope printers" (distinct from commercial printers) who can accommodate you.

Thanks for enlightening us about envelopes, Linc. You can contact Linc at [email protected].

P.S. Don't overlook the many detailed postal regulations about designing/printing envelopes. A good resource is http://pe.usps.gov.